Photo: Swift/Retna

John Popper of Blues Traveler and producer Steve Lillywhite both talked to Rolling Stone about the loss of their friend, Dave Matthews Band saxophonist LeRoi Moore. “He was a very sweet man,” said Popper. “He was always about the music. He was like a tough jazz musician. He was always more about how you play than how the crowd bought it. He was always talking music.” Popper first met Moore when DMB opened for Blues Traveler in 1991. “When he came to DMB, he brought a whole new foundation. As a sax player, there was a confidence when someone was using those scales and coming from his school. He was one of the best sax players I’ve ever heard,” Popper said.

Steve Lillywhite, who produced DMB’s Under the Table and Dreaming, Crash and Before These Crowded Streets, said of LeRoi — which means “the king” in French — “He was very much the king of a lot of things he did. I have great memories of staying up late in the studio working on music collages with him.” Lillywhite adds, “He was a beautiful person. He had music — music was the number one thing for him.” As for his favorites of Moore’s contributions, Lillywhite remembers Moore’s work on the Under the Table and Dreaming cut “Lover Lay Down,” as well as Moore’s most “essential” performance, the “Bartender” found on the “Lillywhite Sessions” bootleg. “It’s a sad time for all of us, but he has a legacy that will always live.”

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