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Drive By Truckers - Exclusive Interview + Fort Worth Music Fest. Preview

It's festival time again this weekend in Fort Worth!  The line-up is well worth the drive no matter what part of North Texas or surrounding area you might live!

Galactic, Drive By Truckers, Old 97's, The Walkmen, Allen Stone, ZZ Ward, Delta Spirit, Whiskey Myers round out the top bill acts at the Fort Worth Music Festival this year.

Some great local favorites like Air Review, Quaker City Nighthawks, The Hanna Barbarians & Calhoun will be performing live as well.

Patterson Hood from Drive By Truckers was nice enough to let us catch up with him and the band on Monday.

GBS:
How was your Cinco de Mayo at the Shaky Knees Music Fest? I'm sure it was fun to playa festival close to home?
PH:
It was a very fun festival. They did a really good job with that one. Getting to play same stage, right after Kurt Vile was big extra bonus blast. His new record is my fave right now and he is a cool guy. We got really lucky with the weather, which was really shitty most of the weekend. Cold and rainy in Atlanta in May. That never happens, but it was pretty shitty all weekend. It cleared off just in time for Kurt, stormed at his very last song then cleared until halfway through our set. The audience was great. A few thousand people standing in pouring rain rocking their asses off. Very cool.

GBS:
You guys have all things Drive By Truckers going on plus two solo projects from Patterson and Mike.  How tough is that balance to maintain and continue touring as a band?
PH:
It's been pretty great actually. DBT has been on an extended semi-hiatus for a couple of years, which we really needed while we regrouped and did a little reinvention. It's the longest break we've had in 17 years. We've done some shows, but minimum touring and I've really enjoyed doing The Downtown Rumblers and Mystic Rumblers and even some solo shows.
Cooley had never really played solo much before and I think it's been really great for him personally and creatively. It's been great for our partnership too. We have a show together on July 4th (in Waverly AL) as The Dimmer Twins. We've both been writing a ton of new songs for the next DBT album. We're gearing back up towards a bunch of Rock next year.

GBS:
Fort Worth Music Festival has a great line-up this year!  Any particular act you're looking forward to seeing live this weekend?
PH:
I'm looking forward to seeing my friends in Old 97's again. It's funny, we have been peers since we both started out at roughly the same time and had parallel runs, but hardly ever crossed paths until a couple of months ago when we did a few shows together. We were both always touring. We played a thing with Willie Nelson a few years back as a one off, but I think that was the only time until recently. We had a lot of mutual friends and I always admired them from afar.

GBS:
When can we expect some new music from Drive By Truckers?
PH:
We will be recording our next album in August and it should be out early next year. I'm very excited about the new songs and about recording this lineup of the band. Things 
are really great right now.

GBS:
The Bud Light 50/50/1 Event this August sounds epic! How did you guys get involved or when were you asked to participate?
PH:
We were asked. It's the day after our vacation and the day before we start the new album so it should be a lot of fun.

GBS:
Global Citizen is a great call to arms in the fight to end extreme poverty.  Aside from wanting to help the cause, what compelled you guys to join this global movement?
PH:
I'm always willing to try to pitch in and help in a good cause. I'm a very lucky guy but I've also known some pretty hopeless times in my life and I was lucky enough to be able to pull myself out (with some help for sure). Some people never have a fraction of the opportunities that i have had. I always want to give back. Life's too short as it is.

Come hang with us and catch DBT live this Friday.  Get a fix before the fest. and check out a great performance of "Mercy Buckets" from 2011 in Atlanta, GA!

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