When Warren Haynes Steps Into Your JamBasement, Pick Up Your Guitar!

I was living in San Francisco, Larry’s house, you all know the place right? Anyway Larry, Scott and Judge AKA George all lived upstairs, Me and the cat lived downstairs. Now Larry and Steph had known each other since high school. I went to a different high school that Larry’s brother Nate went to. I had met Steph a few times before she married Warren and even went to her annual Fireworks apartment party that I recall as nothing short of epic! 

So downstairs we had built up a little Jam space. My Ibanez and Marshall combo with Yamaha Keyboard and a Conga drum. We played for fun. Although I had always hoped for us to try to be a PIGPEN cover band. Most importantly, we had fun!

So I want to say this was during the first HORDE festival at Shoreline and Gov’t Mule was a major act. Steph was very kind and we found ourselves with backstage passes and watching the stars go by! Now this was in the days before cell phones with camera’s and I had brought my camera gear and although I didn’t have a photo pass, I took photos from backstage until somebody’s someone said to stop. It’s laughable now with the proliferation of media, but that use to be the way it was. I was super lucky to find Warren when he was doing his photo op for Rolling Stone and I asked him and the photographer if I could take pics without disturbing them. They graciously both said ok.

BUT IT GETS EVEN BETTER. I’m sorry if the years have wiped the sequence of events from my brain, but either before or after this event, Warren and Steph came to the house. I seem to recall wanting to go out that evening, and Larry said, “You’re going to want to stick around for this!” Sure enough we are all sitting around the living room of what we dubbed the Funston Hotel, and after some laughing and story swapping, I think Warren said something after we inferred playing in the basement. “You guys have a jam space here?” Next thing I know Warren is making this AMAZING tone with my guitar and amp. I guess I’d never heard it that loud and every note was perfect. I’m sure I had a gobsmacked look on my face. 

So we jammed a little bit, I think we were all intimidated and just wanted to appear to be competent. I recall that Judge after one jam said, let’s do; and then just started listing chords trying to be all complex, and I’m just like, are we even in tune? It was a story that lives with me and always encourages me to play more, try more and give opportunity a chance. I’m thankful to my friends for being there with me and I think it was one of the defining moments realizing, Warren is so god damn genuine and authentic, THAT’S how I want to live my life. When Guitar Gods come knocking at your door, be ready!

Ok, funny thing, Like a sit-com, when I reached out to my ‘ol bandmates, Scott seemed to think everything fell into place but was probably just thinking about reasonable timeline and probability as opposed to recollection. George however shared the following. So I’m not going to contradict his telling, I’m just going to post it and seek out additional versions. The one thing I think we agreed on, was that we were in awe and not playing our best.

Judge

When I remember is that Larry was actually working at the Warfield and the three of us were home and playing music and Warren came over looking for Larry and it was like I don’t know 11 PM or something like that and we invited him in and asked him if he wanted to come downstairs and jam with us and the four of us played some music. I recall that Jason and your friend Marc had a brand new fender, Stratocaster or telecaster that you were borrowing and you let Warren play that.

Now… My memory could be incorrect. But I recall that Stephanie was not there and Warren was in town to do some recording for like a commercial or something like that and that’s why he was flying solo and stuff by to see Larry.

That is my memory