Derek Trucks Discusses Col. Bruce Hampton With Marc Maron

Guitarist Derek Trucks was on stage last night at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta at the Hampton 70: A Celebration Of Col. Bruce Hampton. The event turned tragic when Col. Bruce Hampton collapsed during the concert’s finale and passed away at a nearby hospital shortly after.

Trucks was a recent guest on Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast and spoke with reverence regarding his relationship with Col. Bruce. Trucks detailed a mentorship that began when he was a 12-year-old up and coming guitarist. The elder musician was credited by Trucks with helping to broaden his musical development as well as his interests beyond music.

Below is a partial transcript of Derek’s WTF interview in which he spoke about Hampton. Read on to see the enormous impact the Colonel had on the talented performer.

DEREK TRUCKS: I ran into some musicians early on that kind of pointed me down a different path. There’s this guy named Col. Bruce Hampton in Atlanta, Georgia and he’s says he’s a minor league baseball coach for musicians. A lot of people come through him, and he’ll take talented musicians and kind of shatter them into a thousand pieces and then they reform as just more realized humans.

MARC MARON: What’s his job?

DT: He’s a musician, singer, player ..

MM: From Atlanta?

DT: Yeah.

MM: You met him where?

DT: I met him, we played a club with him when I was 12, he had a band called the Aquarium Rescue Unit and it was Oteil Burbridge on bass ended up playing in the Allman Brothers, it was Jimmy Herring on guitar – super musicians. But the Colonel’s a fascinating character. Duane Allman got him signed to Columbia in 1970 – the Hampton Grease Band. His claim to fame is the second lowest selling double record ever on Columbia. This is the type of character the Colonel is. He can spew baseball stats all day long, but he would hit me with the right book or the right record at the right time, turn me on to Son House or the aspects of Howlin’ Wolf’s thing that you should be focusing in on.

MM: Which were what?

DT: Well, just Hubert Sumlin and just the band and the whole thing, I mean he had seen Wolf a dozen times and just stories — he’s the one that bought be A Love Supreme and turned me onto Sun Ra.

MM: You need that guy. Usually it’s an older brother but in your league …

DT: But the Colonel it was that. Every time I would see him he would check in. It was like, “I think you’re ready for this” and give me a Krishnamurti book. Like when he thought you were ready to take it on he would hit me with this amazing record or this literature or whatever.

MM: So when go up there and you’re 12 and you’re doing your boy-genius tour, what’s the first thing he hit you with?

DT: I think the first thing we connected on was probably Howlin Wolf or Bobby Bland maybe. That was the stuff. And then the deep delta blues stuff. Bukka White. Son House.