This iconic rock couple honors legendary album that brought their band together

USA Today

7 hours ago

It's been 10 years since the Tedeschi Trucks Band revisited Joe Cocker's "Mad Dogs & Englishmen" in a live performance at the 2015 Lockn' Festival in Virginia.
Derek Trucks still talks about that whole experience like a man who can't quite wrap his head around how fortunate he was to even be involved, though.
It wasn't long after getting caught up in the spell of the "Mad Dogs & Englishmen" concert film together that he and his wife, guitar-playing vocalist Susan Tedeschi, decided to put their own traveling rock 'n' roll circus together, forming the Tedeschi Trucks Band in 2010.
Now Tedeschi Trucks are headed out on a coheadlining tour with Whiskey Myers as Fantasy Records prepares to release an album documenting the night they shared a stage with history entitled "Mad Dogs & Englishmen Revisited (Live at Lockn')."
In this exclusive interview, Trucks shares stories of working with Leon Russell, who died in 2016, how that experience helped convince Trucks that he and his bandmates were up to the challenge of making 'Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs,' another classic album four years later and how that, in turn, inspired an even more ambitious undertaking — a four-record set titled "I Am the Moon."
Question: This Mad Dogs & Englishmen album sounds great.
Answer: It was a pretty amazing few days with those guys. I'm really happy we were able to capture it. The film is incredible, too. The first night of this tour, we were in Tulsa, so we went by Leon's studio, the Church Studio, where he had Shelter Records, and we were able to screen the film the night before the tour. It was a pretty special way to kick off the tour.
Derek Trucks on the thrill of revisiting 'Mad Dogs & Englishmen'
That does sound special. I know it's been 10 years, but I was hoping you could talk about how that all came together.
It was a few things. We had just done a handful of shows with Leon. He opened for us at the Beacon Theatre. We did a few festivals with him. And we just kind of connected pretty instantly.
Fast forward to Lockn' that year. They asked us if we wanted to collaborate with Joe Cocker. And of course, we were excited. Had a few conversations about what music we would play. We didn't hear back for a minute. Then, he got sick and passed away. So that didn't happen.
Then they reached out about us maybe doing a tribute to Joe. My first thought was, as much as I'm a big fan, we didn't really get to know him. We had that show scheduled and had a few conversations about it. But I didn't know if I was the guy to do that. Then they mentioned the Mad Dogs thing and that had a whole different feel because that was people that had played with Joe and knew Joe.
So I reached out to Leon thinking there's no way in hell he's going to want to do this (laughs). And he was so receptive. It was a really beautiful conversation. I was kind of shocked that he was into doing it. And once Leon signed on, the floodgates opened. People were reaching out that were in the band, saying "I was in Mad Dogs." So anyone that was on that original tour, we invited.
The rehearsal day was magical. We did our homework as a band, not knowing how it would shake out, who could still play and who remembered what, because it was 40 years ago, that tour. But everyone showed up like it was the Super Bowl. The vibe was incredible. A lot of those people hadn't seen each other since that tour in 1970. It was quite a reunion.
I think that original tour was in some ways the very peak of sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll and the hippie movement. A lot went on during that tour. The best of times and the worst of times (laughs). So people had a lot of mixed feelings about bringing it back together. But when everyone got in the room, we felt honored to be part of it.
Then the show happened. Right out of the gate, you could feel "Oh, this is going to be a good night." And it just kept getting better. We've been part of a lot of pretty amazing shows, but that one was different. It just had a different spirit. And the fact that it only happened one time kind of makes it even more magical. It was a great night and just a beautiful tribute to Leon.
How a 'Mad Dogs' concert film led to the Tedeschi Trucks Band
You guys definitely captured a bit of the magic.
When we put our band together, I had talked to Sue. I told her I was ready for a change. I was gonna do something different and I asked if she wanted to jump in with me.
One of the stipulations was, "We can't keep our bands together. I don't want to have a safety net. If we're gonna do this, we need to really do it. If we get out on the road and it's not great for the first few shows, we're not gonna cut and run 'cause we've got other things. We're going to jump in and give this a real go.' And she was like, 'Let's do it. Now's the time.'
And around that time, we watched the original "Mad Dogs" concert film. We saw that traveling circus and a lightbulb kind of went off. We were like, "Well, if we're ever going to do a big band, a rock 'n' roll orchestra, now would be the time. We're wise enough. We've been out here long enough. But we're young enough and dumb enough to do it" (laughs).
So it was kind of the start of this band in a lot of ways. It gave us the notion. So when we got to the Mad Dogs thing, it was really full circle for me and Sue and this band in a lot of ways.
I was going to ask if that was an important album in your life, but you just answered that.
I saw the film and I don't know how I had missed it up 'til that point. Everybody on that stage went on to bigger things. It's half of Derek and the Dominos. It's the "Layla" record before it happened. Bobby Keys went on to be in the Rolling Stones. Leon went on to do his thing. Rita Coolidge went on to all that success. That band was kind of the thing that just shot everybody out of the gate.
Derek Trucks on Leon Russell taking them under his wing
The first track I heard from this recording you have coming out, I hadn't read anything about it, I just knew that you were doing "Mad Dogs & Englishmen," so I put it on and I heard the piano and I was like, "Man, this piano sounds perfect. I wonder who's playing." I didn't know it was Leon.
A: (Laughs) We had some ringers on that set, man. We've got Leon on piano. We had Chris Stainton, who I played with the Clapton band. Chris Stainton plays the original piano on "Feelin' Alright." We had Kofi Burbridge. There were some studs on that stage (laughs).
Q: What was Leon like to work with?
A: Man, he was so sweet to me and Sue. I really think he found some kindred spirits in us. He loved Sue. We would sit on his bus and he would just talk about songs he was working on. He was a real champion of our band and super sweet. I couldn't believe the way he kind of took us under his wing in a way but also treated us like equals.
Leon is kind of a larger-than-life figure. You never know how you're going to interact with guys like that. I don't know, maybe we spoke the same language. He knew we respected the stuff he had done. When you're around your heroes, it's important to be who you are but it's also important to show a little respect and reverence. And we certainly were that way with Leon.
But he was incredible. I feel really lucky that we had that time with him. When this record was being put together and I saw the liner notes and it said produced by me and Leon and a few of the guys in the band, I was like "How … cool is that?!" (laughs) And it's not lost on us, the opportunity we got and the trust they put in us to be able to do it. But it was an awesome hang.
Why the Black Crowes' Chris Robinson was the perfect Mad Dog
In addition to the Mad Dogs, you have other special guests in there. How did you decide who to bring along?
There were a few just obvious choices. We had toured with the Black Crowes quite a bit early on and I just remember thinking, "Well, that dude's listened to Joe Cocker" (laughs). Chris Robinson's stage presence and the way he sings, it was obvious that that music had a huge influence on him. So he was one of the first people we thought of.
And we were at Lockn', so we kind of looked at who was on the bill and who was there that would do this music proper and care about it. John Bell did an incredible job. And Warren Haynes. And Doyle Bramhall, I knew from all the times I played with him in the Clapton band, that dude just makes everything better (laughs). The groove's a little deeper, the vibe's a little better.
Some of the other vocalists were in the Mad Dogs, like Claudia Lennear and Rita Coolidge, who wrote the coda to "Layla." She didn't get credit for it, but she wrote it. It all fell together pretty quickly.
Why Derek and Dominos' 'Layla' was the perfect encore
Speaking of "Layla," you went on to do "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" at Lockn'.
It really was this Mad Dogs show, I think, that gave us the confidence to pull something like that off. It seemed like such a daunting thing, but it was so much fun and so rewarding and you could really feel the joy in the original members. I don't know. It felt like unfinished business for some of them. It felt like it needed to happen, and the music was so good.
Then, when the idea came up for the "Layla" thing, it kind of felt that way for me. I was named after that record. I was on the road with Clapton playing a lot of that music. Duane being my biggest and earliest influence and him being a part of it. And I remember looking it up and seeing that the album was released the day Susan was born – like the actual day she was born – so that kind of added into it.
Then not long after we did the "Layla" thing, the pandemic hit so everyone was stuck at home and we kept mining the concept and did that four-record "I Am the Moon," which was kind of based on the original "Layla" poem, the "Layla and Majnun" poem, which is like a Persian "Romeo and Juliet." So it all kind of tied together for us in that period.
How covering 'Layla' inspired the writing of 'I Am the Moon'
That is a real continuum there.
Mike Mattison in our band, when we do a deep dive into a project, he's our Harvard English major, so he went through all the lyrics and he read the "Layla and Majnun" poem and hipped the band to it. It was like, "Look, while we're not on the road here, if everybody dug into this source material, it could be a fun writing exercise."
His thing was, the "Layla" album is obviously Clapton's take on the "Layla and Majnun" poem, this lovesick guy that can't have the person he's in love with and just the torture that he goes through. Mike's point was, "The record is just him being tortured. What did Layla think about this? What was Layla's perspective?" And being a group that's led by Sue, it felt like the obvious perfect concept.
So everyone started thinking that way, writing from her perspective. And that's what "I Am the Moon" came out of. So that was a rewarding experience and a good way to survive a pandemic. Like, just write 100 tunes and record them all (laughs).
A four-record set is an ambitious undertaking.
Well, we didn't have anything else we could do (laughs). We had a lot of free time. We're a touring band. We'd never been off that long. So we were going a little stir crazy. It was nice to have something to dig into.
Was it a fun album to make?
It was, man. I think part of that was, it was unexpected. We weren't planning on it. Mike's little thought exercise was just that. And when we finally were able to get together and start writing and playing, it was amazing how many ideas everyone had and how many songs started pouring out.
People were still isolating, but we have our own studio and we were able to get the families of the band members to agree that as long as we all got tested, we could let the band live together for a few weeks at a time. It felt like summer camp. We weren't supposed to be everyone in the same room, and we all got to hang and play and make music and it felt really free and nice.
There was no time crunch. And the record label and management, no one knew we were making a record. We were just kind of doing it because we wanted to. That's not something we get to do a lot. When you do this for a living, you're always on the move. You don't get a lot of free time to sit around and just create in that way where there's no pressure.
So that record was just a total labor of love. And it was really fun to see it through.
I would imagine some record labels would be like "A four-record set?! I don't know, man."
There were definitely some pregnant pauses on that first round of phone calls (laughs). "And also, we want to do a short film with each one and release it to our fans for free once a month during the pandemic." (laughs) It was a hard sell. But they got on board with us. It was still during the lockdown and we thought this is a good way to help people stay sane, something to look forward to.
Derek Trucks on how it feels to be back on the road
I know it's been a minute now since lockdown, but how does it feel to be back on the road?
I remember when we were first able to get out, how much more everyone appreciated getting to do what we do for a living. And I think for the most part, we've been able to keep that in our heads, just how lucky we are to do this. And we remind ourselves, because that was a strange, strange time having what you do taken away and missing that connection with people.
It's one thing to sit at home and play, which is great, but it's a totally different feeling when you're on stage with a group digging in and you can feel that energy coming back to you. It's definitely made us think differently about it.
Do you have a preference between creating in the studio and playing live?
In the early years, it was all live. The studio felt like an interruption in the action. I didn't enjoy it.
But somewhere around the time we made a record called "Songlines" with my solo band and we worked with this guy name Jay Joyce, it was the first time that part of my brain opened up where it's like, "Oh, this is a totally different experience, and these are different musical muscles, and you don't have to recreate live what you can do in the studio, and this is just another place to kind of explore and roam."
Since then, I think it's 50/50 for me. Sometimes I even prefer being in the studio and what that does. But after a while, you want to get out and play. So it's nice to have that balance. We built a studio and now when we make records, it feels like you're going to the well – the creative well – and you're kind of filling up and you're letting all these ideas roam and who knows where it goes.
It's kind of hard to do that live all the time. It's hard to fully fall on your face in front of people (laughs). But you can do that in the studio. You can really experiment. So I love it. And I think it informs what we do live now. I think it recharges the band and recharges the songwriters.
You don't sell records anymore. It's not paying anyone's rent when we make records (Laughs). It's more the creative flow of it. And it's new music for your audience. There's something nice about having a deep repertoire of your own music that means something to your audience. It makes the shows a lot more fun and makes it a lot easier to keep it changing and moving.