Derek Trucks on What He Learned From Allman Brothers
“There was a spirit and reverence they brought to it,” Derek Trucks said in a recent interview, marking the one-year anniversary of his final performance with the Allman Brothers Band, at New York’s Beacon Theater on October 28th, 2014. “I hoped it would be that way,” the guitarist went on, “but I didn’t know how it would turn out. People have a tendency — you let your ego get in the way of the big moments,” he adds, laughing.
“That night everybody got out of the way,” Trucks said, with gratitude and pride evident even over the phone from his home in Jacksonville, Florida. The group’s suriving original members — singer-organist Gregg Allman, drummer Jaimoe and Derek’s uncle, drummer Butch Trucks — “were all thinking about those first days in Jacksonville when they formed the band. I could see my uncle between sets — you could see the wheels turning. It was all in the right spirit. That night was one of the few times you got off stage and feel, ‘That’s how it was supposed to go down.'”
Trucks, 36, was speaking for a story, also featuring fellow Allmans guitarist Warren Haynes, in the current issue of Rolling Stone about their respective lives since the end of that band. Like Haynes, Trucks was talking between gigs — after an extensive summer tour with the Tedeschi Trucks Band, the R&B big band he co-leads with his wife, singer-guitarist Susan Tedeschi; on the verge of a TTB spectacular at the recent Lockn’ Festival in Virginia, honoring the 45th anniversary of Joe Cocker’s historic Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour; and a few weeks before TTB’s own two-weekend run at the Beacon, now a fall tradition in New York City. The Tedeschi Trucks Band has also signed a new deal with Concord Records and completed their debut for the label, Let Me Get By, out early next year.
“I was watching that movie the other day,” Trucks said of the Mad Dogs & Englishmen documentary, fimed on that 1970 tour. “It was kind of the end — maybe the peak, the remnants — of the hippie movement. They did all the drugs, had all the sex, all the fun,” Trucks noted, with another laugh. “And it spun Cocker out for a bit. That tour wore his ass out.”
So when does Trucks relax now, with so much on his itinerary, even without the Allmans?
“That’s a good question,” he replied cheerfully. “There’ll probably be a few days off after the Beacon.” He paused, as if catching his breath. “But then we gear up and head overseas. Mixing the new record, touring, playing — it’s all work.” But after the Allmans, Trucks concedes, “It’s a different level of stress. It’s lower most of the time.”
Do you have more or less time off since the Allmans ended?
In some ways, it’s really close. There is so much going on. But the ability to focus has been really nice — just not having to think about that dynamic, changing hats musically. The Mad Dogs thing — that was a one-off. Outside of that, it’s been nice between touring and working on the record, to keep that in your head at all times.
Derek Trucks on What He Learned From Allman Brothers, Page 1 of 4