WEBVTT - Warren Haynes 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:12.320 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Lefts Podcast. My 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:16.319 guest today is a musician, Warren Age. Warren, how are you? 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:19.320 I'm good? Okay, So where are you right now? In 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:23.319 this corunap partners? I am in Westchester County, New York. 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:25.599 And how many people are in the house with you? Myself, 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:29.960 my wife, my eight year old son, and uh we 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:33.720 have he has a nanny that has been with us 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:37.000 the entire time, so we're all kind of quarantined together. 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:40.040 How do you feel about being this age and having 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:43.080 an eight year old kid? You know, that's a good, 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:46.760 uh good point. I I became a dad at fifty, 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:49.199 which was I don't know if it's recommended or not. 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:53.559 In my case, it worked out really good because I 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:55.960 was on the road so much, uh for most of 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:58.080 my life that I never really wanted to be a 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:02.600 m I a dad, And so now I'm able to 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:05.440 spend a lot more time with him, starting when he 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:09.000 was born, and especially now than I ever have. I'm 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:11.440 I'm at home more than I've been in the past 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:15.080 thirty years. And other than the coronavirus situation, why you 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:17.960 go at a home more? Well, once he was born, 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:21.959 I started kind of tailoring my schedule a little bit 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:24.400 to spend more time at home and to make it 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:27.880 where I could come back and forth more often and 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:32.040 that sort of thing. But uh, you know, it's it's 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:35.840 a challenge just getting connecting the dots. But I love 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.200 being a dad. In my I was gonna say fifties, 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:40.440 but I just turned sixty. So how did you pull 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:43.119 the trigger? What was what was the thought process after 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:50.840 fifty years? Uh, look, I guess you know so, Uh 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:54.520 you turned sixty. I turned sixty at this point seven 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:58.760 years ago really fucked me up. I found fifty fifty 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:02.040 was no big deal. House sixty, Well, sixty was a 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:05.800 little intimidating, and still is. But the fact that I 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:11.600 spent my sixtieth birthday uh quarantined and with just the 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:15.520 four of us was a little surreal in a in 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:18.920 a bizarre way. We my wife and I had talked 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:22.360 six months earlier or something about Okay, we're gonna make 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:23.960 a big deal out of it, We're gonna bring in 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:26.880 friends and family and have a big blowout. And by 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:29.600 the time it all came around, that wasn't really meant 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:33.359 to be. And then when my birthday actually happened, it's like, oh, 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:36.640 happy birthday, We're the three of us are having a 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:40.960 great time. And now I just remember, literally starting around 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:43.440 the time of my birthday, and I didn't anticipate it, 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:47.160 turning sixty. A lot of ship that was meaningful before 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:51.000 suddenly wasn't meaningful anymore. I guess I realized at some 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:54.560 point I would die. Have there been any emotional changes 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:59.200 turning sixty. Well, yeah, And I don't know how much 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:02.680 is attributed to turning sixty, and how much is attributed 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:07.080 to the coronavirus, because the same thing for me, uh, 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:13.160 which I don't recommend. Okay. So going back to your son, 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:17.000 you're talking about your road work. How many forgetting coronavirus? 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:19.519 How many days a year you on the road now? 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:27.679 Prior to this, probably a hundred, two hundred and fifty, okay. 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:30.960 And once your kids started to go to school, your 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:33.480 kids stays home, your kid comes with you. How do 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:38.640 you work that he stays home except when it is 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:41.400 convenient for him to come for a few days. And 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:45.240 then I just find myself coming back and forth a 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:49.160 lot more often, which is fine, but it's a lot 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:52.000 of If we have two days off, I'll go home 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:54.640 for two days and go back on the road for 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:56.520 four or five days and then come back home for 0:03:56.560 --> 0:04:01.040 two more days, which is a lot of wear and tear, 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:03.960 but definitely worth it. Now you're really seen as a 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.800 road dog. So how are you filling this time? Well, 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:10.760 it's been a bit of adapting. Uh, I'm writing a lot, 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:13.520 which is great. That's the one of the down one 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:17.560 of the one of the few upsides. But um, in 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:22.280 the beginning, just a lot of kind of thinking about 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:27.640 how to reinvent and how to kind of reinterpret the 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:34.400 whole situation. Um. Gradually, I'm getting my setup more and 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:37.960 more together where I can uh do more playing and 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:41.080 recording and stuff. But in the beginning I was mostly 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:43.280 just writing on acoustic guitar and writing a lot of 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:47.440 lyrics and uh taking advantage of that. I don't think 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:52.960 I've written this much since. Okay, So, prior to the 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:57.719 COVID situation, did you have a home studio only a 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:00.320 small one. There's a studio close by that I work 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:03.320 in a lot, and I've been for the past three 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:09.800 years trying to either build by a studio of my own, 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:14.160 which has been like an ever changing process. It's a 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:18.640 work in progress. Uh. My ability to record here is limited, 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:24.240 but getting less limited. Um, but it's really making me 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:27.760 think of things differently, Like I haven't been to the 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:30.280 studio that I normally record, and I haven't been there 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:34.320 since the coronavirus. Are you pretty tech savvy now that 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:36.800 you're alone without an engineer? Are you familiar with pro 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:39.479 tools or logic or any of that other stuff. No, 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.320 you know, I've been telling myself that I needed to 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.080 learn pro tools for the for years now, and of 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:47.240 course this is gonna be a great opportunity. I'm gonna 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:50.760 have to force myself to do it. Okay, talk about 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:54.760 the writing process. Do you normally write songs or do 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:56.960 you say, put pick out a window, this is what 0:05:57.040 --> 0:06:00.280 I'm gonna write a song? Or you wait for inspiration? Sure, 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:05.440 a normal routine. I usually wait for inspiration. I'm not 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:08.960 one of those people that rights every day or can 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:12.840 force myself to write. I know some people have good 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:15.680 luck with that, but I might go two or three 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:19.640 months without writing at all, and every time that happens, 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:23.760 I start getting this feeling of anxiety of have I 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:27.040 written my last song? And then eventually I'll write something, 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:29.280 and then another one will come pretty quickly. And another 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:32.279 one will come pretty quickly and I'm realized that I'm 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:37.120 back on the wave. But more often than not, it 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:40.800 starts with a lyrical idea. I find it easier to 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:46.480 write music based on a lyric that that already exists, 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:49.840 then vice versa. Now, having said that, in the past 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:52.920 six or eight years, I've been trying to do the opposite, 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:56.200 just to not fall into the pattern and to shake 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:59.880 things up a little bit. But I really enjoy working 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.760 that way. What I what I tend to notice is 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:06.200 that the up the up timpo songs start with the music, 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:09.239 and the mid tempo and down timpo songs usually start 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:13.120 with the lyric. Okay, so give me an example of 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:17.000 how you would latch onto a lyric. U Usually just 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:22.000 some sort of thought happens randomly, and I decide if 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:26.400 I like it or not. And these days I'm mostly 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:30.920 writing on the computer as opposed to by hand. Uh. 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:33.880 I do a lot of stream of consciousness writing. And 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:37.880 if the thought, if the initial thought appears to me 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:39.760 in a way that I feel like it's a hook 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:42.800 or a title, then maybe that gives me some sort 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:47.400 of incentive or direction. If it's just a clever idea, 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.480 or something that taps into me emotionally that I just 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:55.920 start writing until either until it starts feeling forced, or 0:07:55.960 --> 0:08:00.440 until something appears that sounds like a chorus, or you know, 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:05.040 every situation is different. Um, I know. Greg Alman used 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:06.920 to say there's as many ways to write a song 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:11.640 as there are songs. Okay, what is your motivation for 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:14.360 writing songs? Is it something you say, I'm an artist, 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:16.360 I have to do it, or is it something you 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:19.040 would do even if you weren't releasing music, or it's 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:22.840 about having something to say? What makes you write songs? 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:28.400 I'm more grateful for being able to write songs than 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:32.280 just about anything else in the world. It's therapy for me. 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:40.160 It's a creative outlet. It's uh something, it's a learning challenge. Uh. 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:42.920 I feel like the majority of the stuff that I 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:47.680 write most people will never hear, and that's kind of bizarre. 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:49.480 But there have been a lot of songs that I 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:53.800 wound up releasing at some point that started out as 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:56.160 just a personal song that I've I feel like I 0:08:56.200 --> 0:09:00.880 wrote for myself. Um, I'd never think of it like 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:05.400 I need to write or what can I do to 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:09.160 write a song that more people will tap into or 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:12.560 that will make money, or I don't. I never think 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:15.560 like that. I write the song first and then think 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:19.960 about later, Hey, is it any good be Is it 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:22.960 something I could do? Is it something someone else can do? 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:27.040 You know it. I don't even think about the categorization 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:31.560 of the tune until it's finished normally. So let's go 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.319 back to the beginning. You're from North Carolina, right, Yes, 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:39.040 we're in North Carolina, Asheville. Now Asheville, they you know, 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.480 it's kind of in the mountains. They got a ski area. 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:46.600 They have a rich person in a house there. You know, 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:49.440 what was it like growing up in Asheville. Well, when 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:53.520 I was growing up there, it wasn't the bohemian capital 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:56.800 of the South that it is now. Uh that's been 0:09:56.840 --> 0:10:00.360 the past fifteen or twenty years that that transition had happened. 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:03.440 When I was growing up, a lot of great musicians, uh, 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:07.640 mostly guitar players, UM, a lot of bluegrass, a lot 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:11.600 of folk music, UM, and a lot of art and 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:14.160 a cool art scene. But it was much more underground, 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:18.160 unlike now where it's it's everywhere. It was always a 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:21.600 cool place. You know, being in the mountains is beautiful, 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:29.160 it's it's geographically beautiful, really great people. Uh, but I've 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:32.439 watched it kind of turned into what Austin is to 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:37.400 Texas Asheville is to North Carolina. Now, okay, so you 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:41.199 grew up what your parents do for a living? Um, 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:44.480 My parents divorced when I was eight, and I was 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:48.400 mostly raised by my dad, who worked in a grocery store. 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:52.520 They were both Uh they both grew up on farms 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:56.440 in Polk County, North Carolina, and then moved to the 0:10:56.480 --> 0:11:00.360 big city of Ashville. Okay, just starting to Asheville. If 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:02.880 you want to leave Ashland, go to the big city. 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:07.640 What big city would you go to? Well, initially Nashville 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:11.559 was the closest one. And that's how far away? Five 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:15.760 hours by car? Not close, yeah, not close, but much 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:19.040 closer than New Yorker l a. Uh. So I went 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:23.560 to Nashville late eighty three, lived there. But before we 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:27.480 get there, let's say, Okay, your parents get divorced. Before 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:29.679 they got divorced, there were you Were you the only kid? 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:32.040 Or are the other kids? I have two older brothers, 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:37.960 two older brothers, how much older? Three years and five years? Okay, 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:43.880 your parents divorce, Uh, it's relatively uncommon for the kids 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:47.200 to go with the father. What was the thought process there? 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:52.240 You know? Uh, I was so young that I wasn't 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:54.480 such a big part of it. But it was unheard 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:56.520 of in the South at that time or anywhere, but 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:59.719 especially in the South at that time. Divorce was on 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:04.000 her of much less the dad getting the kids. UM. 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:08.800 I guess there was enough justification at that time for 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:12.320 my dad insisted that it that it be that way, 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:16.600 which for him meant working all day long and raising 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:22.359 three boys, which is uh, just an unbelievable task. Okay. 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:26.960 Was there ever a stepmother or stepfather my mom remarried. 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:29.880 I had a stepfather who passed away a little over 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:32.480 a year ago. Okay. And did you continue to have 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:36.320 contact with your mother growing up? Uh? We lost touch 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:40.200 for a short period of time, not much, um, and 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:46.040 it was a hard thing to get used to, uh, 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:51.840 but we eventually became closer and closer. It was a 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:56.120 bizarre situation for myself because my dad was When I 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:58.440 was really young, my dad was working all the time, 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:00.080 so it was me and my mom at home, and 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:04.640 then when she was gone, that changed completely. So it 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:08.200 was it was hard for me to adjust to My 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:14.559 older brothers did a little better job adjusting, I think, Um, 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:18.320 but she moved about an hour away, so we would 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:23.240 visit a lot. But you know, it was it was 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:28.359 uh not your normal as in Harriet type of situation. 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:31.720 Looking back at this age, deep into your life, do 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:36.160 you think your mother uh leaving to a great degree 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:42.080 affected you in certain ways that have sustained affected your adulthood. Yeah, 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:45.719 I'm sure, I'm sure it did. Uh. I'm sure it 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:50.439 had a lot to do with my gravitating towards uh 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:56.560 music and poetry and songwriting and and traveling and all 0:13:56.559 --> 0:14:03.679 the things that I chose, you know, but um, at 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:05.839 the time, I don't think you can never really know 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:10.120 what motivates that. But yeah, I think So. Do you 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:14.040 ever go to therapy? No, I think, Uh, I've thought 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.960 about it a lot in recent years, but never done it. 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:23.080 And um, I think songwriting has kind of been my therapy, 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:27.360 and I've always felt like without it or music in general, 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:31.840 but songwriting, especially music, has has been so therapeutic for 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:34.280 me that I think without it, I don't I have 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:39.200 no idea how adjusted I would be. Okay, So you're 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:41.440 going to school, or you're a popular kid, or you're 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:46.760 good in school, what's that experience, like I was semi popular, 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:53.800 you know, not not mainstream, but the musician circle that 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:56.160 I ran in, there were there were several of us 0:14:56.240 --> 0:15:00.120 that had some sort of popularity. I've surprisingly was a 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.000 good student. I graduated in the top five percent of 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:07.760 my class and was in the National Honor Society. Um 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:13.000 had scholarship offers that I turned down, which I think, 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:18.400 uh shocked my dad, but he was supportive. Okay, So 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:22.440 was there music in the house growing up. Yeah, my 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:28.200 dad listened to Hank Williams and Bill Monroe and uh 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:33.360 Merle Haggard and George Jones, Ralph Stanley, stuff like that. 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:39.840 Um My two older brothers have amazing taste in music 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:44.760 and had tons of records, eventually thousands of records. And eventually, 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:49.160 uh my middle brother collected to the point that he 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:53.160 started a record store of used in new records and 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:56.520 uh did that for about twenty five years and to 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:59.960 this day, I think he's got thousands of records, although 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:02.720 he closed the store a while back. Okay, how old 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:06.720 were you when he opened the store? Uh, I guess 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:09.760 I was in my twenties. Okay, so you were already 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:13.840 out of the house. Yeah, Okay, So when do you 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:20.320 first play a musical instrument. I started singing probably around 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:25.960 seven or eight, And thanks to my older brothers, they 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:28.880 had all this great soul music, the Temptations and the 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:32.120 Four Tops and Sam and Dave and Wilson Pickett. I 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:37.160 think James Brown was my first hero. Um we had 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:40.280 at a time when we only had a handful of records. 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:43.240 It was the best of Aretha Franklin, the best of 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:46.160 Stevie Wonder, the best of the Four Tops, you know, 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:50.840 all that stuff. And they also had the Beatles and 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:58.680 the Stones. Um and the fact that they had so 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:01.400 many records just kind of gave me this library to 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:04.439 dig through. My oldest brother got a guitar when I 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:09.040 was eleven, and uh, I played it more than he did. 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:12.760 So I got my own guitar when I was twelve. Okay, See, 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:16.520 were singing like singing in school, saying in the in 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:19.520 the school chorus and in church in the beginning when 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:23.400 I actually went to church, um, but mostly in my bedroom, 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:26.320 you know, uh, trying to sound like Wilson Pickett, but 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:30.040 sounded more like Smokey Robinson. Okay, so you pick up 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:32.960 the guitar. Your brothers guitar were levant you ever have lessons. 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:36.560 I took a handful of lessons from this guy named 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:40.680 Andy Hunter, who was a local UH blues guitar player 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:43.880 who was really great, but he was self taught, and 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:46.840 so after a few lessons, he kind of pulled me 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:50.640 aside and said, hey, you know, most of my students 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:55.199 don't even practice in the six days between lessons. I 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:57.840 can tell you're really serious about this. You should probably 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:00.800 just stay on the path of teaching yourself, which is 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:05.560 kind of the weirdest, most honest thing for someone to say, uh, 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:08.520 putting him out of work, But I think the fact 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:11.399 that he was self taught made him look at it 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:15.480 that way. I learned a lot from him, um, And 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:19.040 one of the things that stuck with me was his 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:22.680 fascination for what he considered the three Kings Freddie, B, 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:25.040 B and Albert. He said, if you listen to those 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:29.320 three guys your whole life, you still can't learn at all. Uh. 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:34.400 So that stayed with me. So how did you teach yourself? Uh? 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:40.560 Just records, skipping the needle back and play into records. Uh. 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.040 At some point I bought a music theory book and 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:46.159 just started studying that on my own and and in 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:50.520 high school I took a one semester course of music theory. 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:54.200 But mostly there were a circle of musicians that were 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:56.959 teaching each other how to play and playing together, and 0:18:57.640 --> 0:19:01.399 we were all starting bands before we could even play, 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:04.600 which I think, looking back was probably a good thing 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:07.280 because we learned how to play music together, which is 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:12.119 very important. Okay, did you immediately? I knew from the 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:14.520 era we all and everybody in my generation a little 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:17.119 bit older than you played guitars, but it was clear. 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:19.720 I remember pretty much giving up when a friend of 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.080 mine said, Hey, we're gonna change keys, and I said, 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:23.800 We'll wait a second. It is a little too much 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:26.320 for me. So did you. It's always hard work to 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:28.119 be great, But did you feel you had a natural 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:31.720 affinity for it? I did. I felt like I had 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:35.080 an affinity for it. You know. I think everybody when 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:37.400 they first start, they think this is what I want 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:39.400 to do for the rest of my life. But then 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:42.960 that feeling dissipates at some point in a year or two, 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:46.800 and you start kind of losing interest. I just never 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:52.160 started losing interest. The interest uh increased, and I as 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:55.639 I got better, I kind of face the fact that 0:19:57.480 --> 0:19:59.719 the more I learned, the more I wanted to do it. 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:03.119 And and when I was fourteen, there was a little 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:06.199 folk club down the street and I would sneak in 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:09.040 there when the drinking age was eighteen at that time, 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:11.760 and I would sneak in and hear these folk musicians 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:16.800 and it was just amazing here in live music like 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:20.560 that in a in a small environment. And then eventually 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:23.240 the word got out that I played guitar, so somebody 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:25.080 asked me to get up and play, and I did, 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:27.840 and then I was hooked. That's what I wanted to 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:30.360 do all the time. So you got up and play? 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:35.240 Would you play some blues or something? It was? It 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:39.600 was actually at that time the the stage in that club, 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:42.240 you couldn't put a drum kid on there. You could 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:44.679 only have two or three stringed instruments or something. But 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:47.399 there were a couple of people playing electric guitar, and 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:50.000 one of them gave me their electric guitar and and 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:54.359 I just played along and just remember I have a 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:58.120 visual recollection of that now and and and how it 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:03.959 felt as well. Uh, And it was just an amazing feeling, 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:06.600 something to tap into, something to be part of that 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:11.080 I had never experienced before. And what was the reaction 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:14.720 to anybody say, hey, kid, you're good to stay at it. Yeah, 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:19.240 there was a lot of encouragement, you know. Uh, the 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:23.959 um the local musician scene was very encouraging to me, 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:26.800 and so I would go there all the time, and 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:30.000 I met more and more of the local musicians and 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:32.840 they would all get me up to play. And that's 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:39.720 where I really developed this appreciation for folk music and 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:43.080 for songwriting in general, because a lot of those local 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:48.119 guys were fantastic songwriters and they were doing their own material. 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:51.320 And that was a revelation as well that these guys 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:54.120 are writing their own songs and they're really good. Then 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:57.399 they would also be playing Dylan songs and John Pryan 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:03.000 songs and uh, stuff like that. But it was turning 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:06.320 me onto this world of music that I was ready for. 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:11.960 So what was your first guitar? The first guitar I 0:22:12.040 --> 0:22:15.960 had was called a Norma uh, and it was There 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:19.360 was a Norma Amp forty nine dollars and fifty nine 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:22.760 dollars respectively, and my dad got home at the local 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:26.200 hardware store. And how how long did it take to 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:29.920 graduate from that? I think probably a year or so. 0:22:30.760 --> 0:22:34.080 I got a copy of a Gibson s G. There 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:37.080 was a hundred dollars about a year later, and then 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:40.000 about a year after that, I got a real Gibson 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:43.480 s G Jr. And my dad was really good about, 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:49.359 uh upgrading and just as long as I didn't lose interest, 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:53.040 he would continue to make sure I had a little 0:22:53.040 --> 0:22:56.400 bit better guitar, a little bit better I amp. You know. Well, 0:22:56.440 --> 0:22:58.600 I grew up in Connecticut. We would go into New 0:22:58.680 --> 0:23:03.600 York Street whatever it was, and by where did you 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:07.160 actually buy the stuff you're in color? In North Carolina, Well, 0:23:07.200 --> 0:23:11.199 there was a music store, oddly enough a few blocks 0:23:11.200 --> 0:23:14.040 from my house. And when I would ride the bus 0:23:14.040 --> 0:23:16.919 to and from school, that's where we would get on 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:19.200 and off. The bus was on that corner where the 0:23:19.280 --> 0:23:22.320 music store was. And so at the at the end 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:25.040 of the day, Uh, the two or three people that 0:23:25.119 --> 0:23:28.760 were in my circle of musician friends, we would get 0:23:28.800 --> 0:23:31.000 off the bus and immediately go into the music store 0:23:31.000 --> 0:23:33.800 and just geek out and look at everything and annoy 0:23:33.880 --> 0:23:37.320 the people that ran it, you know, and let's try this, 0:23:37.440 --> 0:23:40.760 let's try that, and spend hours in there, uh, which 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:43.720 in hindsight must have been really annoying, but they were 0:23:43.760 --> 0:23:47.040 so supportive and nice and and then of course we're 0:23:47.160 --> 0:23:51.320 friends now. But uh, we literally spent hours of our 0:23:51.400 --> 0:23:54.600 day in the music store just playing instruments. You know. 0:23:55.440 --> 0:24:02.120 And when did you start forming bands? I think almost 0:24:02.200 --> 0:24:06.400 at the very beginning, you know, we were designing album 0:24:06.480 --> 0:24:10.960 covers and you know every crazy thing that that kids do. 0:24:11.160 --> 0:24:16.600 That uh the first time I think we played in public. 0:24:17.880 --> 0:24:20.000 There were a few things, like we played a walkathon 0:24:20.600 --> 0:24:23.360 where these poor people that had just walked twenty miles 0:24:23.920 --> 0:24:27.399 when they when they were done, they got like free 0:24:27.440 --> 0:24:30.159 punch and to sit and listen to us play. And 0:24:30.200 --> 0:24:33.000 it must have been very painful. But they were a 0:24:33.080 --> 0:24:35.199 captive audience. You know. We played a few things. They 0:24:35.200 --> 0:24:37.359 were all free gigs. In the beginning. We would just 0:24:37.400 --> 0:24:40.600 play anywhere anybody would have us know, and what material 0:24:40.680 --> 0:24:45.919 were playing? Oh my goodness, back then, Uh whatever was 0:24:46.000 --> 0:24:51.399 going on at the time. Uh where it be Grand 0:24:51.400 --> 0:24:57.160 Funk railroad, Uh could be uh well, you know, oddly enough, 0:24:57.640 --> 0:25:01.879 when I was fourt in their fifteen, we had a 0:25:01.880 --> 0:25:05.399 band called Blue Sky that was named after the Allman 0:25:05.440 --> 0:25:09.760 Brothers song and we had two drummers. And so how 0:25:10.359 --> 0:25:14.800 foreshadowing is that? I mean, you know, we played a 0:25:14.800 --> 0:25:17.320 handful of of all my brothers songs, but we played 0:25:17.520 --> 0:25:19.880