Dave Matthews on the new DMB album -- and why they almost broke up

The Dave Matthews Band’s new album Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King (out June 2) is a tribute, in large part, to saxophonist LeRoi Moore, who passed away last August at the age of 46 following injuries incurred in an ATV accident. Just a couple of years ago, however, relations between the group’s members became badly strained. “As far as our friendships, we’d not been in top form,” admits frontman Dave Matthews. “And inthe last few years we have taken the time to rediscover each other, soto speak.”

After the break, Matthews talks about Big Whiskey…, how the band dragged themselves back from the brink, and his fond memories of Moore’s foul-mouthed ways.

Entertainment Weekly: “Grux” was LeRoi’s nickname. But where does the “Big Whiskey” part of the CD’s title come from?
DaveMatthews: LeRoi certainly liked “big whiskey.” But that came from adrunken harmonica player walking down the streets of New Orleans whenwe were recording the album who would play harmonica and then announcethat he needed a “big whiskey.” That was his way of courting cash. Wethought Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King had a sort of a grownup fairly tale-sound to it.

It also sounds like a buddy comedy about a cowboy and an alien.
Itsort of does, doesn’t it? It certainly invites one to imagine a story.I think this is the band’s best album. We have the spontaneity ofour live performances but mixed in with some carefully, carefully,crafted music. I’m sure there are fans thatwill argue. But I don’t care what they say. They’re wrong.

At what stage in the making of the album did LeRoi pass?
Wehad written the music for the lion’s share of the album and I hadlyrically finished three songs. We were halfway. But LeRoi’s playingis all over the record. We did these spontaneous improvisations alittle over a year ago, then we went to Seattle a couple of months laterand twisted those into song forms, and then I wrote the lyrics and themelodies on top. The good fortune was that we had LeRoi playing in boththose sessions. He has a real presence. The lion’s share of thesaxophone is LeRoi and we were very careful about that.

While the album acts as a tribute to LeRoi, it isn’t a downbeat CD.
Well,there’s a lot of joy that was happening in our relationships before Roidied. And Roi was part of that process. It’s sad that the timewhen he was maybe the most happy I’ve ever known him was the time he wastaken from us. But in another sense, I guess that was a good thing.

How bad did things get within the DMB ranks?
Itactually came to a head a couple of years ago. We hadn’t put out an album for a while and thealbum that we did put out [2005’s Mark Batson-produced Stand Up] wasn’t us. I feel like it should have said”Dave Matthews Band featuring Mark Batson.” There’s some greatsongs on [2002’s Glen Ballard-produced] Everyday, but I think that should have said “DaveMatthews Band featuring Glen Ballard.” I think we started to get lostright around towards the end of making the third album, [1998’s] Before These Crowded Streets. The stuff after that, although there’smany good things about it, I think it was not our best work. For a while we’d been in aholding pattern as far as how we were playing with each other. And itdid get to a point where I threw my hands up in the air and said “There’sno point to this.” I had a lot of conversations with Roi, a lot ofconversations with Carter [Beauford, DMB drummer] about, “How the hell do we go on if we can’t allcommunicate?”

What exactly was the problem?
I think it was just we’d been together for so long. When you’re in a marriage or a work relationshipfor more than a decade small thingsbecome big things. I’m sure when I first met Carter and Roi it didn’treally matter that I snort like a pig quite often. But I bet you after 12 years itsounded like fingernails against a chalkboard. You forget to count theblessings. I think the musicsuffered. Or at least it didn’t accelerate, like I feel like it has onthis album.

Did the improvisational sessions help rekindle the band relationships?
It happened a little before that. It came to a head. I blew up andthrew my hands up in the air and everyone basically said, “Exactly!” We all said, “Let’s fix it.” That was about two years ago. We began to talk openly about everything, and that’swhat allowed the music to explode again.

It does sound like you’re having fun on the album: the opening instrumental. “Grux.” is fairly mournful instrumental that showcases LeRoi, but it leads straight into the sex-drenched “Shake Me Like A Monkey.“
“Grux” was one of the spontaneous inventions from the very beginning ofthe sessions, and I always loved it. Quite early on I had this ideathat I wanted that song to run straight up against “Shake Me.” For somestrange reason I thought that honored Roi in a way that would have madehim laugh really hard. Going from “Grux” into this almost Earth Wind& Fire kind of lusty, late-night song, I think he would have laughedpretty loudly if he had heard that. He might have cursed us out too.But in a good way. When he was in good form he would say “F— y’all.”One of the last conversations I had with him, he’d just been injuredand we went to see him at the hospital. Carter and I were on eitherside of him and he hadn’t been communicating. But we started teasinghim and he said “F— y’all.” That came out in this weak little voice.But there was no doubt what he was saying.

Dave Matthews on the new DMB album -- and why they almost broke up

Related Articles