Derek Trucks Q&A: Guitar Hero on Jamming With Legends and Covering Dylan

You play a Dylan song here, "Down in the Flood." Do you have a special approach to covering someone like him?
I don't know if it's naivety or being stubborn, but when I hear a tune like that it doesn't always register with me who wrote the tune. I don't think of it as "You better be careful doing this song." It's similar to when I did Coltrane tunes on the first record. If you approach a tune and you're doing it out of a love of the song and what you think you can bring to it, it's generally safe. But there are a handful of songs that were done so perfectly its blasphemy.

Like what?
A Love Supreme. If you're going to do that, have a different approach or be on your A game that day.

Speaking of Coltrane, you played on the last record by his pianist, McCoy Tyner. How was that?
That was amazing. He's the last member of that quartet. I've seen McCoy at the Blue Note a few times. He's still an unbelievable player. Before I did the record I went by his apartment and hung out with him. Obviously he didn't know much of my music or where I come from, so he was just feeling it out. It was an honor to be in the room with him, much less record with him.

Anyone you want to play with who you haven't yet?
B.B. King is high on the list. I got to meet him a handful of times. My wife has sat in with him a number of times, but I haven't made it onto the stage yet. Wayne Shorter is another that comes to mind, either to play with or converse with. I am fascinated with his solos and the way he thinks. You know that statement "You never want to meet your idols?" I think that's mostly true but there are a handful of them that you come out of it feeling better than you did before. It was that way with Willie Nelson and even B.B. King. You feel they're such gracious human beings. Those guys after a show will meet with hundreds of fans. After 60, 70 years of doing it, it's fascinating. I put Wayne in that category.

What are you listening to now?
I've been on such a vinyl kick lately that I've been listening back a lot, a lot of Curtis Mayfield and Sly Stone records. Part of that is having built a studio. I've been listening to a lot of great albums, great records, as opposed to great performances. Also stuff my parents raised me on like early Joni Mitchell records. Someone recently gave me a Johnny Jenkins record called Ton Ton Macoute! — it's basically the Allman Brothers with Johnny Jenkins. It's just a funky record. I think the sample from that Beck song "Loser" came from "I Walk on Guilded Slippers," which my uncle played on. Which is funny. I've been digging into Eddie Hinton recently too.

This is your sixth album. You were playing with the Allman Brothers before you were 20, you're married to Susan Tedeschi, you've jammed with Clapton and Santana. You're not even 30 yet. Basically, I hate you.
[Laughs] It's been a long road but sometimes when I do get a chance to stop and look back, you feel amazingly fortunate. We've worked hard as a band but so much of it is about being at the right place at the right time.