American guitarist, singer and songwriter Walter Trout released his latest studio album, Broken, earlier this year. Topping the album chart, the record is a mastery of all that has made Trout a beloved pioneer of rock-out blues. As the musician returns to the UK to bring Broken to life on the stage, MetalTalk sat down with Trout to discuss the last half-century of his music in our midst.
Kicking things off with a huge congratulations on Broken’s release was only fitting. “Thank you. I’ve received such an amazing response. In America, on the Billboard blues chart, it came in number one, and it also did that in Europe, the UK, and then Australia. It just went great for me. And you know, I am hitting a certain age here. I don’t feel old, though.
“I still am driven to express myself. Even at this age, I’ve been at this for 55 years, and I still feel like I have something I want to say.”
Diving right into our current climate, Trout expressed his opinions on a previous statement made decades ago in which the musician described the want to make the world a better place through music. “Well, I am a very politically minded guy, but I don’t go on Facebook and spew my opinions. I will not change anybody’s mind arguing about it, but I believe that music is one of the few things left in the world that can bring people together.”
Despite the modern world becoming more and more questionable in its authenticity, Trout’s driving force remains true to his core beliefs. “I know that I have the opportunity every night when I play a gig, and I’m in a club, or I’m at a festival, I have the chance right then, for that short ninety minutes or two hours, to create a community.
“Everybody at that time is united in their love of music, their common humanity, and what it is that we have in common. When they’re there, it doesn’t matter who they vote for. Music is one of the few things that can bring people together.”
Trout’s outlook on the use of social media within the industry was refreshing. In his eyes, there are plenty more things one can do that would make a difference. “In the States, I can join Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. I can join Greenpeace. I can do the Environmental Defense Fund.
“Those organisations are trying to do something instead of going on social media and screaming at each other and calling each other names.”
Trout has always been commended on the honesty within his music. A true bluesman with an unflappable knack for musical greatness, we dove into some of the less enthused parts of the current mainstream scene.
“There is a lot of music out there that I find is very shallow and completely corporately produced. It just doesn’t do anything for me. There have been years of the media and radio promoting stuff that is shitty. They put it in front of people and say, ‘You should listen to this and dig that.
“But there is excellent, meaningful, and artistic deep music out there. You have to look for it, but it is still there,” Trout’s impassioned words are matched by sincere enthusiasm. “My mission in life is to try and create something as honest and meaningful as I have it in me to do.”
“But as The Big Lebowski would say, ‘that’s just like your opinion, man’ because what I care for and look for in music and art is not necessarily what everybody else does.”
“I am not the arbiter of taste and art but look for honesty and emotion. I am not looking for somebody to put on a persona.” Trout then takes a moment before holding his hands up and grinning, “Okay, I am going to get hate for saying this, but I don’t give a fuck who Ziggy Stardust is. I want to know who David Bowie is.
“I don’t dig the persona thing. I just know I enjoyed his music more when he had just become David Bowie and writing songs from his heart and soul. But that’s just me.”
Trout has had an incredible life, which is certainly well lived. From his time in Canned Heat to collaborating with some of the biggest names throughout the decades of decadence in music, there is no doubt his life has been nothing if not a continuous inspiration for his work.
“At this time in my life, after doing thirty-one albums and probably three hundred original songs out there, I can tell you ninety-nine out of a hundred of these songs have a story behind them. They come out of an experience, either something I have been through or something I believe or feel.
“Maybe it is something I’ve seen friends of mine go through, or even something I may see in a movie that moves me, and I can write about it. I’ve done a few tunes that were almost trying to be comedy. Turn Off Your TV is a comedy song for me. I was laughing when I wrote it.”
But despite his constant happy demeanour throughout our chat, Trout has lived a life in which he has battled addiction and pain. “I still struggle emotionally and mentally with things that happened to me in my life. I put on a good front, but inside, I struggle with a lot of things, and music is a good way for me to deal with it. I tried therapy, but I do better writing a song.”
This year marks ten years since Trout’s life-changing cirrhosis and subsequent liver transplant, which resulted in an eight-month-long hospital stay and brain damage. This caused him to lose the ability to speak, use his legs, play guitar, and even recognise his family. His recovery included spending eight hours a day relearning the guitar to regain his knick-out abilities.
It was nothing short of miraculous and inspired not only musicians but those who had been through similar feats. We were eager to find out how he was currently doing. His response was as inspiring as his recovery. “I am ridiculously healthy right now, almost disgustingly healthy.
“I have the cholesterol of a marathon runner and the liver of a twelve-year-old. A year ago, they gave me a blood test, and they thought the results were a mistake. I had to come into the hospital and redo it. But no, everything was completely normal. Emotionally and mentally, I’m still a fucking wreck, but physically, I am doing great.”
What you went through must have had such an impact on your life. “Facing that will rearrange your priorities regarding what is essential in your life as well as the music. The thing I had done my entire life was suddenly taken from me. When I worked hours a day to get that back, I had this realisation I had taken it all for granted.
“There had been times I had been playing with John Mayall or Mick Taylor, and I had been looking at my watch, wondering when I could get back to the hotel and watch HBO. But now, it is so much more meaningful. It gave me a different perspective on being alive and what is important. I am determined to never take anything for granted again because it can be all taken away like that.”
Trout speaks with such incitement that it becomes impossible not to drink in every word he says. “I am very aware of mortality, and I want to make the best of every moment I have. It is easy to fall back into old patterns, but you have to fight it.”
Throughout his career, Trout has been recognised for his brilliant collaborations. Broken features include a plethora of these, including Beth Hart, Will Wilde, and Dee Snider. “When I started writing the title track, I could hear Beth singing it with me.”
“Before I moved to Los Angeles at twenty-two to be a musician, I was a trained therapist in a drug rehabilitation program in Philadelphia, and I ran group therapy sessions with junkies who would come in and out of prison.
“I did that for a year and a half, and I had a nervous breakdown and decided I’m just going to be a guitar player now, and I moved to LA, and within a year, I was a heroin addict myself. I went through years of heroin addiction and alcoholism.”
Trout ended up living on the street and not even touching a guitar. “At that point, I was a young, broken individual. It’s hard to talk about it so I wanted to write about it. I got the music, but then I got stuck lyrically, and I just hit a wall.
“I called my wife, who was in Denmark, and she is an award-winning songwriter herself. She sent me about eighty per cent of that song, and because I know Beth has been through similar things as myself, I sent her the song and asked if she wanted to collaborate. She called me right up and said, I have to come in and sing this with you.”
The result is a phenomenal intro to the album, with Hart’s soul lending itself to the music faultlessly. “She came in and gave it everything she had. It was incredible watching her do that.”
But with Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, it was a slightly different story. “I got a message from Dee saying he would love to come in and sing some blues, which was awesome. But I thought if I am going to do something with fucking Dee Snider, then I am going to rock.
“I was thinking about the Twisted Sister song We’re Not Gonna Take it, and I came up with the title of the song we ended up recording, I’ve Had Enough. The song wrote itself in about ten minutes, then he came in to record, and we had a ball. I love doing that song live, too, and I wish he could be there every night to do it with me.”
With Broken still riding high on its spine-tingling goodness, Trout is heading over to the UK this week to give us much-anticipated live performances of his latest album. Having had the pleasure of previously seeing Trout live, I can eagerly confirm the excitement is very much well-earned.
His performances are wrapped in high-tailed emotion, as well as Trout’s signature comedic values and story-telling brilliance. “I will be doing a lot of songs off Broken,” Trout shares the bubbling excitement for the tour, “I love doing the song Bleed, which is a Canned Heat-esque boogie. I have this incredible harmonica player from the UK called Will Wilde.
“There is no one like him. I am going to give him a couple of little featured numbers. I also do a tribute to John Mayall. I actually grew up with a guy who came to see me last year. He told me not to talk so much, but I said to him, ‘Hey dude, I’ve got stories to tell, and I am going to tell them!”
Keep ’em coming, we say. After a hilarious recount of a story involving John McVie, a bottle of vodka and a response of ‘Please no Stevie Nicks!’ when asked what record he wanted to hear next, we wrap up our chat in barrels of laughter.
Trout is back in the UK this week, and we can not highly recommend the show enough. As a wholehearted advocate for the true, honest artistry that lies within music, Trout embodies so much that feels rare to find nowadays unless you are looking in the right places.
Having his music to listen to is a gift, but being able to chat with Walter Trout was an experience I will not forget.
For information on tour tickets, click here. The UK leg starts on 16 October at Buxton Opera House and finishes on 25 October in London.
