Long before anyone knew, Robert Pollard was making album covers for fantastical bands and filling the world with his undeniable pop wonderment. Luckily the secret broke in the early 90’s with a series of extraordinary releases and a fateful trip to New York City for a performance at CMJ’s New Music Seminar in 1993 with his drinking buddies from Dayton, OH. By the time I stumbled onto Guided By Voices I was serving as the music director at my college radio station and became immediately obsessed with the bands 7th LP, the outer worldly lo-fi pop opus, Bee Thousand. From there I was on a quest to obtain every song that had come before and everything that would come next. Like many, GBV was the band I was waiting for my entire life, and Bob had a seemingly endless supply of tape hiss and arena hooks steeped with the 4 P’s of rock to fuel my fandom. I’ve had the good fortune to meet Bob on a few occasions and he has always been gracious and welcoming to his fans and devotees. In 2001 I was at my last stop on my decade long radio tour when I got to spend the day with band who was out supporting the recently released Isolation Drills LP. I got to tag along for their radio session that spring afternoon and managed to land the emcee gig for that nights show at The Paradise. I remember waiting in the wings with Bob just before they were about to take the stage when he turned to me with some advice, “when you introduce us don’t just call us Guided By Voices, we’re Guided By Fucking Voices. You gotta get the kids excited”. Needless to say that intro got me into a little hot water the next day, but I couldn’t care less. I just had the honor of welcoming Guided By Voices to the stage in my hometown under careful guidance from Bob. It was a surreal honor to say the least. With the recent one two punch of August By Cake and How Do You Spell Heaven? Both released this year. Bob shows no signs of slowing in fact these records prove that he is releasing some of his finest material. Is Bob Pollard Rock’s Greatest Living Songwriter? That friends, is an indisputable fact! In celebration of Robert Ellsworth Pollard’s 60th Birthday I have asked his band-mates, co-conspirators, and fans alike to share some thoughts as well as Birthday wishes.
Happy Birthday Bob! Thank you for continuing to knock us out with your melodies, hooks, and high-kicks!
Its been motivating over the years to witness Bob seize moments to be creative in certain situations. One great memory is the time we played Lexington at a newly renovated place with fresh drywall up in the green room. An 8-foot doorway-sized plank of Sheetrock was still in the room, leaning against the wall. Our sets are long, so what would be better for Bob to write his set-list on than that? He wrote the entire set-list on the piece of drywall then carried it out to the stage during our entrance like Moses with the Ten Commandments. He continues to inspire with spontaneous bursts of creative energy.
Doug Gillard – Guided By Voices – Guitarist
Recently one of my favorite songs is Everybody Thinks I’m A Raincloud (When I’m Not Looking), and favorite album(s)right now are Alien Lanes (just reminds me of when I really got into GBV, and how lucky I am to be playing with him now), and his solo album From a Compound Eye it is just incredible to me when I go back and listen to how amazing those songs are and the true force of Bob’s songwriting especially after The Electrifying Conclusion tour! I have so many great memories with Bob, but one that stands out is when I stayed with him and he would play all the songs on Half Smiles of the Decomposed every morning while we had coffee, and watching “Heavy Metal Parking Lot in slow motion ,I cherish that time with him!
The influence of GBV of Bob’s music, etc. Because Bob is such a prolific and truly a unique songwriter, I believe he influences all genres of music, film and visual art! He will always be discovered and change peoples lives with his music and live performances!
Kevin March – Guided By Voices, Drummer
Mark Shue- Guided By Voices, Bassist
I first met Robert Pollard on September 30, 2008, two days after my 46th birthday. My band, Big Dipper, opened up for his band, Boston Spaceships at the Paradise in Boston. What a cool thing to be asked to play that show. But I was nervous to meet him. He’s my favorite songwriter ever. But we hit it off right away. He told me, out of the blue, “On my list, Big Dipper is the 20th greatest band of all time.” I was stunned by this. So I had to ask him “Who’s 19th on that list?” Without hesitation, without irony or guile or anything but pure enthusiasm, he replied “T. Rex!”
Gary Waleik – Mars Classroom & Big Dipper
Robert Pollard & Gary Waleik Boston September, 2008
Chris Slusarenko – Eyelids/Guided By Voices/Boston Spaceships
I’d just like to say that during the period while I recorded with Bob, I had the privilege of hearing him lay down final vocals on hundreds of songs. Being in the studio, sometimes i was the first person to hear a melody and lyric, and the first to hear a song come together in its final form. That was always a treat.
I’d like to say a word about Bob as a lyricist. Over the years I have worked with a lot of artists who admire Bob, but many seem to regard Bob’s lyric-writing as something offhand and merely nonsensical. In other words they have the idea that anyone can write that way. All it takes is to flip the switch from sense to nonsense. I appreciate Bob’s lyric-writing more and more, because I realized that even though many of Bob’s lyrics may not make sense on the surface, they contain the cryptic suggestion of making sense. That’s the magic ingredient that requires a specific kind of genius to produce.
Todd Tobias – Circus Devils
I get different songs stuck in my head all the time. Lately it’s been Psychic Pilot Clocks Out, Learning To Hunt, Dr. Feelgood Falls Off The Ocean. I saw GBV this weekend at The Growler Six, and first saw them in 1993 at CBGBs. Bob has as much energy and enthusiasm as he did 24 years ago. (luckily Ohio State won on Saturday). If younger bands would work half as hard as he does…
David Newgarden – Bob’s Manager – Manager This!
Redmen And Their Wives from the album Under The Bushes, Under The Stars(one of my overall favorites) was a song that I’d always skipped on the album. Then, on one long drive to St. Louis I let the whole album play and that song literally blew me away. It’s pretty classic Pollard / GBV for a song to resonate years later, when you’re finally ready to hear it. Happy birthday, Bob!
John Lutkevich – Soft Fangs
It’s really hard to pick a favorite song, but I will go with the song that completely made me fall in love with the band, “The Official Ironmen Rally Song.” I had listened to GBV before, but when I heard that track on Matador 25, I was floored and started my obsession with GBV. Bob’s influence has been huge for me. It been really fun following the band, and their music throughout the years. Bob’s songwriting output, work ethic, and attitude have been probably the biggest influence for me as a songwriter. At one point, I decided I would try to write a crap load of songs. This has helped me become a stronger songwriter, and not overthink the process.
Reuben Bettsak – Guillermo Sexo/ Emerald Comets
Here’s a little secret about being in Bob Pollard’s presence that you might not know about. Everything is better! Music sounds better. Jokes are funnier. Movies are better. Food tastes better. Life overall is infinitely better. Those new shoes you bought that you thought might not be cool, BETTER. You think August By Cake is amazing? Try listening to it with Bob next to you (NOTE TO READERS: I have not actually done this, but having listened to Bee Thousand, From A Compound Eye, Sgt. Disco, etc while sitting with him I can surmise…). You think that last episode of The Sopranos was great? Try watching it live with Bob (NOTE TO READERS: I HAVE done this and it was). My theory on all this is when you are the GREATEST at your craft, when you are the GREATEST songwriter there is, well then everything around you follows suit. So that plate of ziti and meatballs you ordered with Bob is going to be amazing. That joke that is about to be told is going to be hilarious. The next song that is played on his stereo is going to be one of the best you have ever heard. This is absolute truth, across the board. You can ask all of Bob’s friends, who just so happen to be some of the best friends there are, natch. But, they aren’t the GREATEST, because that is reserved for Bob. Happy 60th my captain!
Rich Turiel – Former GBV Tour Manager & Bob’s right hand man, who is currently missing that post.
In 2001, I was the Music Director & Morning Host at KTEG in Albuquerque, NM. I also hosted a weekly, syndicated new music program. Naturally, that’s where I’d play anything Bob-related.Isolation Drills was released that spring, and the band had an Albuquerque tour date on the schedule. TVT Records had Bob doing press, and I was playing a handful of songs from the album on my show, so I was able to secure an interview.“You can call Bob at home,” the label rep said. I was giddy. “Great” I replied. “I get off the air at 10 a.m., but I can make it back into the studio later that afternoon, whatever time works best for Bob.”
The rep’s reply? “Oh, the morning actually works better. Bob’s usually up by 8.”Now I’m thinking: how is that possible? Bob has a show the night before, and will likely be encoring & drinking into the wee hours of the morning. Sure enough, I called him at home the next morning around 8 a.m. He picked up right away & took my call on his back porch, cigarette already in hand. Of course I had to ask why the hell he was up so early after a show the night before. “That’s my routine,” he said. “I was up early for years when I taught. Now? I get up early, put on a pot of coffee, light a cigarette, and start writing song titles.Let the rest of the rock world sleep in. Uncle Bob is up & he has work to do. What a fucking legend.
Adam XII- On-Air Personality – Radio BDC
We tell this story a lot, but we started playing music together as a GBV cover band. Ian was just learning how to play drums for that, and I was just starting to become confident in my songwriting abilities, so I think that having that cover set as a foundation impacted us as a band a whole lot. Even if we don’t really sound like them, there’s definitely an undercurrent of Pollard in our music. A lot of the time it mostly comes through in the spirit of the way we write/our process.
Zoë Wyner – Halfsour
I make the case, via this GBV 2010-2017 playlist, that this stuff is just as good as the fan-favorite material from the “classic lineup.”
To the Midwestern dude with the British accent, thank you for dumping the contents of your brain into this world on top of various chord progressions and happy birthday!
Ryan H. Walsh – Hallelujah The Hills & Author Of Astral Weeks
Live Photography Courtesy of Tim Bugbee at Tinnitus Photography.
theashgrayproclamation.com 
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Love Bob. Changed my life. I’m totally screwed now with music and art. Glad to have him and deeply appreciative of all he has given to us. Long may he reign.
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