Gov't Mule's Warren Haynes Gets Soulful on First Solo Album in 19 Years

Gov't Mule guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Warren Haynes is prepping the May release of his first solo album in 19 years, tentatively titled 'Man in Motion.' So what took so long?

"It's a record of soul music, original material, that harkens back to my first influences before I discovered rock 'n' roll, which was soul music mixed with blues," he tells Spinner. "It's taken this amount of time to feel like the right time to put it out where the audience would get it. It's a record I wanted to make for a long, long time."

The blues angle is not a surprise for fans who've followed Haynes since his days with the Allman Brothers, but he suspects his more recent fans will need to adjust to the music. "It's quite a curveball from Gov't Mule," he says. "Fans that have known me for a long time, it won't be such a surprise, but if all you know from me is the last few Gov't Mule records, it's way different."

Haynes also recently attended the Los Angeles premiere of 'Lemmy,' the documentary about the notorious Motorhead frontman. It's not exactly the place you'd expect to see Haynes, but don't tell him that. "Rock 'n' roll doesn't need boundaries," he says. "We're all influenced by so many different types of music. Talk to any real musician, they're gonna surprise you with what they listen to."

He's proving that by going way beyond his normal group of players on 'Man in Motion.' "It's got Ivan Neville, Ian McLagan from the Faces on keyboards, George Porter Jr. on bass, Raymond Weber on drums," he says. "It's all New Orleans-type cats except for myself and Ian McLagan."

While he doesn't have as much experience these musicians, the sessions flowed just like a natural jam session. "It's something that came together really quick, like old-school. We just went in the studio and knocked it out. I'm really happy with it," he says. "The thing that stood out the most for me was how everything kind of congealed with the musicians. We had Ruthie Foster and Ivan doing all the background vocals and I loved the way this stuff was interpreted by the musicians. We just let everybody feel it how they felt it. It was really special."

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