Derek is happy to be here in this sit-down interview backstage at The Fox in ATL, and Rick Beato does his usual great job of interviewing from a musician's perspective - Just dropped;
That was a really enjoyable watch. Thanks for posting. Seems like Derek enjoyed the hang too. He was very chatty.
Susan and Derek at a B. B. King celebration show.
Hot guitar by Derek and a nicely structured solo from Susan!! Looks as if Derek is smiling a bit during Susan's solo.
Derek is a really great interviewee - funny, thoughtful, knowledgeable, forthright.
Rick Beato asked good questions and got Derek to discuss things I had not heard him address before.
Great interview, as usual. I loved the stories about Elvin Jones. Can you imagine if they made that album with Derek, Elvin, Kofi, and Oteil?
He said Elvin was on one of his albums - I looked the personnel up on all of them - must have been an uncredited appearance. It makes the most sense that Elvin was on the 1st one, looking at the track listing. Any insights?
@stormyrider I remember that. Derek was signed to Columbia records and they wanted Derek to bring in famous rock players to join him on the album. For drummer Derek asked for Elvin Jones and the A&R man at Columbia convinced Columbia to bring in Jones even though Jones was jazz and not rock.
Derek met with Jones a few times and they discussed songs and arrangements but Jones was sick and kept getting worse and died at age 76 I think he was in 2004 before he recorded anything with Derek. So that is why Jones isn't listed. He passed before the sessions got underway.
I had not thought about how the Fox Theatre in Atlanta is such an important venue to Derek and his history. And nearby clubs and venues where Derek performed. Col. Bruce Hampton was so key to Derek's background and development. As he was to many other musicians. I agree with Derek. There should be a plaque mounted somewhere in the Fox in Atlanta to memorialize Hampton as he died on stage there.
Unbelievable at one time the Fox could have been torn down after it's original run as part of 20th Century-Fox. William Fox lost control of Fox studios and Daryle Zanuck of 20th Century Pictures was able to take over.
All the major studios in those days opened their own chain a movie palaces. Warner Theatres, Fox Theatres, Paramount Theatres, Loew's Theatres.
Marquis Loew of Metro Pictures gained control of Goldwyn Pictures and hired Louie Mayer to run the studio. Mayer got permission to add his name to Metro-Goldwyn to form MGM. Samuel Goldwyn was out but went on to become one of Hollywood's big independent producers.
Stupid things Samuel Goldwyn said today are called Goldwynisms.
"A verbal agreement isn't worth the paper it's written on". " The next time I need a damn fool to get something for me I'll go myself". When told in 1948 by his screenwriting team that couldn't use the book he bought on a recent trip to Europe because the two women are lesbians Goldwyn said "Alright then change them to Hungarians". He told an actress " I want to hear you keeping still". Goldwyn told Fredrick March " Anybody who goes to a physiatrist should have his head examined". And actress Lynn Barri tried to impress Goldwyn by naming her new baby boy Samuel. Goldwyn responded " What did you do that for? Every Tom, Dick and Harry is named Samuel."
"Give him a definite maybe about the part."
"If I dropped dead right now I'd be the happiest man alive".
"I may not always be right about an actress but I'm never wrong". Grateful Dead used that one in their song "Scarlet Begonias".
About a Goldwyn produced film that flopped. " If they won't go to the box office you can't stop them".
"I don't think these actors should write their biographies until after their are dead ".
"Derek Trucks wasn't the best slide player before he started playing guitar ". Okay I made up that one but it's sounds like something Sam would say.
I love the old studio theatres. Many in NYC were torn down, there were so many of them throughout the 5 boroughs. But many times I've walked into a pharmacy or a bank and realized I'm in the lobby of an old theatre. (like this one in Greenpoint BKLN https://www.scoutingny.com/the-ghost-of-a-movie-theater-on-manhattan-ave/ ). The lobby of the Fillmore East is still standing and houses a bank.
Some are now churches, just glad they're still standing and being used. United Palace was a church for a while before it was turned back into a performance space.
Some were turned into concert venues in the 1960s and 70s until neighbors complained about the noise. Here's one in Borough Park that the Dead once played but now houses furniture for a nearby store: https://abandonednyc.com/2015/01/14/inside-the-loews-46th-st-theater/
Some have been renovated, like the Kings Theatre https://bklyner.com/shuttered-nearly-four-decades-stunning-kings-theatre-reopens-following-95-million-renovation-ditmas-park/
Here's the old Brooklyn Paramount Theatre, now part of Long Island University
@porkchopbob I love the old movie palaces too. I remember going to the Loewe's in Times Square and the Alvin and the New Amsterdam on 42nd Street which was in terrible shape until Disney restored it.
William Fox spent the money on other theatres in the 1920's besides Atlanta. The Fox in Detroit and the Fox in St. Louis are show palaces and both were saved. Fox's name lives on to this day on TV etc but in my study of the moguls, William Fox lost everything during the great depression including 20th Century Pictures taking control of the big Fox studios. So William Fox was forgotten by the time he died in 1952. A handful of people attended his funeral and NO Hollywood executives or film stars came.
I'm glad part of the Fillmore is still there. Dickey grabbed a brick to save. The Allman Brothers beginning in 1970 had a strong following and support in New York City. That continued to the end in 2014.
So much for the handle Southern Rock.
I remember the neon LOEW'S STATE theatre was pink! Loew had theatres in many markets. I remember one in New Orleans in 1967. https://images.app.goo.gl/mymU7mGG7n8ESAEy8
I remember many times standing under this sign in Times Square and watching the smoke rings shoot out over the traffic. Just like it was just last week!
MORE DOCTOR'S SMOKE CAMEL THAN ANY OTHER BRAND!!!!
>>>Great interview, as usual. I loved the stories about Elvin Jones. Can you imagine if they made that album with Derek, Elvin, Kofi, and Oteil?
A memory: We were seeing Derek Trucks Band at the 9:30 Club in DC. There is an upstairs bar near the Disabled section. We were hanging there some as John Ott (RIP) had his tix there.
As it happened Kofi was hanging up there for a minute and I asked him about that project.
He seemed shocked I had even heard of it and said he would “bring it up”.
Sadly the closest we got to that was DT appearing on the McCoy Tyner recording.
I still have instrumental DTB playlist on my iPod.
