Dave Matthews Talks Bernie Sanders, New Album, His Guitar Hero
Dave Matthews Band recently wrapped up their 24th consecutive U.S. summer tour, but as Matthews told Rolling Stone backstage at Farm Aid 30 earlier this month — before he performed with longtime friend and collaborator, Tim Reynolds — his mind has often been elsewhere. The singer has been following the Presidential race and also working through new material he’s written for his band’s next album. In a passionate conversation with Rolling Stone, Matthews explained why Bernie Sanders gives him hope and offered an update on the forthcoming DMB LP.
Aside from your role as a Farm Aid board member, what keeps you coming back and supporting the cause each year?
I think a lot of it nowadays is more because of my kids more than when I first joined. I think about what planet they’re going to live on. When Farm Aid started, Willie was standing on the front lines with these farmers who were threatened to extinction. That hasn’t stopped the impossibly difficult task of being a small farmer and making a living. It’s amazing that they can even do it now. Companies like Tyson or Perdue, they win by manipulation: They come and court the farmers that are desperate, and then they sort of own the farm. And essentially, they turn these honest farmers into part of this machine and steal the soul out of what they’re doing. And then of course suicide [among farmers] skyrockets. There’s no doubt that companies like Monsanto are absolutely out to control the food of the planet. It’s a simple thing: If you control the food of everybody then you control everybody.
Are we as a society not more aware though now about where our food comes from?
There’s a growing ignorance and indifference that is being exploited by bad government in this country being in the corner of the corporations because that’s where the money is. There’s nothing that would make Dow or Monsanto happier than if everybody didn’t give a shit. What we’re fighting for is not only the health of our food but the health of our planet. There has to be a voice. There has to be as many voices as possible shouting to defend the people that are actually the stewards of the land, the people that care about the land, the people that want to eat the food they make. I don’t trust someone who isn’t going to eat the food they’ve invested money in or never seen. I don’t want to eat that food and neither do they.
You’ve long been outspoken politically. After seeing the most recent Republican debate, how do you feel about where our country is headed?
When I listen to the bold-faced, impossible and nonsensical, disconnected claims at the last debate, I’m like, “What the fuck are you all talking about? None of you are remotely connected. None of you have an actual plan!” I can stand up and say, “If I was President, I would make everybody’s boobs bigger, and I would make men stronger, and everybody would be happy, and everybody would be fed, and the oceans would be clean, and everyone would have jobs. And that’s what I’ll do if I’m President.”