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Derek Trucks On Working With Eric Clapton

5 Feb 06

At 26, guitarist Derek Trucks has spent more than half of his life as a full-time working musician. Last fall, he joined Eric Clapton in the studio for sessions produced by J.J. Cale.

Derek Truck’s musical career began at the age of nine, when he picked up a five dollar acoustic guitar at a yard sale. He played his first paying gig at 11 and formed his first band at 12.

The Derek Trucks Band released its first album in 1997. In 1999, he was asked to join the Allman Brothers Band on slide guitar. His uncle, Butch Trucks, is an original member of the Allmans. Rather than break up his band, Derek decided to work with both.

Last fall, he joined Eric Clapton in the studio for sessions for Eric’s new CD. In a recent interview with The San Francisco Chronicle, he said, “I just got a call from him randomly on a cell phone one night as I was headed home. Doyle Bramhall, who plays in his band, is on my wife’s new record and has always been really supportive of the band. I think maybe Doyle turned Clapton on to some of our records because he was familiar with the stuff we’ve done in our band. He asked me to come out and record on the album he’s doing with J.J. Cale. Obviously, it was a blast to get a chance to hang with both of those guys, as well as Billy Preston, who also played on the session. It was quite a trip.” Derek is married to blues singer Susan Tedeschi.

The session work led to an invitation to join Eric’s band for the European tour this spring. “Those are opportunities that you don’t think will ever come up, so when they do, you jump at the chance. I don’t spend a lot of time looking back, but it’s pretty wild to consider the progression of this band and my career in general. It seems like a lot of the big milestones and events in my life happened at the perfect time. I’ve been very fortunate to meet and be around some really great people, whether it was meeting Colonel Bruce Hampton as a kid and having him introducing me to all the people that played in the Atlanta music scene at the time, playing with the Allmans and Dylan by the age of 11, getting to know Buddy Guy or now getting a chance to play with Clapton.”

The Derek Truck Band’s new album, “Songlines” (Columbia / Legacy Recordings), will be released on 21 February 2006.

Derek Trucks / Full article: “Finding His Path” (by Andy Tennille / San Francisco Chronicle)