Gene Ween - Biography

Aaron Freeman (born March 17, 1970), best known as Gene Ween, is a musician and a founding member of the experimental alternative rock group Ween. Freeman, along with childhood friend Dean Ween (Mickey Melchiondo), started the group in the mid-1980s.

1 Career and work with Ween
2 Personal life
- 2.1 Substance abuse
3 Selected discography
4 External links

Career and work with Ween

Gene and Dean met in an eighth grade typing class in 1984, in New Hope, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where they both grew up. Both of them talked about bands they liked and playing their own music. Gene had a bunch of tapes he recorded of himself that he traded with Dean. Soon, they hung out and began jamming, recording most of what they put together. Ween's music slowly progressed from a bedroom-style recording project, eventually signing to a major record label and transformed into a full live band.

In addition to his work with Ween, Gene keeps up a solo career. Freeman has performed solo concerts with artists such as Jon Anderson of Yes. Around 2008, Freeman launched the Gene Ween Band, where he plays alongside Ween bassist Dave Dreiwitz, guitarist Scott Metzger and drummer Joe Russo.

Freeman has been public with his disdain of the jam band music scene, which Ween is associated with after playing several large festivals; in addition, Phish has often covered the Ween song "Roses Are Free" in concert since 1998. Freeman told Now magazine: "I like Trey [Anastasio] as a person, but as far as the music goes, all that jam band shit makes me want to puke. I’m just not that kind of dude, and I don’t think Mickey is either."

Personal life

Freeman is from a Jewish family. He married long-time girlfriend Sarah Poten in 1996; they have one daughter together, born around 1999. The pair divorced in the early 2000s; many of Freeman's songs on Ween's 2003 Quebec album deal with their breakup.

Substance abuse

Freeman has acknowledged a history of drug use, but does not often divulge specifics.

In October 2004, Dean Ween explained via their official website that they had to cancel an upcoming tour in order to address a "problem within the band, that requires an immediate intervention, for the health, welfare, and safety of one of its members." Freeman admitted that leading up to that point in time, "it was pretty easy for me to get wasted a lot to deal with some things. I had a couple of really heavy years. It was drinking and benzos (valium), which is really nasty." Bizarre behavior by Freeman at a January 24, 2011 show in Vancouver has caused concern to re-emerge among the band's followers about Freeman's well-being.