Warren Haynes has his hands on the wheel, and he's throwing the truck into overdrive.
The 47–year–old guitarist, singer, songwriter and jam-master supreme can pretty much write his own ticket these days.
On the eve of the release of "High & Mighty," a new studio album from Gov't Mule, Haynes has lent his name to the 2nd annual Mountain Jam, June 3 and 4 at Hunter Mountain, N.Y., high in the Catskills.
Mule is headlining the festival, which is being loudly billed as a co-production between WDST–FM (a.k.a. Radio Woodstock) … and Warren Haynes. Mountain Jam turns out to be near and dear to his North Carolina heart.
"It was so much fun last year when we did it," says the six–string dynamo. "It was a collaborative effort between us and DST, and it seemed like a cool opportunity to put something together, and tailor–make it to the way we want it to be — get a lot of our friends involved. And it's a beautiful location."
KyndMusic: You've been called "The Ambassador of Bonaroo." But you're not playing there this time. Why?
Haynes: This is the first year that I'm not there. It just kinda worked out that way, I guess. I've played Bonaroo with Gov't Mule three times, with the Allman Brothers a couple of times, with the Dead, with Phil Lesh & Friends and solo acoustic. It's been a really fun thing doing it every year, and I look forward to maybe even doing it next year.
KyndMusic: With Radiohead and Tom Petty, some people think Bonaroo is trying to change — and maybe not for the better.
Haynes: It's definitely different, but I don't know if that's a bad thing. You can't continue to do it the same way every year. In the same way that it's important to keep it true to its roots, it's also important to keep it different all the time. You don't want to have a predictable lineup, either.
KyndMusic: You seem to be playing somewhere, with somebody, every night of the year. Why do you work so hard?
Haynes: Well, it's not work like digging a ditch. My work centers around music, which is one of my favorite things in the entire world. So it's sometimes hard to draw the line on when it's work and when it's passion, you know? And I'm very fortunate to have that situation, because I'm one of the fortunate people who does what they love for a living. So it doesn't always feel like work.
At the same time, the past five or six years I've had a lot of wonderful opportunities that I just felt that I'd regret turning down. You don't want to look back later and go "Well, I could've gone out with the Grateful Dead and done their reunion tour, but I said no."
KyndMusic: How different are your approaches to playing with Mule and the Allmans? What are you thinking as you walk onstage?
Haynes: I use different equipment in each band, and so automatically that kinda puts me into a little different mindset. But most of it just kind of happens instinctually, responding to the environment that you're surrounded by.
The Allman Brothers are only doing about 40 shows this year, which leaves a lot of room. Gov't Mule will wind up doing quite a bunch, because our record's coming out in August, at which point we'll get even busier than we are now.
KyndMusic: I've always been intrigued by what seems to be your fearless choice of cover songs. How do you decide what you're going to cover?
Haynes: Usually, if I pick a cover song, it's one I wish I had written (laughs). On a more serious note, if it's something we feel like we can interpret and take to another place … nobody wants to do a cover and do it exactly like the original version. And so a lot of the songs that we pick to cover are songs that are very interpretable. Where you can go a lot of different ways.
Like the other night, we played "Love Me Do" in the middle of a reggae song, and it worked great. All of a sudden there was this reggae version of "Love Me Do"!
I'd heard it on the radio the other day, and it just reminded me how much I love that tune. I was like, "It'd be cool to work up some sort of cool version of it." I think Danny (Louis, Gov't Mule keyboardist) had the idea of sandwiching it in the middle of this reggae tune that we were doing. We just did a mini fake rehearsal of it at soundcheck and said "Yeah, this works pretty good." So we did it that night.
KyndMusic: That's a great freedom, isn't it?
Haynes: It is, and it's a freedom that our audience gives to us. We're very fortunate to have the kind of audience that is ready to go on a journey with us, and they're aware of the fact that it's not gonna be perfect. And that we might even get lost a few times along the way. But we'll get back, everybody will be safe and sound, and some beautiful music will come as a result.
We're blessed to have that kind of an audience. I wouldn't want to have the kind of an audience that expects you to sound just like your record night after night after night, and not make any mistakes. And ergo, not do any adventuresome stretching. Because us exploring new territory is a big part of what we're there to do.
KyndMusic: What about the future? What would you like to do that you haven't done yet?
Haynes: I'm really happy doing what I'm doing. There's a lot that I still haven't done, as far as people I would love to collaborate with, directions I would love to explore.
I think Gov't Mule is something we'd all like to see 10, 15, 20 year down the road still operating. And continuing to break new ground and not resting on our laurels is very important.
Every six months to a year we seem to get re-inspired by something. The first time we went to Europe, about a year and a half ago, really just pumped everybody up. We were so pleasantly shocked at how great the audiences were for us over there. It kind of pushed everybody to a new high.
And then coming back here and doing the new record — which I feel is the best thing we've ever done — it's almost like we're breathing new air right now. Which is really great.