Asheville, North Carolina native and prolific guitar player Warren Haynes is back to creating solo albums after almost a decade of working on other projects. Haynes’ musical career began way back in the 1980’s when he was only in his 20’s. In 1989 Haynes joined The Allman Brothers Band where Haynes’ artistry led him to hundreds of shows and a handful of well-known records. In recent years he has created the jam band Gov’t Mule and tours alongside the remaining members of The Grateful Dead in their band, The Dead.
This Friday, November 1, Hayne’s is set to release his new album Million Voices Whisper which he has deemed his best album yet. The album has unforgettable features with artists like Derek Trucks, Lukas Nelson, and Jamey Johnson. Haynes recently announced Soulshine, a benefit concert to aid relief and recovery efforts in North Carolina and Florida in the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The event will take place on Sunday November 24 at Madison Square Garden, partnering with the Dave Matthews Band. The night will include other artists such as Trombone Shorty and the Tedeschi Trucks Band, with all net proceeds going to a good cause.
Haynes plans to put out an orchestra accompanied album next year after the presumable success of Million Voices Whisper and Gov’t Mule’s Island Exodus Tour in January. We had the honor of chatting with Warren Haynes about his hometown’s devastation from the hurricanes, how the new album came about, and how past connections led to present day collaborations.
You announced your Soulshine benefit concert. Can you tell me how that event came together so quickly?
Well, it’s benefiting North Carolina and Florida. Initially, I had reached out to the Dave Matthews Band about wanting to do something together once I realized that we couldn’t do my normal Christmas jam in Asheville this year. When I reached out to them, I realized they were thinking the same way. I didn’t realize that they had a lot of crew that have ties to the Sarasota, Florida area which got devastated as well. I’ve got a lot of friends down in that area as well.
Asheville in western North Carolina is my home so this was really important for me. They just immediately came on board and ran with the ball; all the artists and bands a part of this were offering their services from the very beginning. It just kind of came together organically due to people in our circle and wanting to do what they can.
What can fans expect at the Soulshine show at Madison Square Garden?
I think it’s going to be fantastic. It’s a wonderful lineup of bands and artists and special guests. The concept is to raise as much money and as much awareness as possible, to do everything we can knowing that it’s going to be years for these places to rebuild.
Have you been back to Asheville since the hurricane?
I have not, but my mom is there. Both of my brothers and their families are there. Most everybody had to relocate and only went back in the past week or two. They were without power and water and cell service for weeks at a time. My brother’s record store, which is in the River Arts District, was partially underwater. I had to watch all this on the news. I was on tour at the time, and seeing all the devastation from afar was just really heartbreaking.
We had a show in Columbia, South Carolina that got canceled due to the flooding. That would have been the closest I had gotten to Asheville at that time. I have so many friends and family there. It was very frustrating not being able to communicate with people. I was lucky that I talked to my mom and my brother right at the beginning and knew that they were okay. They lost cell service not too long after that and we were out of touch for a really long time.
I just covered the Concert for Carolina show in Charlotte with Luke Combs and Eric Church and it was really amazing to see people come together in such a positive way and raise money. I’m so glad musicians are stepping up to do this. There were so many stories of people being brave and helping each other out.
Strangers helping strangers. That’s kind of the Appalachian way. It was comforting to see how compassionate and helpful everybody was. That’s what happens in these times; good people rise to the occasion. I heard story after story about people being helped out by someone they didn’t even know.
Your new album Million Voices Whisper is coming out November 1. You haven’t put out a solo project in a decade, what made you do this now?
Well, my last solo record was Ashes & Dust, which was quite a departure from all my previous efforts. I’ve been thinking of doing another solo record for quite a while, but Gov’t Mule always takes priority. I think that the majority of the songs I write are meant to be interpreted as Gov’t Mule songs, and that’s my laboratory of choice.
When I write a batch of songs that don’t seem like Gov’t Mule songs, but all seem to be connected and want to work together, that’s when I usually take that as an indication that it’s time for me to make a solo record. This will only be my fourth solo record in over 30 years.
Can you tell me the story behind ”This Life As We Know It?”
I was on vacation with my wife’s family in Montauk, Long Island, which is the furthest point that you can go into the ocean on Long Island. It’s way out there, and it’s beautiful. It’s historically a community that still maintains its peaceful personality. I was there on the 4th of July, and there was a full moon, and it was beautiful. I was looking out over the ocean and there were fireworks at various times of the evening.
I just got inspired to write this lyric based on coming out on the other side of all the challenges we’ve all gone through the last few years. This was right at the tail end of Covid when everybody was kind of venturing out again and starting to feel good about the future. I just wrote the lyrics down. I didn’t write the music until a few days later when I got home. It was just celebrating a new normal and a new outlook on the future.
Have other places or destinations ever inspired a song that you’ve written?
I’m sure there are others that are not leaping to mind. It’s nice when a location actually inspires the moment, which is what happened there. The first thing that I wrote was, “there’s a full moon on the 4th of July lighting up a Montauk sky.” That’s the opening line of the tune. That was the initial inspiration.
I recently talked to Derek Trucks and I didn’t realize he was on this album with you in honor of Gregg Allman. Can you tell me a little bit about “Real, Real Love” and co-writing that with Gregg and how you resurrected it?
“Real, Real Love” was a lyric that Gregg had started writing a long time ago and never completed. I remember him showing it to me one time, years ago when we were writing together down at his place in Savannah. We never tackled it, he had just showed me what he had started, but we were in the middle of writing some other music at the time. After he passed away, the manager for the Allman Brothers sent me an email with a photocopy of Gregg’s handwritten lyrics that he had started and said, “Hey, do you remember this song?” I was like, “Yeah, I do.”
I’ve finished the lyrics and added music to it because to my knowledge, there was no music. If there was, there’s no recording or documentation of it. I wrote music for it and it all came about very quickly. After I finished it, I called Derek Trucks on the phone and told him about it and mentioned that I thought we should record the song together.
We spent three days writing together. We wrote four or five songs during that time period, and two of those songs wound up on this record: “These Changes” and “Hall of Future Saints.” Derek came into the studio with me for a couple of days, and we recorded those two songs in addition to “Real, Real Love.” It was great to reunite for the first time since before the Allman Brothers had stopped playing.
Well, you’ve got a couple other collaborators on the album like Lukas Nelson. How did you choose who you were going to work with on this one?
Lukas Nelson and Jamey Johnson and myself were the three singers, on The Last Waltz Tour a few years back. We always loved the way our three voices blended together with Jamey on the bottom, me in the middle and Lukas on the top. I’ve been thinking about some sort of collaboration with the three of us for quite a while, even to the extent of making a record together if we could carve out the time.
I was in Nashville writing with both of those guys, and when I showed Lukas “Day Of Reckoning,” he had some great ideas, one of which was to sing the vocal in a round where we were call and response, answering each other, which is a very unique approach. At some point, Jamey started chiming in with this low gospel answer as well. I thought it would be great to get the three of us together on that song. Lukas also played some amazing guitar on that tune, and Jamey wound up co-writing a song with me called “Go Down Swinging” that is also on the record.
What would you tell fans who are getting ready to be able to listen to the whole album? What can they expect?
You know, it’s somewhat a continuation of my album Man in Motion, which was not my last solo record, but the one before that. My last solo record was called Ashes & Dust, and was quite a departure from anything I’ve ever done. It was more of an Appalachian singer-songwriter sort of record. This record has a lot of soul music influence, but it’s combined with my singer-songwriter roots. I think it combines a lot of ingredients together in what I hope is a unique way. I can never expect anyone else’s opinion to be the same as mine. I never think an artist can be objective about their own work, but I feel like this may be the best thing I’ve done.
You’ve recently been out on tour. Have you had any highlights or cities that you’ve done during this tour that stand out?
Red Rocks was a fantastic experience as it always is. We did a show there in September with this new band that I put together, plus the Colorado Symphony. It was part of the Dreams and Songs symphonic experience, which is kind of a retrospective of my last 30 something years. We’re interpreting Allman Brothers songs, Gov’t Mule songs, songs from my solo records, and Grateful Dead songs with an orchestra. It’s kind of promoting my upcoming record with an orchestra, which is going to come out next year. That was a beautiful experience.
We also did a tour of Europe earlier in the year, and I think Barcelona and Madrid were my favorites of that tour. Those shows were special, but it was a very special tour in general. I love this new band that we put together, and seeing it grow and seeing the audience’s reaction to the new songs that they’ve never heard before. It’s all been great.
If you would like to see Gov’t Mule and Warren Haynes perform live and escape the winter blues check out their Island Exodus January 19-23, 2025 in Jamaica.