When it comes to singers, Drive-By Truckers think the more the merrier — even if that gives the six-piece rootsy rockers something of a split personality.
“This way, it’s like playing in three different bands,” co-founder Patterson Hood jokes about working with co-singer songwriters Mike Cooley and Shonna Tucker. “I don’t like to get bored, it keeps it interesting.”
The Georgia-based band’s fiery new album “Go-Go Boots” has a dominant character though.
“I had a lot of songs going into this one, it was definitely a record I felt very strongly about. But it balances out. Some albums, Mike has more songs. I’m always about collaboration. I love that aspect of the band.”
Partly by design, partly by accident, since forming in the fertile Athens scene in the ’90s, the Truckers have seen different players come and go. The current line-up has been in place since 2008, but Hood and Cooley go way back.
“We’ve been together 26 years, Mike and I. I’ve always loved his songs. As far having a third songwriter in the band, luckily for us it just worked out that way. Shonna, I love her writing. It’s very different from mine and Cooley’s, but that’s the point. Maybe growing up around the whole session musician scene as I did made having lots of different players appeal to me.”
Da Ya Think Hood is sexy?
Patterson Hood grew up with a musician/producer father, David Hood, foun-der of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. The elder Hood played with big names from The Staples Singers to Pixies’ Frank Black and even blue-eyed blues wailer turned pop singer Rod Stewart.
“My father’s had quite a career. He played with so many great artists back in the day.”
And Rod? Was it during the singer’s disco period?
“He played on Rod Stewart’s ‘Tonight’s The Night.’ Right before his disco era,” Hood chuckles. “It was the album before ‘Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?’ He just missed that!”
