Remembering Butch Trucks
Claude Hudson “Butch” Trucks, one of the Allman Brothers Band’s founding drummers, died Tuesday evening in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was 69. Page Stallings, Trucks’ booking agent, confirmed the veteran musician’s death to Rolling Stone, but said a cause of death is currently unknown. [Ed. note: Later published reports claimed it was suicide]. The Allman Brothers Band released their self-titled debut in 1969, which contained the now classic track, “Whipping Post.” The Allmans 1971’s At Fillmore East, a double-live LP went platinum, followed in 1972 by Eat a Peach, which was released after Duane Allman‘s death the prior year. Subsequent releases include the No. 1 Brothers and Sisters (1973), Win, Lose or Draw (1975) and Enlightened Rogues (1979). The band would issue several more studio, live and archival albums through last year.
The Allmans broke up and re-formed three times over the ensuing decades, and when they reunited a final time from 1999 to 2014 — they brought in Trucks’ nephew Derek to play guitar. After the group’s breakup, Butch Trucks played gigs under his own name and formed a new group, Butch Trucks and the Freight Train Band. He would play what would be his last show on January 6. “The Trucks and Allman Brothers Band families request all of Butch’s friends and fans to please respect our privacy at this time of sadness for our loss,” Trucks’ rep said in a statement. “Butch will play on in our hearts forever.” RollingStone.com has a nice in-depth piece about Trucks’ long history with the Allman Brothers Band.
