Dave Matthews Shares the Stories Behind "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King"

Go behind the scenes at the Dave Matthews Band's Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King gigs at Boston's Fenway Park in our new issue, on stands now.

At the Dave Matthews Band's recent two-gig stand at Boston's Fenway Park, the concession stands were packed with Red Sox jerseys bearing saxophonist LeRoi Moore's name and the number "41," the 1996 DMB track that showcased Moore's soulful playing. Moore's ghost hovers over the band's tour behind their new Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King and the fallen musician was the inspiration behind the album, as well.

(Check out photos of DMB backstage and onstage with Willie Nelson at Fenway Park.)

"I feel like I've made a record that, if someone didn't know me and said, 'What do you do for a living?', I won't be sheepish about putting this record down and saying, 'This is what I do for a living,' " says Matthews, who drew the album cover and all of the extensive art in the CD booklet by hand.

As for the title, Matthews explains that "GrooGrux King" is a band nickname for Moore, who died last year. "Carter [Beauford] and Roi came up with the GrooGrux," he says. "It's their word for something that was happening, something that was cool, something that was amazing. It was sort of like a spirit or a musical thing, 'That's the Groo Grux.' And Roi was the King, Le Roi."

Matthews, who graciously details the origins of several GrooGrux tracks below, says there is a definite progression to the track listing. "It's almost in order for how it was written and recorded," he says. "It's starts with this sexy, fun song, ['Shake Me Like a Monkey'] and it falls down until that last song. It goes deeper and deeper until there's this goodbye."

"Grux"
(A a solo sax line from Moore that opens the album)
I liked that line from when Roi first did it, and every time we went back to it, I'd say, "We've got to use this, somehow we have to use this somewhere." We talked about recreating it when Roi was still around, but it's just a perfect piece of music, and it was a spontaneous invention. I wanted to put it on the album, but I didn't know where to put it. When I first brought it up, "We should start the record with that," everyone was like, "Yeah." It couldn't be any other player, the way he plays that. He could gobble, the sound that he had, and the richness of his tone.