Credit: Jacob BlickenstaffGov’t Mule/ex-Allman Brothers Band member Warren Haynes will give a special live performance that will be available starting today at 3 p.m. ET at Rolling Stone‘s Instagram page as part of the magazine’s ongoing “In My Room” series.
Haynes also has donated a signed Les Paul Standard ’50s electric guitar to a charity auction to benefit the Equal Justice Initiative, an organization dedicated to fighting for racial and economic justice. The guitar, which has an estimated value of $2,500, is up for bid at CharityBuzz.com until July 9.
Meanwhile, Haynes has penned a lengthy op-ed piece titled “A Change Is Gonna Come — Oh, Yes It Will” that’s been posted at Newsweek.com. It features the veteran singer/guitarist reflecting on the current racial tensions in the U.S., and on the important influence the music of Black artists has had on white musicians, including himself.
Regarding his own influences, Warren writes, “[F]rom a very early age, soul music was king. James Brown was my first hero, and I spent countless hours in my room, before I ever picked up a guitar, trying to sing like Dennis Edwards of The Temptations, Levi Stubbs of The Four Tops and Sam Moore of Sam and Dave.”
Haynes notes that when he did start playing guitar, he came to “discover that all my favorite white singers and guitar players were emulating their Black heroes.”
In conjunction with his editorial, Haynes created a playlist of songs by a variety of his favorite Black artists, with themes echoing some of the issues that remain relevant as the U.S. experiences widespread protests following the death of George Floyd while in custody of Minneapolis police.
You can check out the full playlist at Spotify.
By Matt Friedlander
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.