Warren Haynes is a generation-spanning guitar hero. He wasn't out of grade school when some of his best-known collaborators were at the peak of their fame, but he's earned a powerful reputation for his fiery guitar work steeped in blues and Southern rock traditions, and he's distinguished himself as a songwriter, bandleader, and solo artist as well as a gifted sideman.
Haynes was born in Asheville, North Carolina on April 9, 1960 and developed a taste for soul and R&B at an early age after listening to his older brothers'
Otis Redding,
Wilson Pickett, and
Smokey Robinson LPs.
Haynes would spend hours singing along with their records. When he was 12, he got his first guitar, and by 14 he was playing parties and sitting in with the house band at a local pizza parlor. He became a serious
Eric Clapton fan, and studying his work led him deeper into the classic blues sounds that had influenced the British guitar hero.
After short stays in a number of local bands during his teens,
Haynes landed a gig with a group called Ricochet and began playing North Carolina clubs on a regular basis. One evening, Mickey Hayes, who played bass for outlaw country star
David Allan Coe, caught Ricochet and was impressed with the band's lead guitarist, and when
Coe's guitarist dropped out of the group shortly afterward, Hayes recommended
Haynes for the gig.
Haynes played with
Coe from 1980 to 1984, touring frequently and appearing on three of
Coe's albums, before
Haynes moved on to a band of his own, Rich Hippies, with Hayes on bass.
After a short spell with blues journeymen
the Nighthawks, in 1988
Haynes was invited to join the band of former
Allman Brothers guitarist
Dickey Betts, who had met
Haynes through their mutual friend
Coe;
Haynes appeared on
Betts' album
Pattern Disruptive. In 1989,
Betts and
Gregg Allman re-formed
the Allman Brothers Band, and
Haynes was brought aboard to join
Betts in the band's twin-guitar team.
Haynes spent eight years touring and recording with
the Allman Brothers, and in 1991 formed the first edition of
the Warren Haynes Band to play gigs during his time off from
the Allmans; in 1993,
Haynes also cut his first solo album,
Tales of Ordinary Madness, which was produced by
Chuck Leavell. He had also been working on his songwriting, which brought him a solid payday in 1990 when
Garth Brooks had a hit single with a tune
Haynes co-wrote, "Two of a Kind, Working on a Full House."
In 1994, he broke up
the Warren Haynes Band and formed
Gov't Mule, a power trio featuring
Allman Brothers bassist
Allen Woody and drummer
Matt Abts; they released their self-titled debut album in 1995. In 1997,
Haynes left
the Allman Brothers to make
Gov't Mule his first priority, but the trio was sidelined in 2000 by the death of
Woody, and
Haynes soon rejoined
the Allman Brothers Band. For a while, he and
Abts kept
Gov't Mule going as a two-piece, playing acoustic shows in duo format and recording a pair of albums, 2001's
The Deep End, Vol. 1 and 2002's
The Deep End, Vol. 2, in which a variety of well-known bassists and guest artists sat in with the pair. In 2003,
Gov't Mule once again had a steady lineup as bassist
Andy Hess and keyboardist
Danny Louis joined the group.
Meanwhile, in between dates with
the Allmans and
Gov't Mule,
Haynes had been playing with
Grateful Dead bassist
Phil Lesh in his solo group Phil Lesh & Friends, and in 2004, when the surviving members of
the Grateful Dead began touring as the Dead,
Haynes was recruited to play guitar on their first road trip; he was brought back for the Dead's 2009 tour. He also re-formed
the Warren Haynes Band for various one-off shows, and
Gov't Mule continued with bassist
Jorgen Carlsson after
Andy Hess left the group. During his downtime from
the Allman Brothers and
Gov't Mule,
Haynes kept busy playing on-stage and in the studio with a remarkable variety of artists, from
Blues Traveler and
Dave Matthews to
Son Seals and
John Mayall (and even guesting on a
Corrosion of Conformity session). In 2011, he looked back at his roots in Southern soul with his album
Man in Motion, recorded for the reactivated Stax label and featuring accompaniment from
Ian McLagan,
Ivan Neville, and
George Porter, Jr. This was followed by a triple-disc (two-CD-plus-DVD)
Live at the Moody Theater in 2012.
Haynes continued to tour and host his Christmas Jam, and he guested on records by
James Cotton, the
Howlin' Brothers, and
the Lee Boys. He also remained a member of
the Allman Brothers Band through their final show at the Beacon Theater in October 2014. His Evil Teen label released several archival recordings by
Gov't Mule in early 2015. Later in the year, he issued his next proper studio recording,
Ashes & Dust, an Americana date. He selected New Jersey newgrass outfit
Railroad Earth as his backing band for the session. The album also featured a duet with
Grace Potter on a cover of
Fleetwood Mac's "Gold Dust Woman."
Haynes returned to
Gov't Mule after
Ashes & Dust. The band released a bunch of live albums in the mid-2010s, followed by the 2016 appearance of
The Tel-Star Sessions, an archival release of the group's first demo from 1994.
Revolution Come … Revolution Go, their first studio set since, arrived in 2017. ~ Mark Deming