Fans of Southern Rock and jam band music lost an icon in Butch Trucks. One of the founding members of The Allman Brothers Band, Trucks died Tuesday night, January 24th, in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was 69.
While in college at Florida State University, Butch was in a number of bands including one he’d formed called Bitter Ind. It as at a Bitter Ind show in Daytona Beach that Butch met Duane and Gregg Allman. In 1969, Butch started The Allman Brothers Band with founding members Duane and Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley, and Jai Johanson.
Trucks is preceded in death by two of his former bandmates. Guitarist Duane Allman died after a motorcycle crash in the band’s early days, 1971. He was 24. Bassist Berry Oakley also died in a motorcycle crash 13 months later, three blocks from where Allman had his accident. Oakley was also 24.
During their 46-year career, The Allman Brothers Band became a powerhouse of Southern Rock and jam music. They were, and remain, icons of the genre. We would all be hard pressed to find a Southern Rock, country, or jam band not influenced in some way by the ABB, and in turn, Butch’s drums.
Of Butch’s drumming, Modern Drummer Magazine wrote:
“Never in rock history did a drum duo hook up so subliminally, so consistently, and with so much swagger. Johanson and Trucks were so of one mind, in fact, that you can choose almost any early Allmans track and immediately get sucked into the rhythmic bed.”
Trucks’ nephew Derek Trucks played with the Allman Brothers Band from 1999 until the band called it quits in 2014. Derek’s younger brother Duane Trucks is the drummer for Widespread Panic and Hard Working Americans. Butch’s oldest son, Vaylor, is a member of the Yeti Trio.
A statement from the band’s public relations team read:
“The Trucks and Allman Brothers Band families request all of Butch’s friends and fans to please respect our privacy at this time of sadness for our loss. Butch will play on in our hearts forever.”
Keep ramblin’, Butch.
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