This is an interview with Aaron Freeman, aka Gene Ween, that was published in the Star-Ledger during September of 2010.

Ween got its start some 20 years ago, playing CBGB and other classic downtown punk-rock clubs. Barely out of high school and calling themselves Gene and Dean Ween, they took the stage with a tape recorder rather than a backing band.

Churning out bursts of noise with cheeky lyrics, Ween didn't belong to any genre. Instead, it could be said they were satirists.

The crowd at CBGB wasn't amused, so the performers started insulting audience members one by one.

Gene and Dean (Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo, respectively) have evolved dramatically since those days. They go uptown on Friday, playing at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park.

The two will be backed by a band, and ticket buyers probably won't be mocked from the stage.

But who knows? The group practices the art of the unpredictable. Their catalog, topping 10 albums, includes "12 Golden Country Greats," a 1996 twang collection recorded with Nashville legends. They followed it up with "The Mollusk," an album inspired by sea chanteys and written at a Jersey Shore house. The most recent record is "La Cucaracha," which hit stores in 2007.

Even though they can't be boxed into a single sound or style, Ween has built a fan base that travels from show to show. When Phish covered their song "Roses are Free" during the late '90s, hippies began turning up at concerts. Ween purists have a word for these latecomers: "Wookies."

Ween performs at the Tradewinds in Sea Bright in 2001. Pictured are (nearest to farthest) Dean Ween, Gene Ween and Dave Dreiwitz.

There may be some new tunes in Central Park. The set list, however, is going to be more of a retrospective covering every phase of their heady career. They plan to have a new album out next year.

We spoke with Freeman, a Lambertville resident and father of two, via phone last week.

Q. Your manager said this was really a big show for you guys.

A. Yeah, Central Park, Simon & Garfunkel. They are going to come out and play songs with us.

Q. Which Ween songs are they going to play?

A. "Spinal Meningitis."

Q. I was wondering if you are going to debut new material at the show. I think the fans want to know about the next album.

A. We're taking it a little slower this time. Mickey's doing a lot of fishing and his season is summer. I'm always writing music, so there will eventually be another Ween record.

Q. How does it work for you, in terms of living in a suburban environment? Do you work on music at home or do you have a different place you go to write solo material?

A. We have a studio in Hopewell. . . . We've always maintained a separate residence like a house or a cottage. That's like our clubhouse to get away from the family and record.

Q. It sounds like a step up from the farmhouse I've read so much about.

A. The farmhouse was good, but it had really bad mold problems.

Q. I thought the surroundings were funneled into your creativity.

A. It did, but we'd be dead of cancer in five years.

Q. You'd get five years of great music.

A. Spoken like a true music listener.

Q. I just discovered this band, Sparks, which I knew of, but I didn't know it went all the way back to 1972.

A. Sparks is great.

Q. Is there some lineage from Sparks to Ween?

A. Mickey is really into Sparks, and he says Ween is the modern-day Sparks.

Q. I think you and Sparks should play a show together just like Simon & Garfunkel in Central Park.

A. Sparks is going to be there, too, with Simon & Garfunkel.

Q. That's a crowded stage.

A. It is, but we'll make room. Ladysmith Black Mambazo is going to be there, too.

Q. I thought you were going to say Lady Gaga.

A. Of course. She's my girlfriend.

Q. She seems like such a nice person.

A. She's really sweet. She makes me cookies.

Q. Is she destroying music or saving it?

A. She's like Madonna. She's an entertainer.

Q. I feel that the music doesn't measure up to the performance-art aspect. New people are going to be inspired to concentrate on the image, as opposed to the songs. That's been a trend for a really long time, but Gaga seems to be expediting that trend.

A. People aren't interested in songs the way they used to be. They're not interested in rock 'n' roll. She's not really rock 'n' roll.

Q. I get worried every year or two that Ween's going to break up. After "Quebec," it seemed the future was in doubt.

A. We've been together now for 25 years. We've been together since we were 15, and you just grow apart. Mickey and I have our own families and our own wives.

I'm always playing my guitar. It's my therapy. But writing songs, especially if it's a Ween record, it just takes a lot of time. We're not breaking up.

Q. Going through my research, I saw in some articles that you had an intervention because of your drinking. Everyone said, "Aaron needs help."

A. Yeah. I'm a total alcoholic. It progressed over a number of years, and I've been to rehab twice. My friends and bandmates keep an eye on me. I can't drink. . . . One beer and it's over. I'll drink three bottles of rum.

Q. Is alcohol a crutch that helps you creatively?

A. No. When I write a song, I'm never under the influence of anything. Truthfully, I'm pretty shy and it's the way I've dealt with social anxiety.

Q. Do you see a concert as a social environment, or do you see it as something completely separate.

A. It's nerve-racking. It's cool being onstage and playing, but people don't know me at all. They know my music. When people come up and show you a tattoo of a Boognish and tell you how you changed their lives, what do you say back? "I had diarrhea this morning."

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