For Gear List Click...

You wouldn’t know it from listening to Warren Haynes’ work as a solo artist, as a member of the Allman Brothers Band, and frontman of Gov’t Mule, but there was a time when he didn’t play guitar. He says ‘"I didn’t get my first guitar until I was 12. My oldest brother had an acoustic guitar, and I would bang on it and try to play."

Guitar wasn’t even his first love. Around the time he was 8 or 9, growing up in Asheville, NC, Warren’s two older brothers began turning him on to soul music. He would sit in his room, singing Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, Otis Redding, and Wilson Pickett. He became fascinated with the sounds of Motown and Memphis . "All I cared about was the singer. The really strong singers really knocked me out. Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops still is one of my favorite voice of all time, and I always liked BB King, even before I liked the blues. His voice was the main thing."

Guitar didn’t escape Warren’s attention for long, however. He would soon turn on to rock ‘n roll. "I really liked Eric Clapton. He was the first guitar hero that I had. I liked the really heavy Cream stuff. I liked all the Derek and the Dominoes stuff." Warren’s brothers used his admiration of Clapton to expand his musical horizons to take in the blues masters. They would tell him to check out a Howlin’ Wolf record because Clapton plays on it . Interviews with Warren’s favorite guitarists led him to other blues players and the scope of his guitar playing grew accordingly.

It wasn’t long after discovering the pleasures of guitar playing, that Warren was performing for appreciative audiences at walkathons and pool parties. Then, when he was about 14, he started hanging around local pizza parlors that had been converted into nightclubs. "We were way too young to be drinking, but we thought it was cool to go in there and listen to live music. They didn’t really hassle us too much." About 6 months later, word got out that Warren played guitar. The regulars wondered what "the kid" could do, so they offered him the stage. Warren remembers, "This guy played left-handed, but he played upside down. So I played his left-handed guitar and turned it over. It was tuned right, but it was kinda awkward. The first time I ever played professionally in a club I was playing an upside down Les Paul in this little hippie club."

Things progressed quickly for the young guitarist. He played in bands on local gigs, and then in a band called Ricochet, which developed a good regional following . One day, Warren got a call from David Allan Coe. Coe wanted Warren in New Orleans the next day. It was a good break for a young man. Warren was twenty.

Warren played with David Allan Coe from 1980 to 1984. He traveled all over the States and went to Europe with him as well. He played on 9 of Coe’s albums. Warren also met Dickey Betts ad Gregg Allman through David Allan, and when Coe’s band opened for the Allman Brothers at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, Dickey sat in.

After four years, Warren moved to Nashville to do session work, but the Allman connection wouldn’t go away. Dickey was doing some demos in Nashville and called someone to put together a group of background singers. As fate would have it, Warren was one of them. " Dickey came up to me and said , ‘What are doing here?’, I said, ‘I’m singing back-up on your stuff.’ He said, ‘ Oh really. You got your guitar with you?’ I told him no and he said, ‘Good!’ and started laughing." Good-natured ribbing aside, Dickey kept thinking about Warren’s guitar playing. He called Warren up later, and invited him down to work on some songs. Those songs turned into Dickey’s solo album, Pattern Disruptive.

At the same time, Gregg decided to record "Just Before The Bullets Fly", which Warren co-wrote, as the title track to his 1988 album. It’s no wonder that when the Allman Brothers reformed for their reunion tour in 1989, Warren got the call. That tour marked the beginning of eight extremely productive years of touring and recording. During that span, Warren’s songwriting, singing, and guitar playing helped the Allman Brothers Band record five albums (Seven Turns, Shades of Two Worlds, An Evening With The Allman Brothers Band, Where It All Begins, and 2nd Set). These albums became the Brothers’ most critically acclaimed records in fifteen years. The band was nominated for three Grammy awards, two of which were for instrumentals co-written by Warren and Dickey Betts ("True Gravity" in 1990, and "Kind of Bird" in 1991), and they won a Grammy in 1995 for "Best Rock Instrumental Performance" ("Jessica"). Many critics give Warren credit for putting the fire back into the Allman Brothers Band.

In 1993, Warren stepped into the spotlight with his first solo record, Tales of Ordinary Madness, on Megaforce Records. He recruited Chuck Leavell to share production duties, and Chuck also played on the record. A year later, through an impromptu jam with Allman Brothers Band partner Allen Woody and drummer Matt Abts (who Haynes new from the Dickey Betts Band), Gov’t Mule was born.

The trio released their critically acclaimed debut album on Relativity records in 1995, and quickly gained a loyal fan base by hitting the road during the Brothers’ touring breaks. Warren was voted #1 slide guitarist by Guitar Player magazine in both 1995 and 1996. Meanwhile, in 1996, the Mule released a second record, Live at Roseland Ballroom, which received many critical accolades.

Presently, Gov’t Mule is at the center of Warren’s creative energies. In April 1997, he and Allen Woody decided to leave the Allman Brothers Band in order to concentrate on the Mule full-time. They signed to Capricorn Records and recorded Dose, their second studio album, with producer Michael Barbiero (Blues Travler, Guns ‘n Roses, Soundgarden). Dose received rave reviews and debuted at #19 on the Heat Seeker Chart (Billboard) and the Mule was seen gracing the covers of many magizines such as Guitar World (with Metallica, Radiohead and Pearl Jam). Their first single, "Blind Man In The Dark" charted top 40 AOR and in 1998 the Mule successfully completed 200 shows with the final one closing out at 4 hr and 20 minutes on NYE.

In March, 1999 the Mule released their second live album, Live...With A Little Help From Our Friends, recorded live at the Roxy Theater on New Years Eve 1998. The two-cd set features such guests as Chuck Leavell, Bernie Worrell, Marc Ford, Randall Bramblett, Derek Trucks, Jimmy Herring and Yorinco Scott. Later in 1999 the band will also release a 4 cd deluxe box set of the complete New Years Eve show with a studio out-take bonus track and cd-rom which includes over a half hour of video footage.

Gov’t Mule released their 3rd studio release Life Before Insanity in February of 2000, which was produced by Michael Barbiero and featured singles "Bad Little Doggie" and "Lay Your Burden Down" with guest Ben Harper. The newest album from Gov't Mule, The Deep End Vol.1 is a tribute to Allen Woody featuring the 25 best bass players in music. A DVD of the making of the album, On the Banks will be released winter 2001.

Since their conception in 1995 Gov’t Mule has toured relentlessly with growing fan bases all over the US, Canada, Japan and Brazil. They have toured with Dave Matthews Band, Black Crowes, Blues Traveler, H.O.R.D.E. 98, Widespread Panic, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jethro Tull , Steve Miller and Jerry Cantrell. In the summer of 1999 the Mule was one of the four founders of the Summer Session tour along with Galactic, Moe and String Cheese Incident. The summer jam tour debut was smashing with 21 dates across the country including many sold out runs at such venues as Red Rocks, the Greek Theater, Santa Barbara County Bowl and Waterloo Village

Warren currently is a member of the Allman Brothers Band and Phil Lesh and Friends in addition to being the lead guitarist and vocalist for Gov't Mule.

In the endless quest for the ultimate tone, guitarist Warren Haynes is constantly tinkering with his gear. He also makes adjustments depending on his current gig. With the Allman Brothers Band, with whom he played from 1989-97, he generally favored his trusty Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul, while during solo gigs, he also often played a red Fender Stratocaster, for a more cutting sound. In Gov’t Mule, Haynes almost always played the Paul though a variety of heads, usually including a Soldano and Marshall. He has recently played a series of shows with Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh’s band Phil and Friends. The group’s recent fall tour was the first time since joining the Allmans that Haynes played an entire run without touching his Les Paul. "I just wanted a brighter tone, so I went mostly with a new, stock Gibson SG 61 reissue," Haynes says. "My entire setup for the tour also reflects going for a brighter sound. The thick, muddy tones I used a lot in Gov’t Mule just don’t work with Phil." On the Phil and Friends tour, Haynes’ gear setup was as follows:

GUITAR: Gibson SG 61 reissue; 1964 Gibson Firebird III; Dan Armstrong
EFFECTS: Dunlop Crybaby wah; Bradshaw switching system with Klon
Centaur, Biotone wah rocker, Boss OC2 octave pedal, Bradshaw Super Trem,
and Hughes & Kettner Rotosphere
AMPLIFIER: Diaz CD100, Custom Audio 100-watt head
CABINETS: Custom Audio 4x12 with Vintage 30’s

From www.mule.net