Derek Trucks talks Tedeschi Trucks Band before Greek shows: ‘Be willing to fail’ (2024)

Derek Trucks was, it seems, born to play guitar.

A child prodigy, by 13, Trucks had played with legendary blues guitarist Buddy Guy. At 20, he formed the Derek Trucks Band, then, at 25 became an officialmember of The Allman Brothers Band, joining his uncle, drummer Butch Trucks.

In 2009, he dissolved The Derek Trucks Band, just before it won the 2010Best Contemporary Blues Album Grammy. Two years later, Tedeschi Trucks Band, the group he formed with his wife, singer/guitarist Susan Tedeschi, won the same award.

Trucks, who’s constantly on lists of the greatest guitarists of all time, recently called in from a motel outside Washington, D.C., with Tedeschi sitting nearby, to talk about his music and the band in advance of a round of shows on what continues to be an extensive touring schedule for the band, 10 members strong.

Trucks had plenty to say about his guitar, career and band, which will be coming to the Greek Theatre for 2 shows on June 7 and 9. This conversation has been edited.

Q: I hear lots of people that I wouldn’t expect to hear it from say you guys are the best live band going. Then the other thing you hear is, they’re a jam band or they’re a rock band or they’re a blues band or they’re a whatever. What do you call yourself and what do you think when you hear people say that?

I don’t know if we know what it is really. So, I guess it doesn’t surprise us that it’s hard to put your finger on it. But it’s kind of always been that way. With my solo band, they would have us on jazz festivals when we weren’t a jazz band. They’d have us on jam band festivals and we weren’t a jam band. We’d be on blues festivals and it wasn’t a pure blues band. So we’ve kind of always been one foot in here, one foot in there.

I feel like a lot of the great American music is that way. Ike and Tina (Turner), they were an R&B band, but it was a rock band. The Allman Brothers were improvisational, but it’s blues and rock. A lot of our favorite bands, it’s hard to really quantify what it is. So, we don’t feel worried about that too much, especially in this day and age when no one’s gonna play us on any radio station anyway.

Q: That really puts the emphasis on the live thing, then. So where do records fit into that?

I feel like the recorded elements of a band’s career at this point is really a way for your audience to really get to know the music and the material. This last record we put out was four albums (titled under the banner “I Am the Moon,” the four thematically linked albums were released a month apart). When we started playing this stuff live, we were really surprised at how many people that had already ingested the music and knew it. So then you feel like you can play anything in their catalog because people, people know it.

Q: Is your name really from Eric Clapton, Derek and the Dominoes?

Yeah, my parents were children of that time and that record was a big part of it. My dad grew up in and around the Allman Brothers. So Duane (Allman) was a big figure in his life. So that record was a big part of it. And I have a sister named Jessica.

Q: Really? Maybe there’s something fitting then, that you ended up in the Allman Brothers for a while.

And, I find out later that Susan was born on the same day that the ‘Layla’ record came out, which is kind of a trip.

Q: You’re in your early 40s and you’ve been doing this for…

I guess about 30-35 years now. Is that even possible? Susan, is that true? Wow, that’s amazing. That’s a long time.

Q: Was there a point where you decided, ‘I’m going to do this for the rest of my life.”

I think around 14 or 15, somewhere in there, I did have the feeling that if you’re gonna do this, let’s do it. And you’re probably going to be a lifer. Once you get hit with it, you know you’re going to do it. Everybody I was playing with was well into their 40s, 50s at that time. I think there was a moment, where you’re like, this is it. Let’s do it. You’re probably never going to make it out of playing bars. Who cares?

Q: When did you start playing slide guitar?

Probably 9, 10 years old, The sounds that were most intriguing to me were The Allman Brothers Band’s “At Fillmore East’’ and there was an Elmore James record. So I was definitely interested in the sound of the slide guitar from the jump. When a guitar teacher brought over a slide, that was kind of the first epiphany where it’s like ‘That’s what I’ve been hearing. Cool.’

And also at 9, your body isn’t fully developed. Your hands are not. It hurts to play a steel string (with the slide). You’re putting that aside. You can make these sounds that you’ve been hearing and that it makes sense to you. So you know, there was a kind of right time, right place for me.

Q: Now you’re the master of the slide.

I guess. Lucky for me, there are a million traditional guitar players, but there’s only a few handfuls who play slide. Elmore James, who was kind of the first electric slide player, I listened to a ton. Then Duane Allman, Jesse Ed Davis kind of cracked it open for me in a different realm, and Johnny Winter. I feel like at some point, you become a part of that tradition and stream, and you just try to get to know where it came from. Then you kind of try to keep pushing it. Now I’ll hear things come on occasionally and I’ll hear the influence. I can hear my playing in their playing, which is a trip. The first time that happens, it’s kind of hard to wrap your head around.

Q: So do you develop your sounds during the improvisation in the live shows?

That’s for sure, you stumble across things every night. And sometimes it’s not good. You’ve got to, you have to be willing to fail. It’s good to humble yourself. So taking it every once in a while. I think it’s probably good for you.”