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Warren Haynes was “starting to lose hope” in up-and-coming musicians, until these players changed his mind
“I’m starting to see young artists that care, in the way that they want to be around for the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years, and not just being noticed right now.”
Image: Scott Legato/Getty Images
Warren Haynes of Gov’t Mule and The Allman Brothers Band has admitted that he “started to lose hope” in new musicians. That was until guitarist Billy Strings changed his mind.
In an interview with Listen Next!, the guitarist make the admission when discussing the future of music. He explains that there are a few musicians he has worked with that ultimately changed his stance.
“I was starting to lose hope for a while, because it seemed like everyone was very trendy-oriented. And now, I’m starting to see young artists that care, in the way that they want to be around for the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years, and not just being noticed right now.”
When asked which artists allowed him to change his mind, he was pretty set on one guitarist in particular.
“Obviously, this guy Billy Strings, who’s now a huge success. That’s only happened in the past few years, and the first time I heard him, when he was still on his way up, I [thought], ‘Wow, this guy is really good, I hope he goes places,’ and, of course, he did.”
You can watch the full interview below:
The notion that older musicians think younger musicians are not adequately carrying on genres has been long debated, with guitarists like Gene Simmons even claiming that “rock is dead”.
However, Dave Grohl has been a big advocate for young musicians, supporting those from Billie Eilish to Wet Leg:
“I can understand how it’s a different game nowadays for younger bands. There’s a lot of great young bands that are fucking killing it and have devoted fan bases. They might not be as popular as Nicki Minaj, but honestly, when I see fucking Billie Eilish, that’s rock ‘n’ roll to me. She started a revolution and took over the world.”