I'm in Austin visiting a friend over a long weekend, and I put on "a live one" after a tough night on 6th st.. His roomie proceeds to tell me how much Phish sucks and how the whole sound is nothing but nonsense. This made my blood boil, obviously and the look on his ugly little face made it that much worse. I said calmly, "yeah I used to talk that way about Phish until a certain song of theirs made me see them in a completely different light. You probably just don't understand them yet." 

He replied in the most sarcastic way possible, "yeah... I hope someday in the span of my life I will understand Phish too." The whole room stood still, waiting for my reply... I looked at him feeling very embarrassed and sorry for him, and I GENUINELY replied, "Yeah... I hope you can too." 

He looked so shocked by my response, and in that one empathetic response I managed to turn his hatred into humble pie. He didn't say much more to anyone the rest of the night... I think he felt embarrassed by his aggressive and uneducated behavior. So just remember... the next time you get hated on for being a phan, just smile and match every bit of that hate with love... it really stumps them. I still feel sorry for that kid. I pray one day he will be able to find something as wonderful in his life as Phish is in mine... Peace.

- Jay Speigel