Butch Trucks

There will always be kids in every generation that understand that Lady Gaga is not music, it's theater.

Back when Napster first came along, I started telling everybody Napster was like shooting yourself in the foot because you're stealing music. The record companies don't pay for us to make records - the bands do.

With The Allman Brothers, we made two studio records that were OK, but the first really great album was the live one, 'At Fillmore East.' We were a live band, and it's one of the reasons we were able to stick around for 45 years.

Our approach is more the jazz approach, where you learn to play your instrument as well as you can, develop your craft, and then communicate with each other. That's the focus, not trying to give some message or entertain or have a good light show or whatever.

Blues Traveler is hot, and Big Head Todd, the Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies - all of 'em.

There's this new band that just started with us called the Dave Matthews Band. My God! I mean, I like those guys. Plus, Dave Matthews looks just like Forrest Gump.

Our first album was kind of simple, but it had that fire, that energy that we have to have.

'Enlightened Rogues' we made like the earlier ones: whatever tune came up, whatever direction it went in, that's the way it went. That's what we'll always do. I think if we ever stop doin' that, we ought to quit.

After 'Win, Lose or Draw' we were workin' on another album that nobody's ever heard, and it's a good thing nobody heard it.

A lot of the cities where we have a strong following, we don't even get to every year anymore. But Stony Brook was a place that, from the very first time we went, the chemistry was right. They loved us, and we loved them, and we just kept going back and going back.

I take my laptop with me on the road. When I come home, I log onto AOL, go to the Web site, and answer questions.

We've been lucky because quite a few young people keep coming to see us play. We couldn't tour as much as we do if we could only count on the baby boomers.

It wasn't unusual for an Allman Brothers record to cost $300,000.

We did 300 shows in our first two years.

When we started, it was so intense: it was like a religion. And when you played with Duane Allman, you either gave it your all or you got out.

The Allman Brothers 1969 to 1971... were all about... jumping off the cliff... Just taking music and being adventurous with it.

Eric Clapton has earned all of our respect. He is the greatest. He opened the doors for us. Without Cream, there is no Allman Brothers.

When we're playing, when we're really, really going... you're just in the moment. You're not thinking about yesterday, tomorrow, or anything else. The brain gets out of the way. Your body just does what it knows how to do, and it's just... it's like a religion.

I feel like the Cal Ripkin of rock n' roll.

I have the distinction of being the only member of the Allman Brothers who has never missed a single show. I have played every single show the Allman Brothers have ever played.

Of all the songs we played, 'Statesboro Blues' was the most ripped-off.

If there's anybody who knew how to play in a studio, it was Duane Allman.

Once we started headlining at the Fillmore East, we were free to play all night, at least for the second set. 'Whipping Post' could get lengthy.

A jam means it's not structured - let it go. Let it go here, let it go there.

The trouble is that you get fans who tell you you're great no matter how big an idiot you are.

Country's cool if you like that kind of thing, but it doesn't have the complexity or - what's the word? - subtlety.

See, we started out with a foundation of blues. But then we added people like Miles Davis and John Coltrane to the mix and gave rock n' roll a much more complex structure. It made it possible to play more than three chords.

I'm boring as hell. I just sit around and talk philosophy.

We went on to become the No. 1 band in the country for three or four years. And that was probably the worst thing that could have happened to us.

There obviously are a hell of a lot of people that love Lady Gaga. But to me, she's been the theatre of the absurd. And the more absurd it is, the bigger she got.

I love Lucille Ball. But you don't call that Shakespeare. It's just entertainment, you know. And if you like that, then go have a ball, have fun.

We never thought that we would be more than an opening act.

I've never thought too much of 'Rolling Stone.' The first thing I'd do is look at about 50 or 60 of the drummers they have ahead of me and go, 'Oh yeah, right!'

There's nothing - nothing - like the magic of playing music.

When I play, I stare at the left hand of whoever is playing lead. And I get to know what people are playing well enough that when they start going somewhere, once they arrive, I'm already there.

The music became secondary to being rock stars.

With the jam bands I've seen, it's about music, and it's about theory, and it's about making everyone feel better with music.

Putting together two powerful sets is always difficult. After you really pour it out one night, it's hard to pour it out the next night.

Sometimes you're gonna jump off a cliff and land flat on your face. Then you just get up and go again. But sometimes you dive off the cliff and start soaring with the eagles, and that's when you find new music, places that you've never been before.

To be able to take music and do something as profoundly original as what we did with the Allman Brothers, you've got to put some time into it.

As long as all four of my limbs keep moving and I can still sit up straight and play hard rock and roll for 2 and a half to 3 hours, I'm gonna keep doing it, and I'm gonna do it the way I do it.

After we did the last Allman Brothers Band show, my wife and I just packed up and went to France for pretty much all of 2015, and I just got bored; I got the itch. I wanna play.

Something happens when the music starts, and all that tiredness just goes away. When it's going like that, I'll take on any 20-year-old hot-shot drummer who wants to try me.

My hearing after 50 years of playing music sometimes isn't too great.

There's always going to be a percentage of the kids out there who want to hear people who can actually play and sing.

Donald Trump has been horrendous, saying things are bad because of Muslims or Mexicans. This is exactly what happened in the 1930s in Germany, and it's gonna get worse.

People feel entitled to take whatever's online without paying for it.

We're a live band. It's what we do best.

I don't think we listened to any rock n' roll at all in the early days. It was Miles Davis and John Coltrane 95% of the time.

That was my first love growing up - classical orchestral music, especially Impressionism.