Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi (Photo by Shervin Lainez)
Tedeschi Trucks Band, the bluesy, Grammy Award-winning jam collective, makes its first visit to Richmond in five years with a sold-out performance at the Altria Theater Feb. 18. Anchored by the soulful twang-tinged voice of Susan Tedeschi and the legendary slide guitar of her husband, Derek Trucks, the 12-member group’s real magic materializes outside the studio. Combining the gripping, emotive power of the blues with electrifying improvisational energy, band members deliver a spellbinding musical journey at their concerts. In our interview, Trucks discusses the ensemble’s future, healing after the death of founding member and keyboardist Kofi Burbridge from cardiovascular disease, and the importance of knowing your purpose.
Richmond magazine: Approaching the first anniversary of Kofi's passing, how have you all moved forward and healed as band?
Derek Trucks: It’s been a long year, you know? Some nights were easier than others. You don’t expect to lose someone like that, the way we did, and it just wasn’t his time. Kofi wasn’t like somebody we just played with a little while; we were as thick as it got, and it alters your orbit from then on out. We all have a few choices when that stuff happens, and one foot in front of the other is usually the best choice, but you know, you can’t just push it away.
RM: Do you still feel Kofi there with you onstage?
Trucks: Every night. His B3 [Hammond organ] is still on stage, and he wrote about half the songs that we play. You hear and feel him often, and there’s certain nights where, yeah, it’s pretty intense, you can feel it. You look around the stage and can tell someone is having a Kofi moment. It’s good that that’s there; a little bit of pain is good because it means you’re thinking of him.
RM: What will you and the band do during your tour break?
Trucks: This will be the longest break I can remember ever having, probably from the time I started playing at 9 years old and touring. Sometimes you just need a little self-reflection. I want to get together with Mike [Mattison, vocalist] and some of the guys and start writing again. We have a late ‘90s fishing boat I think we’re going to take down to an island in the Bahamas and park for two or three weeks and just live on that sucker.
RM: I’m the food editor at the magazine, so I’m curious, what do you guys typically cook on the road, or who's the good cook of the band?
Trucks: People have their strengths. Susan is an amazing cook; she grew up in an Italian family so she can cook about anything. We do a lot, especially in summer tour on days off in the hotel parking lot, it’ll be an all-day cookout. The drummers are extremely serious about their meat [laughs], they’re pretty hardcore, but pretty well-rounded. J.J. [Johnson] makes the best collards I’ve ever had in my life. There’s some good ole dishes that everyone does. We’re from all over, so it’s fun and a good time on the road.
RM: Family and music have always been intertwined for you; does that connection feel intrinsic and natural?
Trucks: There's no doubt about it. I mean, it was always kind of the way it was. When I started playing, my dad was on the road with me until I was 16 or 17, so it was always that way, and then, you know, kind of the mythos of the Allman Brothers was always just this full traveling family and circus. So yeah, it's always felt that way. Even when I was on the road with my solo bands for like 10-15 years, it becomes your family. So there’s not a much of a separation. It's the people you spend the most time with and you get down in the trenches with and you share the most with. It’s nice when the band is your family and there's also blood connections. It’s a pretty fortunate thing we have going.
RM: What is it like having Susan Tedeschi as both a partner in life and the band?
Trucks: We're really lucky. We love what we do, and, if anything, being in a band together, it's just made us closer. It’s a lot harder when you're apart, so it’s kind of nice to share that thing you do best together. I certainly wouldn't trade it.
RM: How did you and Susan meet?
Trucks: We met on the road; she was opening for the Allman Brothers in New Orleans. We met and just hit it off, and we're on the road for a few months together. I kept bugging her, and now we have two kids [laughs] and almost 20 years into being together, it’s pretty amazing.
RM: Why does the band thrive during live shows, and how much of a role does the audience play in the experience?
Trucks: It’s a communal thing. Some of the best nights, the audience is a huge part of it. There’s an honesty about it, and the musicianship in a band like this, you’re not worried about getting over the line, you know that you can explore and take chances and somebody will be there to hold it up.
RM: You’ve been playing music your whole life. Are there any points where you thought of doing something else?
Trucks: I’ve never thought of stopping or putting it down. I thought about taking time away, but I feel like I’m in it for the long haul [laughs]. There’s always 1,000 things you want to do, but [I ]feel like sometimes you’re put here and you know what you’re supposed to do, and you just do it.
Tedeschi Trucks Band plays a sold-out show at the Altria Theater at 8 p.m. Feb. 18. $39.50 to 99.50. altriatheater.com
