Maybe it was in his DNA. Or his upbringing. Or maybe it was inevitable that Derek Trucks would become a guitar hero.
He is the nephew of Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks. He’s named after Derek & the Dominos, the Eric Clapton-led band of “Layla” fame. He was mentored by Colonel Bruce Hampton, a guru of Southern jazzy jam bands.
Uncle Butch told him about the early days of playing with guitar hero and co-founder Duane Allman, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1971.
“There was one night when Butch let off the gas a little bit and he wasn’t giving everything he had,” said Trucks, on tour with the wife-and-husband Tedeschi Trucks Band. “Duane stopped midtune and was giving it to Butch. The switch went on and it never went off. I always carry that: ‘You never take a night off.’”
Trucks’ parents, who attended the Fillmore East concerts that became the Allman Brothers’ landmark live album, spun vinyl around the house and later played bootleg Allman cassettes for their young son.
“The ‘Fillmore East’ and ‘Layla’ record were kind of my first memories,” Trucks recalled. “I started playing music and the thing that hit me first was the sound of Duane’s slide [guitar]. It was just something different about it. The energy he played with. And the way everyone talked about him.”
Having started guitar at 9 years old, Trucks would sit in with bands around Jacksonville, Fla. He credits Steve Wheeler, a local guitarist, with showing him open E tuning and key riffs.
“It unlocked all those sounds I was hearing. It all made sense all of a sudden,” Trucks said. “Then I hit the road for 30 years.”
Another key mentor was Hampton, the eccentric Georgia bandleader who took Trucks record shopping for his 14th or 15th birthday. He received Hampton’s “Music to Eat” — “the second worst selling album in Columbia Records history” — as well as John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” and a Sun Ra concert album. They went back to Hampton’s to listen to the new purchases.
“It was another day that changes your orbit, for sure,” Trucks said. “He was the guy who turned me on to Son House and to so many incredible things. He changed a lot of lives for the better. Stripping away the ego and pretension was his thing.”
It wasn’t just blues, jazz and rock that Trucks listened to. He also leaned into the spiritual side of music, which helped him bond with his wife, Boston singer/guitarist Susan Tedeschi.
“The Indian classical, gospel music, qawwali are a great way to get your head there. There’s a lot of common threads,” he said. “On a good night, that’s what you’re going for. You don’t always get there. When you do, that’s why playing live music is so great. You can lift the room a little bit.
“That’s one of the places me and Sue connected first. I think Mahalia Jackson was the probably first artist when we really connected.”
Jamming with B.B. King
Trucks, 45, was a member of the Allman Brothers from 1999-2014 and Clapton’s touring band in 2007. He has contributed to albums by Herbie Hancock, Buddy Guy, Béla Fleck, Vieux Farka Touré and Widespread Panic (his brother Duane Trucks is their drummer), among others.
In 2012, Trucks found himself onstage between John Mayer and B.B. King at the Hollywood Bowl for King’s birthday. After Trucks’ solo, King declared, “That’s about the best I ever heard it.”
“When you’re onstage with B.B., there’s nothing better,” Trucks said from Jacksonville. “I remember the first time playing with him at Royal Albert Hall [in London] and just playing a B.B. lick and him hollering, playing it back. We had a musical conversation.
“B.B. is an incredible counterbalance. B.B. was Hendrix’s guy and Clapton’s guy and Duane Allman’s guy. He was the guy before the guys. He was so sweet to Sue and me.”
While Trucks and Mayer have often been mentioned in the same breath for the past 25 years as younger guitar heroes, Trucks has no ambitions to hit the arena circuit like Mayer.
“I don’t know if doing arenas all the time is what we want to do as long as the music and the band is healthy, living and growing. I don’t know any singers who are touching what Sue does. It’s a pretty damn good band,” he said.
