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[Wenner] and his friends put all sorts of folks in the Hall of Fame, some of whom deserve it, but some who haven’t got an ounce of rock and roll in their body. A lot of the inductions seem to me either attempts at political cor- rectness or personal friends.


Tell me about Butch Trucks’ Freight Train? When I first started putting the band to- gether, the first person I looked to was my son Vaylor.


The kid from the cover of Brothers and Sisters. [Laughs] Exactly. Only now he is a grown 45-


year old man, and one hot guitarist. The first dates we did as Freight Train were with Vay- lor, but while it was great, it couldn’t last. He has a day job. A really nice six-figure job at an insurance company in Atlanta, so he could only take a few days off here and there, and as wee know, that doesn’t work in a band. Not very well, anyway. So, I did the first few runs with him and Berry Oakley Jr. [son Berry Oakley] and Bruce Katz. So it was just us for the first incarnation of Freight Train. We had some really good times, and a few really great shows.


I was up in Tallahassee on business,


and there’s a really cool old blues club there that I go to from time to time. I was kind of itching to play some drums, so I grabbed a couple of buddies and we went over and started jamming. Well, low and behold, I heard that there was a girl guitar player who wanted to sit in with us. I said ‘sure,’ sight un- seen. Then up steps this gorgeous female with a Les Paul strapped around her neck. Hon- estly, I was skeptical. I have not seen many pretty girls who can truly sing and play, other than Susan [Tedeschi], you know? But she came up on stage and started singing the old Bill Withers tune “Ain’t No Sunshine.” She


sang the living hell out of it, and proceeded to burn up the fret board on that Gibson. I’m sure I looked kind of insane on the drums. I was dumbfounded and was so excited hearing her I had to actually work hard not to lose my beat. [Laughs]


Butch, Jaimoe and Duane onstage. (ABB Archives)


I’ll skip the obvious joke. Well, thanks buddy. We’ll leave it as implied. So I offered her a job then and there. That’s how I met Heather Gillis. So now I have Heather and Damon Fowler. When Vaylor played, we had three guitars, and it opens us up to play those Allman Brothers songs like “Jessica” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.” Come to think of it, “Jessica” may be our biggest crowd pleaser. People love to hear that song.


It’s always been a favorite of mine. So much so, it’s my ring tone. Really? Cool. So now that Vaylor wasn’t play- ing, we sought out a third guitarist, and got one named Chris Viterello who is very good.


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