1st thing you may notice about me, I'm a redhead🔥😇, like Trey. Yes, I have the ginervitus. 😔 One thing I've always loved about 😍 Trey & the Lizards🦎plotline was, the kicker... "practically extinct." We are practically extinct. 🤣 Like for realz.

Even Troy Pistachio? Practically extinct! Experts "expert" that we're 1-2% of the world's population; however, recent studies from the UK revealed that ginger expression, is more likely about 0.5-1%, possibly even less. The math? Turns out, you need another 2-3 "sub-mutations" to additionally occur--besides having 2 mutated copies of the MC1R gene, as previously thought. So, while we're not going extinct per se... we "gingers" are "practically extinct," or at the least, part of a super-duper-rare-adventure's-club, depending on your belief system. Sunblock is definitely our phriend & honestly, Trey was probably picked-on a bit, as a kid. Lord knows I was! Lol. So whatever you do, take care of your shoes... and an addendum: don't read what the ancient Greeks said about redheads. 😮🤣 Pay no mind... but do teach your kids not to bully gingers.

I got into the band tail-end of '98, having listened to them at a party, around the holidays. And my first "shows" were some local festivals the following spring & then summer tour. Our summer (in a tent) & my 1st Phish show, officially clocked in on July 1, 1999, Antioch TN. Growing up gingie, 🔥 I never had many positive redheaded roll models. Hollywood would portray us like Alfred E. Neuman, Ron Weasley, Ronald McDonald, Richie Cunningham, Napoleon Dynamite, Chuckie Finster... or worse, the Chuckie Doll. Google Clowns. Scroll through the 1st 100 images you see. You'll get the point, quickly. Trey's music touched my soul incredibly deep like so many others. But being cursed (or blessed), as a redhead growing up, his presence & his success, defied what modern society often crudely tight-casted us "ginger mutants," as. He was my first real role model that I could positively identify with... just had to wait till young adulthood for the role model... at least till I discovered him. And to realize he was kind of like the "Mozart" of our day, as John Popper, even called him. It was awesome to have Trey as a role model. For all of us touched, by the band from Vermont. Truthfully, they are all amazing artists.

But I was absolutely🪝hooked, first time I heard them. And for 30 years, they've gotten me out of some pretty tough spots emotionally, kept a candle lit in the window... given me hope, where I struggled for it. All from a distance. And I would need it. A safe place to escape the world, is truly priceless. Whatever it was, or is, it has always been a JOY to experience & grow with.

It's amazing to witness their story unfold & evolve throughout the years & decades. After all, the math is quite extraordinary, if not complex. Beautiful, really. And of course, we're all in this together. We're all a small parts, in one giant, beautiful mosaic, formed around the band; the 4 dudes we love so dearly. Despite all of our shortcoming, the entire circus, all the people, the culture, the sense of community--it is still probably one of the most amazing things currently occurring on this rotten blue ball. Again, they give me hope.