That was my thought watching this with hindsight. The power of addiction- he was willing to blow it all up rather than saying 'I gotta get clean and then let's see.' He was trying to protect his addiction at this time, not phish. Still, the fans treatment of him was disgusting.

He probably believed at the time of this interview that he could. When you’re an addict that’s how it works. He wasn’t lying here. It’s not like as he said that, he was secretly thinking to himself “Haha suckers, I know I’m gonna be too f*cked up to perform well in those last shows”. Addicts always think things will be different than they actually will be. For all we know, he could have tried to not use, or not use heavily, during those last shows, but quickly found the pressure was way too overwhelming. If addicts are self-medicating, I can’t even begin to imagine the overwhelming stress/sadness/frustration/confusion that Trey was experiencing having to play those shows believing they would truly be THE last shows Phish EVER played. It’s no wonder he was so gone at Coventry.

This so inaccurate. Must be a bitter fan. A band that caricature of themselves would be doing the same thing every night and playing the same songs over and over. Trey is still shitting new music and they are trying new things on a nightly basis. Is It the same? Absolutely not but that's the point they are ever evolving and exactly where they need to be as artists and a band.

@@faretheewell3711 he sure has “shit” new music. That’s exactly the hole it came out from. Did you really read my comment? Yes I’m a bitter 1.0 fan.

I was a hard-core head from 93-00. Thought they were losing it at the end and the scene kinda sucked- but I just saw them at SPAC and the 2nd night might have been the best show I've ever seen. They got it back, but this is somewhat recent.

@@eyesontheinsidesDerek helped, but I agree with your larger point :-)

I strongly disagree. Almost about every single time I run across someone who just flatly rejects 3.0/4.0, they haven't given post-reunion Phish a real chance. Go listen to the Tweezer from 12/30/19 (the middle ~15-20 minutes of this has some of the smoothest, coolest passages they've ever played, still gives me goosebumps when I hear it) and/or from 7/31/13. Those are two of the most memorable moments of 3.0 to me, and they can each stand up there with the very best of 1.0 (or the Tweezer > Prince Caspian from Magnaball on 8/22/15). They don't play anywhere near as fast as they used to (and Trey's mostly lost his machine-gunning ability), but to my ear, they've only gotten better over the years at creating and then building up jams for the powerful, HOSE peaks we all love like the Went Gin or a 1992-94 Hood. The average 3.0 or 4.0 show definitely isn't as consistently very good as the average 1.0 show, but I just don't see how anyone could seriously, fairly think that they're anywhere near terrible now or are caricatures of their younger selves. If Tweezer isn't your thing, name a song and I'll give you something special from post-reunion Phish (here's some bonus ones: DwD your thing? easy, 9/6/2015; Chalk Dust? Baker's Dozen, 7/28/2017). Trust me -- and the other couple of replies -- the band is definitely still on their game, and you're missing out on a lot of very, very good music.

Boy you can really relate then. Thank you for your amazing perspective.

I mean just replace 'exhaustion' with 'oxy' and those parts are true lol

@@kevindegreif4247 lol