Warren Haynes paid his dues for years before he joined the Allman Brothers Band at the end of the ’80s. But by the time his ticket was pulled, he was in for a rewarding adventure.
The guitarist cut his teeth in Nashville, singing background vocals for a variety of artists who were putting out albums on Atlantic Records. He did stints with David Allan Coe and eventually, Dickey Betts, as well.
How Warren Haynes Joined the Allman Brothers Band
It was the Betts connection that opened the door for him to join the Allman Brothers when the Southern Rock legends reunited at the close of the decade. They did two albums in a relatively short period of time, launching their rebirth with 1990’s Seven Turns and subsequently, Shades of Two Worlds, in 1991.
READ MORE: Allman Brothers Band’s Shades of Two Worlds’ Reaches Old Heights
They continued with that forward momentum, releasing Where it All Begins in 1994. Haynes, in a somewhat unusual twist, considering he’d just joined the group, had a generous amount of cowrites on all three of the albums, beginning with Seven Turns. Even now, the guitarist realizes he was in a fortunate position.
“Well, they gave me that opportunity, which was fantastic,” he says today.”You know, in some ways it happened due to kind of a perfect storm. Because I had been writing with Dickey and playing with him. I [was part of] his record, Pattern Disruptive [in 1988] and did a couple of tours with him. Then, coincidentally, Gregg [Allman] recorded ‘Just Before the Bullets Fly,’ my song, for his solo record [of the same name] at that time.”
“And so all of a sudden, I was part of both camps, so to speak, from a writer’s standpoint,” he explains. “So when they brought me into the band, it wasn’t just as a guitar player, slide player [or] singer, it was as a songwriter as well. And you know, that’s a lot to expect from an iconic band that you grew up listening to. But it came about in the coolest way, I think. And it’s kind of testament to the difference in the Allman Brothers and a lot of the classic rock bands that were reforming.”
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The Allman Brothers Band Did Things Differently
The difference, as it turns out, was key for how things played out for Haynes — and the spiritual lift his career and creativity saw as a result. “Most bands come back, they have new members and the new members are in the back. The original members are in the front and do all the press,” he details. “And there’s obviously a divide between the two things, I think, with the Allman Brothers’ music. They knew and we knew that it can’t be that. It’s got to be a collective thing on stage with everybody firing on all cylinders, all of the time. Everybody equally important to the music at all times. They recognized that, and brought in what I think were the right people to kind of join up for the experience.
Warren Haynes – Tales of Ordinary Madness
Haynes Made His Own ‘Madness’ Along the Way
In the midst of the three Allman Brothers albums that emerged at the beginning of the ’90s, the singer and guitarist was clearly flush with no shortage of songs. He channeled those energies into recording his first solo album, 1993’s Tales of Ordinary Madness. The record finds Haynes sounding especially comfortable and confident in his own shoes in a way that’s not surprising, considering the work he’d put in to get to that point.
Working with Chuck Leavell, who produced the album, he found there was so much material, some of the ones he liked a lot got left on the sidelines. “I think we were choosing from 28 songs that I had narrowed it down to and sent to Chuck,” he remembers now. “And of course, one of those songs was ‘Soulshine,’ which we didn’t wind up recording.”
Listen to Warren Haynes’ ‘Broken Promised Land’
“The direction of the record kind of decided which songs fit in the most. I think there were a lot of my favorite songs at the time that we didn’t choose to record, and most of them got recorded at other times,” he says. “But, I had a lot of material at that time. I didn’t see myself having the opportunity to present songs to the Allman Brothers that I had written by myself. “That would change, but at that time, I felt [that] it’s a lot to expect to bring in, let’s say, ‘Broken Promised Land.’ Gregg could have sung the s–t out of that.”
“You know, there were several of those tunes that I could totally envision Gregg singing, and some of them that I could envision the Allman Brothers reworking,” he concludes. “But in that time period, it seemed like cowriting with them was such an amazing opportunity that I just kind of kept those two things separate.”
Fans Can Hear a New Version of ‘Tales of Ordinary Madness’
Haynes has been busy with a flurry of projects (as always) in the past year and as a new one begins, he’s putting the spotlight on Tales of Ordinary Madness, which has been newly remixed by Jim Scott. While fans have debated the merits and necessity of similar audio revisions of albums by some of their favorite artists and bands in the past, the reworking of Tales gives a record that already had solid sonics, a well-deserved fresh coat of paint.
It helps to highlight the positives of the original mix and turns the overall listening experience into an even better trip (and it exposes what a great headphone record Tales of Ordinary Madness is). Plus, if you don’t like it, the original is still on streaming and no one’s going to sneak into your house to take your CD away.
“I’m really happy with the way it was remixed. Jim Scott did a fantastic job,” he says. “The whole idea was to take a more organic approach to it, [with] less reverb, less EQ and less processing. Because records in ’93….or ’92 when we made [Tales] were still a little held over from the late ’80s, sonically. That didn’t change until around ’94 or ’95 when records started sounding more organic again. And so, you know, it’s not some massive difference, but there is a pretty obvious difference when you hear it. It sounds very hand in hand with what records sounded like at that time. But to a certain extent, it has a timestamp on it and the new version doesn’t.”
When Can I See Warren Haynes Live in 2026?
Oh, you’ll have plenty of chances to do that. The guitarist will hit the road beginning Feb. 12 for his first proper solo acoustic tour, playing two sets each night. The set list will mix solo songs with favorites from his long career with both the Allman Brothers Band and Gov’t Mule.
The Warren Haynes Band will also do a short run of dates starting on Mar. 1 and he’ll do shows with Gov’t Mule as well. This summer, he’ll team up with Joe Bonamassa for a run of dates from July 29 through Aug. 16. Complete tour information is available at his official website.
READ MORE: Warren Haynes Announces 2026 Tour Dates
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Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci
