Butch Trucks is not a fan of Trump. He's also not a fan of Lady Gaga, but it's all besides the point as the founding member of the legendary Allman Brothers Band comes to Clearwater's Capitol Theatre to ring in the New Year.
CL had a quick catch up with the 69-year-old Florida boy to talk about his band (which includes Tampa Bay's own Damon Fowler on guitar), his potential move to Paris and more.
Have a look at the Q&A below, and see more information on the show here.
Lady Gaga came out with a new album in between now and the interview where you weren’t a gigantic fan. Have you been able to listen to the new stuff? If so, has your mind changed?
I'm not in the business of buying or even listening to Lady Gaga. All it takes is about five minutes of exposure to her, her looks, her outrageous actions, etc, to know that she is an entertainer. If she has decided to switch to actually playing music I am aware that she is capable. It would be very surprising, however.
You were presumably in Paris when the news of George Michael’s passing came through. What was the reaction there and what has your personal reaction to all the death in 2016 been like?
I am very sorry about George Michael. I was not as fan, however. I am sure you already knew that, however.
Do you think France is going to give you residence? You’ve said you want the card very bad. Why? Trump?
We got our one year residence card last week. Now, this October we apply for a five year card. After that we can become permanent residents. We own a home there built between the third and fourth centuries. We poured a ton of bucks into renovating it, including geo thermal heating, 300 meter deep well and solar panels. Would be nice if we could actually stay there legally. Plus with our new POTUS elect already starting another arms race with Russia, an economic war with China and his threats to anyone who criticizes him, I may want to have that house as my back door out of the states if thing keep getting worse. Which I am pretty sure they will.
You’ve got Tampa Bay’s own Damon Fowler in the group. Where does he rank among the players you’ve been in bands with? Why’d you pick him for the band?
Damon is a great player, singer and human being. I'm not about to try and rank guitar players I've worked with. They all bring their own pluses and minuses to the show. Damon, however, is as good as the best of them. I picked him because of the reasons I listed above.
When you first saw Heather Gillis you thought: ‘boy, this is just gonna suck.’” — what in particular made you come to that premature conclusion?
It has been my experience that beautiful girls seldom take the time and effort to actually do the work to learn something like singing and playing the guitar. It's for of like being born a billionaire. Like our POTUS elect, why take the time to actually learn anything? I was not expecting Heather the be able to sing and play the Les Paul she had around her neck. I was very pleased and surprised and I asked her to join the Freight Train. She said she would and here we are.
The drummer as frontman is always really cool to think about. What modern day rock drummers or personal drumming styles do you admire?
I don't know of any drummers that are front men (I am not) that I care about. I'm into Dave Weckl, Steve Gadd, drummers like that.
When you’re drumming, how have your learned to get out of your own head and just let what’s natural come out? There can’t be anyone you hate enough in your new band to get you to focus.
After all of the years I've been laying getting into the "zone" has just become the thing I do when I play. I used to have to use tricks occasionally but now both bands I play with are all great people and we all jump into music with everything we have. The days of needing someone to hate to get the energy flowing are over. Thankfully.
This article appears in Dec 29, 2016 – Jan 5, 2017.