So Trey, what are you gonna do right after Phish's long awaited comeback concerts?

TREY: "I'm going to Disney World"

Like many Phans I could not get tickets to the New Year's or Hampton shows. I had a trip planned to go to Disney World with my wife, my mother in law, and the rest of my extended family on jan 5th. My wife and I planned to meet them there right after Hampton, but since we didn't get tickets to any of the shows we flew to Orlando directly from Panama. After five days of theme parks, we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom on Saturday jan 11th, the last one as we were going back home the next day. At about 11 a.m. I was walking with my mother in law from one show to another, and who do I see walking towards me? The Man himself, Trey Anastasio.

The first words out of my mouth are: "Oh, my God! I can't belive this! (in a VERY excited tone) Trey starts laughing right away as he realizes how exited I was. He stopped to shake my hand, and at this point I have no idea of what to say to him. I was speechless, I still could not believe I was shaking his hand. So I started going on: "You are the greatest, I am your #1 phan in Panama, I couldn't go to MSG or Hampton, but I will catch a couple of shows in the summer, bla, bla, bla. At the same time I am looking for my wife or anyone with a camera. I say to Trey: "My wife is not gonna believe this", as I am desperately looking around for her, yelling camera, camera. All of the sudden I realize that Trey was patiently waiting for my wife to appear and was in no hurry to leave.

My mother in law was thinking this was an old college buddy or something, only he is not as exited to see me as I was to see him. So she takes a great picture of the two of us and I introduce them. Then I say: " i'm here with my wife and my mother in law..." and Trey says: "Oh, I'm doing the same thing" He was with his wife, his kids, and his inlaws. So my wife was nowhere to be seen so I had to let him go, not before I thank him very very much and apologized for taking up his time. My impression was that he did not mind at all, he seemed very amused by my reaction and was very willing to talk, only I couldn't think of anything else to say. I must have shaken his hand about ten times before I let him go.

After a while I finally find my wife and told her: "You are not going to believe who I just met" "Trey Anastasio" she's like "whhhhhhaaaatttt? The park was not very crowded so I told her I was sure we would see him again. So after about two hours, my wife goes "ahi esta!, ahi esta! ahi esta! (that's spanish for: there he is!) This time he was standing there with his family talking, and I was very embarrassed to approach him again, but my wife kept pushing me and asking me please!, please! So I start walking towards him slowly still having second thoughts, because I don't want to be a dick or anything, after all he's on vacation with his family and everything. But I had to do it for my wife, and of course I wanted to talk to him again. So as I'm walking towards him, he spots me, and smiles, and starts to walk towards us, he wasn't very far, but he looked at us and moved towards us, always smiling.

I say: "I'm really sorry to bother you again but my wife wants to meet you", and he's like "Oh is no problem..." Hi he says to my wife and shakes her hand. And my wife of course is more speechless than I was the first time. I say this is my wife Ana and he says Hi, this is Sue, but Sue was about ten feet away and didn't hear him, and at the same time my mother in law comes again with the camera to take a picture of the three of us. Very cool! But we didn't get to meet Sue. So Trey asks "did you go on the Safari? making conversation, and I'm like yeah it was very cool. Then I told him that we saw him with his band both nights in Vegas this past summer. Great band, I say. He's like Oh, thanks. He says we are planning to return tu Vegas this year. I asked: with your band or with Phish? He says with Phish! (in a tone that implied with Phish of course).

I also told him that my wife's first and only Phish show was Big Cypress, and he's like "Oh, you picked a good one!" So again I don't want to take much of his time so we start saying our good byes and thank yous. I say we'll see you in the summer for sure, and my wife goes "If we can get tickets" He just laughed.

Of course afterwards I was thinking, Oh I should have said this and that, there are so many things I would like ask him? For example I wanted to compliment Phish's new album, which I think is great. But at the moment I was so excited I wasn't thinking right. I do want to say that I have confirmed that he's a great person, he's is so down to earth and accessible, just a regular guy.

The people I was with who didn't know him, my brother in law, my sister in law, they couldn't believe this guy was a rock star. They know what Phish is, because they know we listen to it and went to Big Cypress and everything, but they never imagined this guy could be so normal. Not at all what you would expect from a celebrity. He was very nice the whole time, and never gave any hint that we were bothering him or anything. Actually he seemed to enjoy very much talking to us, and even seemed willing to talk even more. Now I think that if I have had the nerve to ask him to have a beer or something with us so we cold talk a bit, he would have agreed. Of course I don't know that for sure, but that's the impression he gave us.

Anyway, it was great meeting him and I am thankful that he was so nice about the whole thing. I got some great pictures with him. I have one in my den in a frame and everything already. It beats the hell out of the pictures I got with Mickey.

-  Raul Dutari