WARREN HAYNES TAKES ADVANTAGE OF HIS OPPORTUNITIES

The Godfather of Soul, James Brown coined the nickname the hardest working man in Show Business, but Warren Haynes has been labeled as the hardest working man in the jam band community, and it’s pretty hard to dispute the facts. With a recent Jammy Award for Album of the Year for Gov’t Mule’s latest release, Deja Voodoo, and a Grammy Nomination for Instrumental Song of the Year for The Allman Brothers song ‘Instrumental Illness’ off the bands recent hit album, Hittin’ the Note, Warren Haynes singing, songwriting and guitar playing is the catalyst the drives each band he plays with.

And it doesn’t just end with Gov’t Mule and The Allman Brothers, Warren also toured in 2004 with The Dead and even opened half the tour with just a solo acoustic guitar. So with playing in Mule, The Allmans, The Dead and solo, Haynes is taking advantage of all his opportunities. We caught up with Warren to discuss songwriting and if he consciously tries to have a different approach musically in each band.

“When I write a song I usually just write a song for the song and don’t think about which band it’s going to fit until later, unless there’s a project that I’m working on or upcoming. If it’s an Allman Brothers record or Gov’t Mule record then I’ll be thinking more along those lines. Rehearsal wise, I use different equipment, different guitars, different amps, everything to try and get a little different sound or approach with each band. But most of it’s just in the way you mentally approach the gig. The whole object is to try and make the music sound the best. So I’m allowed to interject different sides of my own musical personality into each group. Which is really good because I I

Warren Haynes is currently in the midst of a Gov’t Mule tour that has the band performing Halloween weekend for Vegoose, Las Vegas’ first rock and roll music festival. Mule will be playing the Jokers Wild stage just before Primus on Saturday October 29th. After Vegoose Mule will kick off the About To Rage Tour on Halloween at the Murat Theatre in Indianapolis and it will roll its way into the northeast for a two week run around Thanksgiving. Stops will be made in Washington, Boston, Albany, Portland, ME, Ithaca, Toronto, Pittsburgh and the tour will conclude December 3rd in Cincinnati, OH.