You mentioned rehearsing in New York—what were those rehearsals like?

Maybe three or four days before we got to New York we started rehearsing the tunes with our band at soundcheck. Some of them were starting to feel really good—we didn’t get to all of them. So when we got to New York and Trey showed up, he did his homework and he was ready. We started the record, and the first three or four songs were like, “Well that’s good.” [Laughs.] “That was really good.” And then we got towards the end, and there were a few tunes that took a little more work than others.

And you know, I reached out to Doyle Bramhall about doing it, because I love playing with him so much, and he’s been with Eric [Clapton] for years. I knew some of the tunes, he would just be perfect on them. But he wasn’t there for the New York rehearsals, so we were kind of imagining what his parts would be. When we finally all got together at LOCKN’, maybe it was the day of, we all got together and rehearsed the whole record. We were feeling pretty good about it then, but I think the best versions of a few of the tunes were onstage that night.

I’m glad you brought up Doyle. He seemed like a perfect addition to the lineup, considering both of you have had served time in Clapton’s band.

Doyle is one of my closest friends and favorite people, and any chance we get to hang and play, we’re usually in. But it was pretty last minute. We were game-planning for something else, and when that idea to play the whole record finally came up, we just turned [Laughs]. I was really happy Doyle was able to make it. He was on tour in Europe, then he was in Iceland, so he flew in from Iceland to do LOCKN’ and the next day he was in Sweden, or something.

Oh, wow!

He had his rental car and his hat on, and he rolls in like an “International Man of Mystery.” [Laughs] And that record especially—there’s so many guitars on it. It’s Duane and Eric, but there’s three Eric parts sometimes, and there’s multiple Duane parts, and there’s just so much going on. You can cover it without that many, but it sure is nice when you have enough players up there. And Doyle, Trey, me and Sue, everyone respected each other’s spot, so it was never a train wreck. It was a lot of listening and weaving—it was really great shit that went on; it was a lot of fun. Some of those tunes are so fun to play.

You had mentioned an original plan before the Layla stuff had come around—can I press a little harder on that? What was the original plan before you did Layla?

It was more of a mirror image of what I did with his band, with him learning a lot of our material. He was familiar with a lot of it, some tunes he wanted to play. So that, with maybe a handful of other tunes, and that was the original idea. We almost had a set list written—but then when the Layla idea, it was a little more ambitious. I like the idea of having our band just last minute learn a record [Laughs]. It felt good.

When you played with Trey’s band, the night before. Were there certain songs that struck you? Do you find yourself more of a Phish fan or a Trey fan after playing with them?

I’m certainly more of a fan after playing with them. I feel like when you learn someone’s material, you learn a lot about the way they go about things—it’s kind of a window into the way someone thinks. There were a few tunes and a few chord changes that were just really beautiful, and a lot of fun to play on. And when we were doing the rehearsals for his set, also in New York, there were just some great moments.

And then, when he asked Sue to step in on a few songs, hearing her sing some of those tunes was really beautiful stuff. The stuff that was kind of last minute was the acoustic tunes—for me, that was one of the highlights of the whole thing. There’s something about just breaking it down to nothing and just hearing a few guitars and a song and a voice. Those were really great. Knowing the subject matter about some of the tunes—he had written about his really close friend that he had lost. Hit close to home for me and for us, so it definitely felt like we were walking the same path that time. It was a great experience, and there’s something really wonderful about having to learn 15 or 20 new tunes in a short amount of time, and then get up and play them in front of a bunch of people that know the material better than you do [Laughs]. That’s always the thing. I remember early on when I did those Phil Lesh gigs—I didn’t grow up listening to the Dead. I’m not familiar with that material so well. So you’re up there, playing all these parts to people that just revere this music, and you have to do your homework. After we did the Layla record rehearsal, the schedule of the rehearsal was done, and he was like, “If you wanna hang, we can run through all these tunes just the two of us, get a head start on tomorrow.” He’s all in when he does something—his work ethic is serious [Laughs]. He does not mess around. When he puts his mind to it, it’s on. I really appreciated that energy. The whole rehearsal, the show, it really was a great experience.

Having played back to back with TTB and TAB, what do you see as similarities or differences between the two?

There are a lot of similarities. I didn’t realize he had the whole horn section and the singers. And I didn’t realize how long they’d been together either! So when you hear that rhythm section locking in—when the drummers and bass players are locked and loaded, that’s when you have a band. One of the first things that struck me, getting in the rehearsal room with him, was, “Oh, these guys have been playing together.” [Laughs] This is a bona fide band. I always appreciate that—there’s not a lot of that in this day and age. I feel like anybody willing to keep a band that big together that long, I feel like it’s a real emotional investment. It’s a lot of personalities. But yeah, it felt similar.

I think some of it is there’s regional differences in the way people play, and hear, and think. I think that’s the beauty of the music we get to play. It’s such a melting pot. When I hear someone play, you can often tell their background, quickly—you can tell, “They grew up playing in the church; they grew up playing in a blues club; they went to music school for two years, or four years” [Laughs]. I love that. I think if there’s any differences in the bands, it’s those things. It’s just where peoples’ background is. The focus and the aim is pretty similar.

Tedeschi Trucks Band has called 2019 “a year of triumph and tragedy” can you describe that intersection of emotion?

The last handful of years have felt like that in a lot of ways. But this year, so much more acutely. It’s been an amazing year for the band, there’s been a lot of great things, but it, in no way, outweighs the whole. Losing Kofi—the band will certainly never be the same. There was just a bond and a connection where you know that you’re going to be together until either one of you is not here, and you just don’t expect that to be as soon as it was.

I think the LOCKN’ shows felt so great. It was a triumph. But even leaving, I was thinking, “Fuck, Kofi would’ve really enjoyed that!” [Laughs] Or, “I wonder what he would’ve sounded like on this.” Missing him. Just missing him, personally, his presence. For me, that’s the year. That’s just what it is. But in saying that, we’re so blessed and lucky as individuals and as a band, as a family—me and Sue—that it’s not self pity, or any of those things. It’s just missing your friends, but incredibly appreciative of the rest of it. We feel so lucky that we ran into Gabe Dixon and Brandon Boone when we did, because they were saviors. I know the band wouldn’t be in the state we are in if we didn’t let them in. They really helped us through an incredibly tough time, and made it feel good to play music, and made it feel okay to play, and made you look forward to it. They’ve been godsends, both of them.

Anything else in the TTB world we should mention?

We’ve got a busy few years in front of us, so we’re looking forward to getting back to it. I’m looking forward to getting back in the studio with these guys and feel out where things go.

Do you have some studio time set aside?

We have some time off set aside, so we’ll see how that shakes out. I know there’ll be writing and stuff going on in the studio—there’s nothing set in stone yet, but we’re dialing it back a little bit next year. We’ve just been running so hard. We just need some time to take a deep breath and think about things, and then get back in.

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