Twenty Years Later | The Birth Of Gov’t Mule

While power trio Gov’t Mule played a show billed as their “World Premiere” on June 11, 1994 in Macon, GA; the band actually made their debut on May 12, 1994 -aka 20 years ago tonight -at The Palamino in Hollywood, CA according to our friends at Mule Army. Guitarist Warren Haynes, drummer Matt Abts and bassist Allen Woody delivered a pair of potent sets that evening aided by a handful of special guests such as Hook Herrera and Rich Meyer. Yes, even at the start, the Mule welcomed plenty of guests to the stage.

The Mule started as a side project for Woody and Warren, but both musicians quickly fell in love with the band’s sound and in 1997 they each left the Allman Brothers Band to focus on Gov’t Mule. Sadly, in 2000 Allen Woody passed away, putting the future of the group into jeopardy. Thankfully, Warren and Matt played on with a variety of guest bassists and musicians for a few years before settling on Andy Hess and Danny Louis as permanent members of the band. In 2008 bassist Jorgen Carlsson replaced Hess. All these years later Gov’t Mule are still a force to be reckoned with and once again Haynes has announced his departure from the Allmans to focus on projects such as Mule at the end of 2014.

Head over to Mule Army to hear where it all began 20 years ago today.

Here’s the setlist from Gov’t Mule’s debut: