Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers unleashes on the music biz in an interview with Wayne Bledsoe of Scripps News.
There is no generation gap when it comes to the music of the Drive-By Truckers. The band is just as likely to appeal to 16-year-olds drawn by the act’s in-your-face raucousness as 50-year-olds attracted to the group’s classic-rock edge.
“The music industry is so inept that they view that aspect as a negative,” says Hood from his home in Athens, Ga., where the band is now based. “They only know how to focus on one select demographic and (brainwash) that one demographic until they go, ‘Uhhh … must … have … Black … Eyed … Peas!’ or whoever it is at any given moment.
And because we’ve never pandered to any one demographic or even been interested in any one thing, it’s always been viewed by the industry as a shortcoming … The industry is sucking all over, and, hopefully, my band is going to be dancing on their graves.”
The band’s 2001 epic Southern Rock Opera (the record responsible for launching the band to a wider audience) was only released after a group of DBT investors, including Widespread Panic’s Dave Schools, provided much needed liquid capital to print 5000 copies. However, after its release, Southern Rock Opera became one of the most heavily praised indie releases of the decade. The album received a four star rating from Rolling Stone Magazine, for instance. Soon thereafter, DBT signed a large-scale distribution deal with Lost Highway Records and Southern Rock Opera was re-released, this time worldwide, on July 16, 2002.
[UPDATE] Hood is blogging DBT’s current tour at Gibson Guitars.