Inside Tedeschi Trucks Band’s All-Star Joe Cocker Tribute Concert
When Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi were forming what became the multi-piece Tedeschi Trucks Band five years ago, they happened to watch Mad Dogs & Englishmen, the vintage rock doc about the riotous 1970 tour featuring Joe Cocker, Leon Russell and a cast-of-thousands crew of musicians and singers as they took their rock-soul hybrid on tour around the States. “We said, ‘That looks like fun!'” Trucks recalls with a chuckle. “Our band was loosely based on that concert footage.”
This fall, Trucks and Tedeschi will do more than continue that tradition of fronting a large rock & roll band featuring horns, backup singers and a mélange of American roots music. At Virginia’s Lockn’ Festival on September 11th, the Tedeschi Trucks Band will recreate a good chunk of the landmark Mad Dogs & Englishmen album with the help of some of the original crew, including bandleader and keyboardist Russell, keyboardist Chris Stainton and singers Rita Coolidge and Claudia Lennear. Also pitching in will be former Traffic guitarist and solo act Dave Mason (whose “Feelin’ Alright” was part of the Mad Dogs set), guitarist Doyle Bramhall II and one-time Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson, who grew up with the double album. “It was everything I’d been searching for in rock & roll – the place where rock, soul, folk, country and R&B all came into one big ball,” Robinson says. “That album is in my DNA.”
According to Trucks, the idea for the concert started a few years ago, when he reached out to Cocker to see if the twitchy, soulful Brit rocker would join the Tedeschi Trucks Band for a special set at Lockn’ featuring songs from Cocker’s entire career. Cocker, Trucks says, had “a little bit of healthy skepticism” about remaking the Mad Dogs material, but “we were starting to get past that.” A tentative plan for Cocker to join the band was set for last year, but for then-mysterious reasons, Cocker bowed out. Later, Trucks – and so many others – learned Cocker was battling cancer; he succumbed to the disease last December.
Taking in 48 shows in 48 cities in the spring of 1970, the Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour was rock & roll chaos from the start. Already fried from touring after his breakthrough set at Woodstock the previous summer, Cocker was forced to postpone a much-needed vacation when his manager at the time, Dee Anthony, told Cocker he’d lose his American working papers if he didn’t hit the road. With the first shows barely a week away, Cocker turned to Russell. “Joe and [producer] Denny Cordell, who was later my partner in Shelter Records, showed up one day and said Joe needs to do these shows,” Russell recalls. “Joe had fired his band and if he didn’t do these shows, the Musicians Union wouldn’t allow him to work in the United States again. I said, ‘Well, I know a few guys.'”