By age 14, Mozart had written a stack of sonatas. At 12, pianist Ignace Paderewski entered the Warsaw Conservatory. At 9, violinist Niccolo Paganini began his concert career.
At 13, guitarist Derek Trucks is jamming with Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter, Jeff Healy, Joe Walsh, Bruce Hampton, Little Feat and the Allman Brothers, and leading his own band-Derek and the Dominators.
Hampton calls him the best guitarist he has ever seen. Greg Allman likens Trucks to a reincarnation of his late brother Duane.
Allman Brothers guitarist Warren Haynes said Trucks is ”phenomenal.”
Haynes said he met Trucks, the nephew of Allman drummer Butch Trucks, two years ago. They ended up jamming together into the night.
Calling from his Jacksonville, Fla., home, where he lives with his parents and two brothers, Trucks sounds more like a regular kid than a prodigy. He doesn`t have a ”phone voice” and he hasn`t been trained in the
”art of the interview.”
He talks about music matter-of-factly, and most often describes playing onstage as ”having fun.”
He loves baseball, plays Nintendo and likes water parks. He lets others worry about bookings and record company negotiations.
”I try to keep normal,” said Trucks with a nervous chuckle. ”I guess I just try not to worry about that stuff.”
Trucks first picked up a guitar at a garage sale when he was 9. He began asking his father to show him how to play some chords, then picked things up from records.
Two or three months after buying his guitar, he was onstage playing with a band that included members of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
”He wouldn`t face the audience,” said Trucks` father, Chris. ”He knew the drummer, so he faced the drummer.”
Derek Trucks said that his nervousness on stage has waned.
”I used to be nervous all the time,” he said. ”I guess it just depends on the weather.”
Trucks said his first big influence was Duane Allman. He copied Allman
”not lick for lick, but the style.”
From Allman, and other musicians, Trucks developed his own style. He doesn`t play a lot of notes. He`s like Elmore James, emphasizing soul more than speed.
Trucks` first tour, with the Ace Moreland Band, took him to the Toronto Jazz Festival and he loved it.
”Oh yeah. I was up front in the RV watching the drive. I didn`t sleep a wink the whole time. It was pretty cool.”
Trucks said one of his favorite guest spots is playing with the Allman Brothers. At one show, Little Feat and Trucks joined in on ”Southbound.”
”When Derek took a solo, you could look at the members of Little Feat and just watch their jaws drop,” said Chris Trucks.
Derek Trucks said it doesn`t really bother him that people come to his shows because of the fuss about his age.
”They`re going to think it`s a novelty at first, but I guess if they come back, it`s not the novelty aspect that brings them back.”
He also isn`t uncomfortable that the rest of his band, all musical veterans, are well over twice his age.
”It`s pretty cool,” Trucks said. ”When we`re onstage, we`re not really thinking about the ages, we`re just playing music and having fun.”
When it comes to the music he likes to listen to, Trucks admits he doesn`t have a lot in common with his friends from school.
”Most kids at school don`t even know I play,” he said. ”On my birthday we went to Wet `n Wild and I invited a few friends and we played while we were down there. So a few of them have heard, but not many.”
Chris Trucks said he hopes that by the time Derek is 18 his son will have control of his career.
”It`s a rough business,” said the elder Trucks. ”I hope he`s learning from the mistakes I make.”
He doesn`t want his son to rush into a record deal or do anything before he`s ready.
”He`s only 13, so there`s plenty of time.”
