Drive By Truckers and the latest on their new tour for "Decoration Day" ... see pictures and interview with the best bands in the South

Featured Artist Drive By Truckers (... Southern Rock from Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina)

Drive By Truckers are getting ready to roll on a tour to support "Decoration Day"
Brad Morgan, Jason Isbell, Mike Cooley, Earl Hicks and Patterson Hood upstairs at the Chukker
The Drive By Truckers are Ready to Roll

see a picture tour of the Drive By Truckers from their visit to Tuscaloosa in Fall 2002

Being thrown down a sinkhole never felt so good ... unless you happen to be the "banker man" in the second song on the Drive By Truckers' new album. In "Sinkhole", that evil banker man stole the wrong farm and found himself in the mouth of Hell ... one of 15 gutsy stories on "Decoration Day".

The album is a fresh encarnation of the Drive By Truckers' (Mike Cooley-guitar/vocals, Earl Hicks-bass, Brad Morgan-drums, Patterson Hood-guitar/vocals and Jason Isbell-guitar/vocals) throwback Southern Rock sound. True to the Southern Rock tradition, there are three different lead guitarists and a strong rhythm section. As a band, they play with grit and power, and they tell stories that mean something. The Truckers have told those stories at more than 600 shows since the 1998 release of the critically acclaimed "Southern Rock Opera". The Truckers have rolled through towns from here to Holland, and are now fueling up for another long haul.

Druid City Online flagged the band down on May 8th, 2003 downtown at the Chukker. Watch out for flying wisecracks or you'll end up splattered on the windshield!

Druid City Online - If you could introduce yourselves and say where you're from ...

Patterson Hood (guitar, vocals) - Piedmont? ... whooo! I've been getting it wrong all this time. I'm Patterson Hood, and I'm from Florence, Alabama.

Nice to see you. What have you guys been up to today? What happened on the way here?

Hood - I woke up REALLY hung over (played a late solo show the night before). My father-in-law came over and we hung sheet rock and did a bunch of construction work on my house. They (his bandmates) picked me up at four, and we stopped for a burger on the way in Heflin, Alabama at "Big Pop's". Then we got here and sound checked, and now I'm talking to you and we're going to do a rock show.

Hood - We're going to have a new baby (Cooley and wife Ansley). That and the new record (Decoration Day). Those are the big band events. New record, new baby.

Morgan - And New West! (everyone agrees, ... a reference to the band's label change to New West Records)

Hood - Yeah, I think it's going to be good. I like the people over there, they're real, real nice. They've got a great roster, and are putting out some good records. A bunch of people we really like are on there. They've sure been easy to deal with a far as negotiating a deal. The Lost Highway people were all really nice, and I generally liked most of the people we had dealings with there. But the problem with that was they had to answer to Universal (Studios), which then had to answer to Vivendi, or whoever the hell owns it this week. You're dealing with a multi-billion dollar corporation. Every time you wanted to do something, you had to jump through all these hoops and go through all this red tape, and I just hate that shit. You know, we were an independant band, putting out records ourselves for years and years. So we're used to not making any money, but if we're going to have to jump through all these hoops, where's the tour bus you know?
(laughs and grins)
So New West is little more of a managable size, and they're a really big independant label. They're about as big as an independant label can be without being swooped up. They've got good distribution and can get us in any record store we need to be in. Most of what we do involves going out and playing live anyway. We're not exactly a Top 40 radio band and I don't forsee any of us on MTV anytime soon ... although we're going to make one hell of a video! But probably not one that they'd ever show.

You have some big help now, but how did you put those first albums, like "Southern Rock Opera" out by yourselves? What did it take?

Hood - We starved and stayed broke for years and years and slept on a lot of floors and ran off all our wives and girlfriends except for one. We just did what we had to do. If there was a second choice out there, I think we all would've taken it. I think what brought the bunch of us together is that there really is no back up plan. It's what we do. It's all I know how to do.

Financial matters can sometimes strain a band. How do you guys keep that sort of thing from being a drag on the band?

Cooley - If I was making any money, these shoes right here would have a shine on them. (pointing down at his big, scuffed up black boots) I just don't look down and keep going. (smiles)

Hood - I know how to make money in the music business, but it doesn't involve playing in a band! (everyone begins laughing) I'd be driving around Nashville in a Land Rover MANAGING a band, and I'd make good money!

Tell me about some of the places you're going this year. Are you going out of the country?

Isbell - I know we'll be in Toronto in May, and we're all real scared to death about that (of SARS). (laughs) No, I'm just kidding, but I think we do have those little white masks.

When you go out of the South and out of the country, do promoters play on the fact that you're Southern?

Isbell - Oh definitely, they love it. There are as many people that love Southern music in Canada as there are anywhere else ... like in Holland. There was a lot of people in Holland that liked us, and we had a good turnout in London too.

Why do you think that is? I mean, why do you think people of different cultures latch on to that?

Isbell- Well, it's kind of a folk music, you know. Well, maybe not folk music, but it comes from stories and it seems to translate real well. Everybody's story is basically the same. It doesn't really matter where they're from.

Hicks - Dutch people show up! (laughs) That's who shows up! But we also played a bunch of small towns over there. Their culture is so neat because every town has a music venue and everyone goes to see all the bands. The radio show we did there was government sponsored, but it was a club show. The government sponsored it and paid for everyone who worked at the club. The show goes out over their national radio, and it's kind of an event in the country. It's kind of a cultural exchange thing. They support the arts over there is what I guess it really boils down to. They rock balls in Holland, definitely. Those people know how to rock and have fun.

Let me ask everybody this question. The band spends a lot of time on the road. Can each of you describe what you do when you're at home?

Hicks - Well, my day today ... Hope Depot came to my house and dropped off a stove and a load of wood. I loaded that into the house and put the wood on the front porch. Had my morning coffee, a deer runs through my front yard and then I installed ...

Isbell - And then he hit it in the head with a rock and killed it. And then he skinned it

Hood - And then he cooked the greatest venison pie you've ever tasted in your life!

(The room breaks into laughter again. It is not clear whether the Truckers were poking fun at each other, or just poking fun)

Isbell - I've got a little house in Center Star with my wife. And we cut the grass and watch a lot of movies. I try to write a song every two or three days. But most of the down time it involves going to the movie store and renting movies and watching 'em.

Isbell - The Chuck Barris movie was really good ... "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind". That's about the best movie I've seen this year. That and "Rabbit Proof Fence", where the two aboriginee girls walk across Australia. That's really good. But I've been watching movies, listening to records and sitting around the house as much as possible.

Morgan - All right. I wake up about three or four, sit in my chair and watch some cable. Eat a Stouffer's dinner. And then I go to the grocery store if I want to get out and do something. Usually, I've stocked up on enough Little Debbie cakes to eat. Drink about a 2-liter of Coke. Then go to bed at around 6 o'clock if I don't throw up from all the chocolate and coke I had. And then I wake up again ... (smiles)

Cooley - (chuckles) Well, today I cut the grass and hung a door in the nursery. It's always stuff like that. I do spend a lot of time on the couch if I possibly can. Sometimes I look for stuff to do so I won't just sit there and drink beer all day. As much as I love it, it does get boring. (laughs) There has to be something more important.

Hood - Well, I think I already answered that. But the thing is, it's all about to change. When we're on the road it's a very different thing.

Thank you everyone for taking some time with me. Do any of you have any last comments?

Hicks - Y'all are in a world of hurt right now. But we (University of Georgia) just got done with Jim Harrick.

Isbell - Support live music in the state of Alabama! ... and vote for whoever is not the Republican!