Legendary Grateful Dead Taper and Steve Kimock Sound Engineer, Charlie Miller, spoke to me from his home in San Diego, CA a few weeks ago.  He talked openly about topics ranging from how he got into listening to the Grateful Dead to how he landed a full time gig with Steve Kimock.  Any Dead Head who spent 12 years on the road is bound to have some great tales.  Charlie’s story carries with it a great level of inspiration.  The fan who turned his passion into a profession but not without a few bumps in the road during a life that never lacked excitement.  Charlie was full of interesting facts about the Grateful Dead, Steve Kimock and his experience taping both of them that the interview has been split into 2 parts for your reading enjoyment.  Enjoy part 1.  Part 2 will follow the upcoming David Gans (Solo-Artist and Host of the Grateful Dead Hour) interview.

RK: You live in San Diego correct? 

CM: Yeah, 20 years ago this week I flew out to California to see 6 Grateful Dead shows.  I was living in NY and I’d never flown or been to California, and I went to see the Grateful Dead; 3 shows in Oakland followed by 3 shows in LA.  I flew out for those 6 shows and 20 years later I’m still here. 

RK: You grew up in NY? 

CM: Long Island. 

RK: You are currently the Recording Engineer for Steve Kimock? 

CM: I have been since; this month is like what?  7 years now that I’ve been working with him.  I was on the road with him for like 2 years before I started working with him.  It is a big part of my life.  But I have filled in doing sound at some shows where our sound engineer was sick.  My role in the whole thing is, I’m his recording engineer and I just kind of oversee the whole media aspect of the organization as far as audio and video goes.  You know, assure policies and everything are in order. 

RK:  Steve Kimock releases all of his shows.  Do you oversee the live releases? 

CM: Yes.  I do all of the recording of every show.  And I mix them down and we put all of our shows on Digital Soundboard.net, and now we are also putting our shows up on nugs.net. But yeah, I’m in charge of all of the recording and the releases and all that stuff. 

RK: Who is your favorite Band? 

CM: (Pauses) You know I’ve got to say my first love is the Grateful Dead, I’ve been a Dead Head since 1977.  You know, it’s the Grateful Dead.  But I can honestly say I’ve seen a couple hundred GD shows, probably about 50 Garcia Band shows, like a million Phil and Ratdog shows.  I’ve got to say quite honestly there’s some things that (Steve) Kimock can do for me musically that no other band can do.  You know, and so that’s why I like working for him so much is because it’s like my favorite music.  It’s Kimock and the Grateful Dead. 

RK: How Many shows have you seen?

CM:  I know how many GD shows I’ve seen, 188.  The Jerry Band stuff, I’d have to count them; close to 50. 

RK: So your first Dead Show was 11.2.79, Nassau Colliseum? 

CM: Yeah, I walked into the show when I was 15 and when I walked out of the show I was 16. Nov. 3 is my birthday.  So it was kind of cool to be able to do that.  I remember parts of it.  I got really, really drunk, you know, being a teenager.  But I remember parts of it.  The thing that really stuck out the most in my mind was how every body in the whole arena was singing along every word to every song.  I’ve never seen that at a concert before.  And you know seeing everybody dance, that was kind of cool. 

RK:  Yeah that is like my first (Grateful Dead) show.  I got in the show a little bit early and everyone was kind of laying there passed out.  They were just lying all over the place. Then you saw the GD come on stage and every body stood up and started clapping, and looking around.  As soon as they hit the first note everyone became so in tune to the music. 

CM: It’s a wonderful thing.  When the music starts there’s no greater place to be.  There was an interview that I read with Bill Walton where someone asked him what his favorite Dead show was and he had the best answer.  He said “The next one.”   There was nothing like having that ticket to the next show.  You know it was just one of those things. 

RK: Was the first show that you recorded 4.15.83 at War Memorial? 

CM:  That’s the first Grateful Dead show I recorded.  I mean I recorded them off the radio on FM broadcast starting in 1978.  But the first GD show I taped at the show that was the first one.  And the first show I actually taped…this is funny.  You remember the rock band Boston? 

RK: Yes. 

CM:  I taped them between the SBD and the stage I taped them at Nassau Coliseum, I’m guessing it was 1978 or 79. 

RK: Do you still have a copy of that? 

CM:  Naw (laughs), it’s just one of those things, not even a good recording. 

RK: What got you into taping? 

CM: Spring tour of ‘83 I did 12 out of 13 (Grateful Dead) shows and a couple of nights into the tour I had a seat where I was surrounded by tapers.  I mean there was actually a chain of tape decks that circled around me.  And all I could think was, “if I had a tape deck I could plug in, you know, and get a recording.” So the next night on the way to Rochester (NY) I stopped at an audio supply store and bought a deck and taped the rest of the tour.  It was a lot of fun. 

RK: What was your first set up? 

CM: Just a cassette deck.  It was a Sony.  It was a great deck, you know.  I happened to be in the right place at the right time.  The truth of the matter is that my mother gave me her credit card and said in case of emergency here’s my credit card.  I came home with a tape deck.  That’s how it all started (laughs). 

RK: The shows that we hear from back when you first started taping, even with amazing sound quality, may have possibly been recorded on a regular Sony tape deck with a typical cassette tape? 

CM: Yeah, Sony D5, D6.  Those were the decks to use back then.  There wasn’t a taping section.  That didn’t start until 84.  So in 83 I noticed that the tour was basically if you can get the stuff in, then you’re ok.  Getting stuff in was so easy on the tour.  Once you got in it was just insane.  We were able to set up wherever we wanted.  It was a lot of fun. 

RK: It sounds like it was the Dead’s laid back taping policy that inspired you to spend the rest of your life perfecting their recordings. 

CM:  Yeah, a lot of the stuff that I learned about recording, I learned on Dead tour for the 12 years that I was taping.  I learned from hands on experience how to mix live sound and I took some advice from friends.  I have a friend who has a studio and he kind of tutored me and taught me a bunch of stuff.  Just various places.  I don’t know how, but some way or another I ended up working in the industry which is great.  It’s what I always wanted to do…get paid to see concerts.  Basically I get paid to see my favorite band. 

RK: Do you have one recording that is your masterpiece?

CM:  Oh yeah, totally.  The one that got me the job with Kimock.  It’s up on the Archive even.  It’s 2.22.02, SKB in Inglewood, a suburb of Denver.  It was just one of those nights where the band played a great, great setlist.  It was like a flawless show.  If not the best Kimock show I’ve ever seen.  It’s the best tape I ever made.  You know.  It’s just one of those things.  It became Steve Kimock Band Live in Colorado.  They released it. 

RK: Was that from you recording it as a fan in the audience?

CM:  Well, I had my mics on the front of the stage.  They were letting me pretty much do whatever I wanted to at that point.  I wasn’t working for the band yet. 

RK:  Do you think that in order to get a recording with that great of sound quality that it doesn’t only take everything that you have learned about recording over the past few decades, the band would also have to be on, playing splendidly?

CM:   There are many things that play a factor in it.  There’s the environment, the room.  The sound on the stage and the sound in the room.  I think my new Haven ‘83 recording is probably one of the best recordings that I have made of the Grateful Dead.  We also started doing 4 mic mixes at the Dead shows in 1990.  There’s a few like Cal expo in ‘90 and Shoreline ‘92 that are just absolutely phenomenal.  You know, it just feels like you are there