A fine moment from 2011’s Christmas Jam
This past year, Gov’t Mule celebrated its 20th year in existence. At the same time, Haynes’ the Allman Brothers Band decided to call it quits after four-and-a-half decades. At the beginning of 2014, both Haynes and Derek Trucks announced that they would be leaving the group at the end of the year with each artist wanting to rightfully concentrate on their solo projects.
Haynes and the ABB played their last official shows together this past October. To complicate things, however, Gregg Allman did some interviews before that suggesting he might be inclined to bring in new guitar players so as to keep the ABB going despite the plan to end it. That didn’t seem to sit well with either Haynes or Trucks. So, I threw some questions to Haynes about those matters and also asked him if he felt any sense of freedom now that the ABB run is finally over.
“I don’t know if ‘freedom’ is the right description,” says Haynes. “I’m extremely honored and proud to have 25 years with the Allman Brothers Band and the group deciding to quit touring is something the band has been talking about for three years. We decided as a band that the 45th anniversary would be the right time for the band to go out on a high note. That is not my words or Derek’s words. That is something the entire band has been talking about for many years and that started with the original members. They wanted the band to stop at some point to avoid what happens to a lot of great bands, which is they wind up watching their legacy dissipate. Again, those are not my words. That is something that has been discussed over the past 25 years going back to when I first joined the group. They would talk about that from time to time. But, we did agree as a band to stop at the 45th anniversary and some of us made plans beyond that and felt like we needed to honor that initial agreement. Then, one person started to get cold feet. I wish I did, but I don’t know what the future holds (for the ABB) because it is not my decision to make.”
The ABB had not produced a new studio album since 2003’s Hittin’ The Note. So, I asked Haynes if that was a factor in his decision to move forward, and also asked him if he had some ABB songs that he liked more than others.
“Yeah,” responded Haynes, about the lack of a new recording by the group. “There has been talk about it, but nothing has happened. (As for favorite or least favorite ABB songs), any song in that catalog can catch fire at any given moment or any given night. A lot of the tunes that take on a new life each night are some of my favorites, obviously. But I enjoy playing some of the more rehearsed songs as well. I think it is that balance between the two that makes that catalog so special. I think some of the songs we don’t play are because the band collectively chooses not to play them.”
As for Gov’t Mule, the band has been on a roll recently, touring heavily, collaborating with different artists in different towns and changing up their set lists in a big way. On Halloween, I drove to Cincinnati, OH, to see Mule-O-Ween, a yearly end-of-October event where the Mule recreates the music of a classic rock artist. This year, the band took on the tunes of Neil Young along with special guest Jackie Greene, performing 29 songs in an epic concert that lasted four and a half hours. Haynes, Greene and the Mule will be playing many of those same Neil Young cuts during their headlining set at Christmas Jam. It is the Mule’s propensity to rehearse and mix things up that enables this amazing band to be as versatile as it is.
“You have to be not afraid to rehearse, and not afraid not to rehearse,” said Haynes. “We have our work cut out for us in the way that we want to play a lot of music. We just did a four-week run and I think we played about 150 songs. But, we’re also not allergic to the idea of playing something that we don’t completely know in a rehearsed sort of way. A lot of times the interpretation is very raw and very loose and very encouraged by the moment and may contain some blemishes or mistakes. But we look at that as part of the music and part of the personality. If I had to play the same songs the same way every night, that would drive me crazy. It would definitely increase the burnout factor, as far as I’m concerned.”
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