Looking Back At Warren Haynes' Toughest Year

Warren Haynes. (Photo by Getty Images)

Warren Haynes celebrates his birthday this April 6 and he has a lot to be thankful for.  His band Gov't Mule has been in business for 24 years and in 2014 Haynes marked the dignified and celebratory end of the Allman Brothers Band, a group he'd been a member of most of the time between 1989 to its farewell concert at the Beacon Theater.  He has keep himself very busy playing with the Dickey Betts Band, The Dead, Phil Lesh & Friends, and others .

Carter Alan has interviewed Haynes over a dozen times, but this is the one that marked a difficult time for the singer and guitarist.  Having just released an album and begun a tour, his bass-playing soulmate Allen Woody was found dead in his hotel room in Queens on August 26, 2000.  Haynes and remaining Gov't Mule member, drummer Matt Abts, decided to finish the tour as a duo and played the Paradise Theater in Boston.  However, after that, the band's future was completely uncertain and Haynes weighs the options.  Of course, we know that the band would continue and even expand, but it could have easily been over at that point, judging by the interview.

Dickey Betts had been kicked out of the Allman Brothers Band after Haynes and Woody left to concentrate on Gov't Mule.  During the year of 2000 recriminations between Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts jousted through the media.  Haynes comments on that, but of course, had no way of knowing that he would soon be returning to the Allmans while he continued to invest heavily in Gov't Mule.

So, happy birthday to Warren Haynes!  Still the hardest-working man in show business!        


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