It’s been 25 years since Warren Haynes and Woody Allen stepped outside of The Allman Brothers Band to take part in a one off side project called Gov’t Mule. Mick Burgess called up guitarist/vocalist Warren Haynes to talk about their upcoming tour, the sad loss of Woody Allen and how the band continued as well as chatting about the new live album, Bring On The Music – Live at The Capitol Theatre.
You start your UK tour on 27th May up in Glasgow. Are you looking forward to coming over to play again?
Yes, and we’ve never played in Glasgow so I’m excited about that as well. I’m excited that we have quite a few UK shows this time around which is good.
You’ll be playing in Newcastle the following day. This is the first time in 14 years that you’ve been here. Are you trying to get to some different places than usual on this tour?
I have fond memories of playing in Newcastle, playing in that wonderful City Hall that you have there. I’m certainly looking forward to coming back to Newcastle to play again after so long. The venue that we’ll be playing, The Boiler Shop, looks like it’s a fantastic venue so we’re really looking forward to seeing it.
2019 marks the 25th anniversary of Gov’t Mule. Have you got anything special lined up to celebrate your Mule birthday?
We’re releasing a live 2CD/2DVD set that’s going to begin the celebration process. We’re going to start going through the archives to put out stuff from our past and re-release stuff as deluxe editions and we’ll put out some live performances as well. We’re also considering the 25th anniversary when we put together the setlist for the upcoming shows to include a bit of everything. Even though every show is different and each setlist is different, we’re going to make sure each part of our career is represented even more so than we normally would.
Does changing the setlist each night keep it fresh and spontaneous for you?
First of all, it keeps it interesting for us. It also keeps the fans guessing what it is they’ll be getting each night. We get people who come to multiple shows and who will get a completely different show to the ones that they have already seen.
You have 10 albums of material not to mention some choice covers that you’ve done over the years. How do you decide what songs to play on a given night?
We go back and see what we played last time that we were at any given city and make sure that it’s drastically different from that and that it is totally different from last night and the night before and combine that with what we feel like playing. I usually write the setlist the day before but once we do the sound check then the energy and vibe of the venue and its sound may influence some changes. Of course, it changes during the show and it feels like we need to switch gears and go in another direction then we do. There’s so many elements that go into it.
How many songs do you have to rehearse for a tour?
We have well over a thousand songs that we have played at least once. I’d say for the tour there’s a few hundred that we’re choosing from on a nightly basis. On a short tour we’ll play over 100 songs. At places that we’ve never been to or haven’t visited much we’ll concentrate and make sure that more of the fan centric songs that people are expecting to hear are put into the set. If you come to 3 or 4 shows, you’ll see 3 or 4 different sets.
You record many of your shows and release them via Mule Tracks on your website. Are you recording all of the shows on your UK tour?
We intend to record every show and make every show available unless there’s something inherently wrong technically speaking. Making shows available to fans is something that we did with The Allman Brothers. We offer a very good quality of recording. We also still encourage and allow fans to set up their microphones and record the shows themselves. Some people prefer making their own recordings but we offer what we think is a very high-quality recording of the show if people want to buy that instead.
25 years is quite a milestone for any band. Does it really feel that many years have passed since you first put the band together?
It doesn’t really feel like 25 years since we started. I still have visual memories of the beginning that feel like yesterday. We never expected Gov’t Mule to be something to last even a second year much less 25 years but I think one of the reasons that it worked out that way is that everything happened organically. We hadn’t planned for the future as we didn’t intend on being part of it. It was a side project and we were going to do one record and a short tour and go back to business as usual which for Woody Allen and myself meant going back to The Allman Brothers. We were full time committed to that. We just did Gov’t Mule for the fun of it but it turned into something beyond that on its own and we could feel that transition happening.
At what point did you know that Gov’t Mule was going to be a full-time band?
When we first got into the studio and in fact when we started rehearsing it felt like a band is supposed to feel. It had this musical and personal chemistry that bands are based on. We got on famously and when we played together something special happened. It just started feeling like a band right off the bat. I got inspired and started writing songs so when we went into the studio, we had songs that were brand new written specifically for that with the song Mule being the last just a couple of days before we recorded. It was an interesting time as in the Gov’t Mule camp everything was positive moving at a nice creative pace while at the same time in The Allman Brothers camp the opposite was happening. The four original members just weren’t getting along, there was no communication, no rehearsing, no writing and no recording so it was easy to see that creative balance shifting towards Gov’t Mule for us.
The band hit a real low point with the passing of Allen Woody in 2000. Did you feel like calling it a day at that point?
My first inclination that Gov’t Mule was over and I think Matt felt the same but fortunately we had a lot of musical friends who tried to get us to open our minds to the concept of continuing. That wasn’t possible in my mind for the first few months but once the concept of the Deepest End came up with Woody’s friends and heroes then that allowed us to take some to figure out what the path forward would look like. I then started writing with those people in mind and it proved to be the way forward for us.
The Deepest End Vol.1, featured a dazzling array of bass players from Larry Graham, Flea, Jack Bruce and Roger Glover, Bootsy Collins and John Entwistle. Were you working with these people in the studio?
Every day a different legendary bass player would come into the studio and stand where Allen Woody used to stand and we had his bass rig set up so anybody that wanted to play through his rig was able to do so and most chose to do that. It was very healing for us. It was so bitter sweet and we were going through such a challenging period but knowing that all of his heroes were there helping us through it was amazing. The music that was created as a result of that was incredible and that was what inspired us to keep going. Those amazing people all came in and threw us a life line. We were able to bring pretty much everybody into the studio which was a test but we did some stuff in the Bay Area and some in New York and there were times when me and Matt would get onto a plane and go somewhere else and record with someone. We did some in LA. It was the best way at that time to get lost in the music as opposed to all of the negativity that was surrounding us at that time.
Was there any who you’d really have liked but couldn’t make it for one reason or another?
I reached out to Paul McCartney at that time. We got a response that he was honoured to be considered. I knew it was a long shot but I wrote this letter saying that we were not reaching out to Paul McCartney the Beatle but were reaching out to Paul McCartney, one of the most seminal bass players in music history in the same way that we’d want James Jamerson or Jaco Pastorius. Allen Woody was such a huge McCartney fan. Woody probably had 12 to 15 Beatle basses, some were copies but Woody was a collector and McCartney was one of his absolute heroes. We had to ask though. A friend of mine used to say that the answer is always no until you ask.
You have a new live album coming out next month called Bring On The Music – Live At The Capitol Theatre. You have done a few live albums over the years. What differentiates Bring On The Music from your previous releases?
This is the first DVD that we’ve done officially since Jorgen Carlsson joined the band 10 years ago. We made a point of trying to perform songs that hadn’t been included on live albums or DVD’s before. We brought out a lot of stuff that we hadn’t played for a lot of time. We also wanted to highlight songs that have changed drastically over the years. For example, Blind Man In The Dark on this collection is completely different than on any other. We wanted to utilise as much of the unique material that we could. Over the course of the two nights we had about six and half hours of music, most of which was used across the two CD’s, two DVD’s, the vinyl and bonus material. The track selection on the DVD’s is totally different to the track selection on the CD’s. There is a deluxe version that has everything or you can just choose which one you want. The songs chosen for the DVD were chosen because there was something visual about the performance. It was hard to decide as there was so much stuff so I’m glad we included so much stuff.
Are you a firm believer in live albums being live with the minimum amount of overdubs?
Absolutely. This is live, raw Gov’t Mule as it was on the night.
Live albums were always a great landmark for so many bands especially in the ’70’s. What live albums stand out for you and why?
The Allman Brothers Live At The Fillmore East was a huge influence on me. I also love Humble Pie Rockin’ The Fillmore a lot and Little Feat Waiting For Columbus is one of my all-time favourites. BB King Live at The Regal and also his Live In The Cook County Jail are great too. Frank Zappa’s Roxie and Elsewhere is one of my all-time favourites too. Those stand out as my favourites but I’m sure there’s 20 more that I could name.
The albums that you’ve done covering Reggae and Ska on Dub Side of the Mule, or the Pink Floyd of Dark Side of The Mule and The Rolling Stones inspired Stoned Side of The Mule show a deep respect that you have for other music forms and bands. What bands are in your sights to give the Mule treatment too? How about Sly and the Family Stone or Funkadelic?
I love both of those bands tremendously. I started singing before I played guitar and all of my favourite singers were Soul singers, James Brown was my favourite. My transition from Soul music to Rock music was through Sly And The Family Stone. My oldest brother brought home one of their records which I listened to over and over. Next thing I knew I was listening to Jimi Hendrix so Sly And The Family Stone was the bridge from Soul music to Rock music. When I was 13 some friends of mine turned me onto Funkadelic who blew my mind. We all love that stuff and we always felt that if Gov’t Mule stayed together long enough then all of these influences could seep into our sound. When we started we wanted to represent what we thought was devoid at the time which was an improvisational Rock trio. We were trying to bring that back. As Gov’t Mule was only intended as a side project there was never any thought of doing that for the next 25 years. We could have chosen 10 different directions that we could have been equally as happy with. When it became obvious that we were becoming a real band we started to bring all of these influences into our music. These diverse influences were absolutely the reason that we reached out to the likes of Larry Graham and Bootsy Collins for the Deepest End album. They were heroes to all of us.
It’s been a couple of years now since your last studio album, Revolution Come, Revolution Go. Have you started work on the follow up?
We have some ideas that at the moment are all over the map. There’s a couple of instrumental pieces done that are similar to the early instrumental pieces that Gov’t Mule recorded. I’ve also been writing some stuff that’s completely the opposite of that. We haven’t started recording anything yet as it’s on the backburner but once we start working on it it’ll start coming together.
You’ve also appeared on many albums over the years as a guest including albums by Tedeschi Trucks, Peter Frampton, Beth Hart, Garth Brooks and Black Stone Cherry not to mention William Shatner. How on earth did you get involved in an album by Captain Kirk?
That came about in an odd sort of way. They contacted our management to see if I was interested in being a part of it and when I saw the list of guitar players doing it, it was amazing so I just wanted to be part of it. It was similar to the story that John Entwistle told me when he signed on to be part of the Deepest End sessions. At the time he wasn’t familiar with Gov’t Mule but when he saw the list of bass players who were involved, he said he needed to do it.
Have you got any guest appearances lined up over the coming months?
I’ve just been in the studio with Jake Shimabukuro, a ukulele player, who is fantastic and we did the old Alvin Lee and Mylon Lefevre song, On The Road To Freedom and it’s really cool. He has a great cast of characters on his record. I love being part of anything that I think is interesting and stimulating.
What have you got lined up for the rest of the year?
We are touring Europe after the UK shows for three weeks. We’ll be mainly touring this year and we’ll be doing Mountain Jam back in America, which is a festival that we are part of. Our schedule is going to get very busy.
Gov’t Mule’s UK tour starts at the O2 Academy, Glasgow on 27th May.
Bring On The Music – Live at The Capitol Theatre is out on 28th June on Mascot Records and is available in a variety of formats.
See mule.net for more details
Great Interview.