Next month Warren Warren Haynes will release the new album The Tel-Star Studios with his band Gov’t Mule, but before that not insignificant affair, he is on this side of the pond in support of his current solo studio release Ashes and Dust.
The Grammy award winner will be live at The Stables in Wavendon next Wednesday (July 20) before moving on to the Ramble’ Man Fair in Kent.
Ahead of the must-see date, Warren shared the music and influences close to him…
The song that first awakened your musical senses
“Sound of Silence” - Simon and Garfunkel.
I must’ve been five or six years old and it mesmerised me. Too young to understand the words but just the sound and the music completely drew me in.
Physical or digital - how do you take your music?
Analog is my preference.
The first time you thought 'Music - this is the job for me
' I’m sure I thought it at seven or eight years old when I started singing, but I really got hooked when I first played in front of a real audience in a club/bar. I was 14 years old.
Your best on stage memory...
Too many to mention: playing with Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, John Lee Hooker, BB King, Jeff Beck, Peter Green, Albert Collins, Junior Wells, Roger Waters… I’m very fortunate that the list goes on and on.
And the worst gig you've ever done
When I first moved to Nashville when I was 23 I got a call to do a gig in a club-5 sets for $25 and we had to let the club owner’s wife sing with the band.
I didn’t go back for the second night-good thing as someone shot a gun inside the club during the show.
What made you take up the guitar?
Hearing Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and Johnny Winter.
Prior to that I was singing and only listening to soul music.
Which one song by another artist do you wish you'd have written?
Almost every Bob Dylan song-starting with “Masters of War.”
And one - by yourself - which holds special significance
I couldn’t possibly narrow it down to even 10. The song “Company Man” on Ashes & Dust is about my father and very personal to me.
If you could step into the shoes of another musician, living or dead, who would it be and what would you do?
I don’t imagine things like "being someone else”. It would be an honour to have known someone like Miles Davis or Jimi Hendrix.
Are there any current musical influences that you might look to?
Not really. I’m more apt to blend together timeless ingredients.
And any genre of music that you simply can't stand?
Not a big fan of Broadway musicals.
I can appreciate some of it but it doesn’t do much for me.
Finally, plug your show at The Stables in Milton Keynes - what can we expect?
For this tour, although we’re officially promoting Ashes & Dust, we’re including songs from almost all the different aspects of my career.
However, the instrumentation (guitar, bass, drums, fiddle, mandolin, banjo) allows for very different interpretations of even some of the staples.
It’s a very exciting, fun, and unique chemistry that this band has and sadly these will be the last.
To book tickets for the show visit www.stables.org
