It’s been almost one year since Ween canceled its tour and announced the band would “step away from the stage for the foreseeable future.” At the time, the genre-defying cult favorite stated that this decision was made for the mental well-being of co-founding guitarist Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo Jr. Since then, things have been fairly quiet on the Ween front save for a few sightings of Deaner fishing, so it was welcome news when drummer Claude Coleman Jr. checked in late last month with a status report.
In a new interview with 15-year-old YouTuber J Interviews, Coleman checked in from his adopted hometown of Asheville, NC, with an update on recovery efforts following last year’s devastating Hurricane Helene. Coleman appeared alongside multi-instrumentalist/producer Brett Spivey, with whom he partnered in December 2020 to open SoundSpace @ Rabbit’s, Asheville’s only professional-quality rehearsal studio for musicians. The rehearsal studios are located in the rooms at the former Rabbit’s Motel, a motor lodge opened in 1948 for Black tourists in the segregated South.
Toward the end of the interview, J asked for the best “non-answer” Claude could give on Ween’s status: “Is there any situation improvement? Is there anything?” Coleman’s immediate response wasn’t anything super inspiring…