Derek Trucks has been married to singer-guitarist Susan Tedeschi for more than two decades. But he’s been in love with Layla for pretty much his whole life.
Of course, that’s Layla as in Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, the legendary 1970 double album by the Eric Clapton-led supergroup Derek And The Dominos. Trucks says his dad named him after the album, and used to play it for him and his brother when they went to sleep at night. More than a decade ago, the slide guitar master actually toured with Clapton, who worked many of the songs into his set. And in 2019, the Tedeschi Trucks band even covered the album live in its entirety, releasing the recordings in 2021 as Layla Revisited. But if you think he’s done with Layla, think again. The TTB’s latest album I Am The Moon might be his ultimate Layla tribute — a four-album, 24-song concept piece loosely inspired by the same 12th-century Persian poem about star-crossed lovers that Clapton read decades ago. As the first volume Crescent arrived, Trucks — who also happens to be one of the nicest people I have ever interviewed — got on the Zoom to talk about the project, his relationship with Layla, becoming a baseball card and lots more. Enjoy.
