Warren Haynes Talks Life After Allman Brothers, Singer-Songwriter Roots
On October 28th, singer-guitarist Warren Haynes will celebrate the one-year anniversary of his final concert with the Allman Brothers Band — an epic and now legendary show at New York’s Beacon Theater — by working. He is appearing with his current Ashes and Dust band at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles, performing material from across his long career as a songwriter, power-blues guitarist, Allmans veteran and the leader of his own band Gov’t Mule — with a hearty focus on Haynes’ latest album, Ashes and Dust (Concord), made with the bluegrass-jam band Railroad Earth.
“I enjoy working — I feel fortunate to do what I do,” Haynes, 55, said during a recent, rare 90 minutes away from the tour grind in his publicist’s New York office, during a candid, reflective interview about his life since the Allmans ended in 2014, featured in the current issue of Rolling Stone. “I’ve been lucky to not have to compromise, to get away with what I want to do. That’s something I never take for granted.”
Haynes went long and deep during that conversation, recalling both the bonds and tensions that ultinmately led to the Allmans’ 2014 farewell show at the Beacon as well as his teenage roots as an aspiring singer-songwriter, which in turn led to Ashes and Dust. He also acknowledged the realities of his freelance life in a much tougher music business than the one he started in, as a country songwriter, session and touring guitarist and, in 1989, a new member of the Allman Brothers.
“We’re in a situation where everybody’s reinventing their role,” Haynes said pensively. “Longevity is a whole different thing now. I read interviews with young musicians and hear people talk about how they’re not sure what they’re going to do five years from now.”
But, he went on, “I don’t understand that. You’re a musician — especially if you’re fortunate enough to have done something in that. That’s kind of your clue — this is what you do.”
The end of the Allman Brothers Band came as a surprise to many fans, given everything that the group had survived. Could you feel it was getting closer, even before you and Derek announced your departures early last year?
We had been talking about it for three or four years — all of us. It’s funny because I think back to when I joined the band 26 years ago. The original members would have conversations on how they viewed the Allman Brothers, that the legacy was not the typical thing where you could go out and play the hits — do the nostalgia trip. Even back then, the discussion was, “If this band is ever on the verge of becoming a nostalgia act, it would be time to quit.”
The past 14 years we had with this incarnation were such a pleasant surprise to everyone. It seemed to getting better all the time. Then the conversations started again. [Drummer] Butch Trucks would say, “I’ve only got three or four more good years left.” The first time I heard him say that was eight years ago [laughs].