thumb|500px|Trey Anastasio live with Phish
'''Ernest Joseph "Trey" Anastasio III''', born September 30, 1964, is an American guitarist, composer and vocalist most noted for his work with the rock band Phish. He is credited by name as composer of 152 Phish originals, 140 of them as a solo credit, in addition to 41 credits attributed to the band in the generic http://www.mbird.org/book. He was rated as number 73 on Rolling Stone's List of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2003.
Throughout his career, Anastasio has participated in various projects outside of Phish, furthering his reputation as a multifaceted composer, instrumentalist, and vocalist.
Life
Anastasio, whose name derives from the Greek for "http://italian.about.com/library/name/blname_anastasio.htm resurrection," began playing the drums as a youth, turning to guitar while a teenager. His father was an executive with Educational Testing Service (ETS). Anastasio's mother, with whom he wrote songs as a child, was an editor of Sesame Street Magazine. He attended Princeton Day School for junior high school, where he began to write music with some of his classmates. Some of these songs (e.g. "Golgi Apparatus") would find their ways into the Phish repertoire, and many other Anastasio compositions refer to these early experiences. For senior high school, Anastasio attended The Taft School along with The Dude of Life, who helped pen such Phish compositions as "Suzy Greenberg," "Fluffhead," "Skippy the Wondermouse," "Run Like an Antelope," "Slave to the Traffic Light," and "Dinner and a Movie." At Taft, Anastasio founded his first two bands, ''Red Tide'' and ''Space Antelope''.
After Anastasio completed high school, he enrolled in the University of Vermont, attending from fall of 1983 to spring of 1984 as a philosophy major. It was here that he met Jon Fishman, Mike Gordon, and Jeff Holdsworth, who founded Phish in 1983. In December of 1983 the group formed to play an ROTC dance. They played a setlist of cover songs, including "Proud Mary" which was performed twice. The band was very primitive at this time and used hockey sticks as mic stands. After performing one set, Michael Jackson's ''Thriller'' album was put on by a partygoer to drown out the band. The band wouldn't return to play but were still paid for the performance. While at the University of Vermont, Anastasio hosted an early morning radio program, ''Ambient Alarm Clock''.
Anastasio was eventually suspended from college for an entire semester after he broke into the science building and stole a human hand and a goat's heart. He sent it to his friend as a prank with a note that said "I've got to hand it to you, you've got heart." During his suspension,
