Expert: Anne Dalmadge - 3/15/2004

Question
I noticed in the song "Gravedigger" Dave mentions one of the song's subjects being born in 1967, the same year Dave was born. Is this conincidence, or did Dave know this person? Also, are any of the other people in the song people Dave knew of or just random? Thanks!

Answer
I think all of the people in the song are just random, or, from the video, it shows the tombstones, so he may have found the graveyard, found the people, and wrote about them, or just made them up for the song, take Cyrus Jones for example, he lived from 1810-1913, and back then 103 years old would have been a medical mystery, even today its a great feat, so that's where I think it's just made up, that the graveyard headstones where props. As for the year he was born in, Dave puts a little bit of himself into all his songs, so it's probably just him putting himself into his song, because there has been no mention to my knowledge of Dave knowing someone his age who died (considering there was so much about his sister's death, I would logically assume the same would happen for a good friend.)