September 23, 2004

Resurrection Of The Mule: Warren Haynes

Warren Haynes

JamBase has a big interview with the big man from Gov't Mule, guitar player extraordinaire Warren Haynes. The new studio album Deja Voodoo was released this week, four years after founder member Allen Woody died.

Well, I think that us deciding that we wanted to record with all these different bass players, all of Woody's heroes, and not jumping into choosing a bass player right away, was really in a subtle way what kept Gov't Mule together. And what allowed us to continue to grow and maintain momentum without having to cross over into territory that we were uncertain about. Going in every day with a different bass player standing where Allen Woody used to stand, in most cases his heroes, was incredible. You know, walking in one day and it is John Entwistle, and the next day it's Jack Bruce, and the next day it's Larry Graham, and the next day it's Chris Squire--that's a good week. (Laughs) That was very intimidating for us, very enlightening, very liberating, all these emotions were mixed together. It was very bittersweet because we were still mourning our partner. But at the same time celebrating his life by honoring him with some of his absolute favorites.
(...) this is a chemistry between four people now, instead of a chemistry between three people. Andy and Danny both play like they are in a quartet, which is what we are now, so it works out perfectly. When Woody passed, Matt and I kind of made the decision to add a member at that point because we didn't want to put ourselves or the new bass player or the audience under the pressure of constantly comparing the old to the new. We thought it was time to open up a new chapter.

» jambase.com
» mule.net

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