Glen Falls Post Star reports that former lead singer of Phish was charged today with misdemeanor drug possession, driving while under the influence of drugs and aggravated unlicensed operation after a 3:30 a.m. traffic stop in the village of Whitehall.
The singer/guitar player was traveling alone in a black 2004 Audi sedan and told police he was headed to Burlington, Vt.
He failed field sobriety tests, and was found to have a bottle that contained three different types of prescription drugs, including two powerful painkillers, Whitehall Police Chief Richard LaChapelle said.
He also told police he had smoked hashish and taken prescription drugs before he was pulled over, the chief said.
A prescription bottle containing about 60 prescription pills of the painkillers Percocet and hydrocodone and the anti-anxiety drug Xanax was found, but he told police he did not have prescriptions for them, the chief said.
The chief said Anastasio was “very remorseful” and accomodating to police.
“He’s a real nice guy,” LaChapelle said. “He said ‘You know what, I’ve got a problem and I’ve got to take care of it. Everything happens for a reason.’”
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He IS a real nice guy. But the time I met him he was, like WAAAAAY loaded. It was after a show in Salt Lake (’94?) and he was trying to get his guitar case into the storage cabinet on the side of his tour bus. He was really struggling with the simple latch and I reached over and opened it and he looked up at me like I was some kind of Superman and kept muttering “wow, thank you” and then, all of a sudden, he jumped up and said “I just gotta get on the bus right now! There’s some kind of crazy bluegrass on the radio” and he dashed off. Kinda weird…
Meanwhile, Fishman was carrying on this intense religious discussion with these Mormon kids who had brought copies of the Book of Mormon for the band. I just kicked back and listened to them hash it out. Fishman was mentally dancing around those kids and it was a treat to witness…