G. Love & Special Sauce are back in Utah next week, almost exactly a year after their last show here. They’ll be at The Marquis in Park City on March 11. Doors are at 8 p.m.
Ahead of their arrival, we caught up with the band’s singer/guitarist/harmonica player, Garrett Dutton (aka G. Love), while they were in Roanoke, Virginia. Right away, we began to chat like old friends. This time around, they’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of Lemonade. He talked about how 2025’s Ode To R.L. is the first true hip hop album his band’s ever made, that posting a photo of Hillary Clinton once lost him thousands of fans, and that sometimes they’ll call ahead to make sure venues have enough bartenders on hand at their shows. Their fans tend to get thirsty.
“Our crowd likes their cold beverages,” he says, laughing.
Q: So why’d you choose to tour around Lemonade this tour?
Dutton: All the records from the 90s are turning 30. And the records from the 2000s are turning 20. It’s not like we’ll do it for every record, but we did do a 30th anniversary tour for the first one. And again for the 30th anniversary of Coast To Coast Motel, our second. Now we’re doing the Lemonade tour. It was a huge record for us in a lot of ways. It has “Rainbow” on it, a little ditty Jack Johnson encouraged me to record. I wasn’t going to, and now it’s my most-streamed song.
Q: And the album’s totally different from your most recent record, last year’s Ode To R.L.
Dutton: R.L. Boyce was an elder statesman of the Hill Country blues. He came through Mississippi, and it was a wonderful night. We got to listen to R.L. and joke around with him and back him up while he played a set of music. He was a fabulous man, a student of the blues. To get to sit with this old timer, the most authentic musician I’ve ever had a chance to share a jam with, was so special, a night I’ll never forget.
Sadly, he passed in 2023, and we decided to make this record. We took the jam session files we recorded together and chopped them up. My producer, Logan Tickner, a younger kid from Orleans, Massachusetts, chopped up the beats, chopping up R.L. ‘s voice, guitar, my harmonica, and all the rest. It was this amazing creative process where every beat had that palette, and some really unique sounds. Every beat was true. He put up a beat, and I’d start right into it with a lyric. We chipped away at it for a couple of years without knowing it was going to be a record. We were just doing it as an inspiration. And, suddenly, we had 10 songs and were able to release it, and I’m really happy about that.
Q: It’s cool you can delve into the blues or hip hop, lean into either direction, and it still rings true to your sound.
Dutton: The first record was a blueprint for that sound. We have gone a lot of directions, but it always comes back to that fusion of blues and hip hop, the sound people associate with G. Love. Ode To R.L. is unique, because it’s our first hip hop record. A live band was playing, but we made it into hip-hop tracks. It’s the first time I’ve ever done that.
We have another hip hop record we’re working on now. If I like a beat, I’m inspired and I start writing. It happens fast. It’s immediate. For most of my career, I’d sit on the front porch with the guitar, writing songs based on licks I played. It’s interesting to try a new process.
Q: How’s Jimi doing?
Dutton: Jimi Jazz broke his ankle real bad before our tour started, so he’s healing. An awesome bassist (Nate Edgar) is subbing on the East Coast dates, but Jimi will be back for the West Coast run, including the Utah show.
It’s tough right now. Everybody is tight financially. For musicians, it’s tighter than ever because the cost of touring has become so expensive, and people don’t buy records the same way they used to. Our music is on the digital stream platforms for perpetuity, theoretically, as long as there’s internet and electricity in this world, and we’ll continue to make our royalties, as small as they are. We call it our river of nickels. Thankfully, we’ve been touring in a tour bus since 1996, but the cost of tour buses and fuel has gone through the roof. Except for the money we make at shows, everything’s been static.
Really, though, we do good. We play clubs, and sell a lot of them out. There’s always a full house. That said, the tour barely pays for itself. I do two shows a day, a VIP hour-long show with songs and stories, and a regular show. I also do arts and crafts — hand-painted hats and hand-drawn set lists — every show, along with paintings on stage. Those four things — the paintings, hats, set list and VIP performances — make the tour viable. It’s a lot of extra work right now to keep the show going.
We’re so gracious for the fans who have supported us, truly. Everybody learned during COVID—if you can’t gather people together, people don’t come out, and you have no job. So, thank you for supporting live music. If you love a band, any band, go out and see them. You’re keeping those people and their families and everyone who works with the band going.
Q: I don’t think it’s something fans always consider, either: the bigger picture.
Dutton: It’s not on them. They’re the solution. Fans keep it going. Everybody in our world is struggling to make ends meet, and that also goes for our industry. If you watched the Grammys the other night, people are having massive commercial success. It’s like an NFL team: you have guys on a team with a salary of between $250,000 and $200 million. It’s the same in our industry.
Q: Do you think the political climate affects the music world, too?
Dutton: 100%, especially if you’re vocal about the way you feel. I feel compelled to speak my heart and mind on social media, and I have always been a protest kid. In high school, I went to rallies in DC to protest the Iraq War. I first noticed it years ago, after posting a photo of Hillary Clinton when she announced she was running for president. I didn’t say whether I supported her or not, but I included the hashtag #womenaresmarter. The fallout from that was unbelievable. People commented with “I like your music, but I don’t like your politics” or “Stick to entertaining, or I’ll never come to your show again.” I lost thousands of fans, and it definitely affected my business. But I feel like it is the duty for artists, and always has been, to represent the people. We sing about all things. Some might not be comfortable for all people, and that’s everyone’s prerogative. Our world has become so tribal. I have friends and family who feel differently than I do, and I tend not to talk politics with them if they’re on the other side of the aisle. For me, I love them anyway. They’re still my family and friends.
Q: It can be a losing battle trying to do otherwise.
Dutton: Everybody feels like that, on both sides. You can find proof of any theory you want to find online, of anything you want to say. If you want to say Trump’s not a racist, you can find stuff to back that up. If you want to say he is a racist, you can find stuff to back that up. People will believe what they want to believe, and that’s where we’re at. But everybody’s welcome at our show to enjoy good music. We don’t talk politics there. I let the music speak for itself. Anybody who wants to know how I feel about the world can listen to my lyrics and get a pretty clear picture.
Q: One of my personal favorite G. Love experiences: you were co-headlining with the Long Beach Dub Allstars years ago, and you switched who headlined each night. You opened when I went, and played for about an hour. I didn’t want to stay for the rest, so I went to the merch table, got my poster, my CD, and my shirt. My hands were full, and I was walking away. The Allstars singer was outside on his lawn chair and yelled, “You’re not staying to see my show?” I thought there was no way he was talking to me, so I kept walking. And he threw me a double bird. I thought, well, maybe he wastalking to me.
Dutton: That’s funny, and it sounds about right. Those guys were an intense group to be on the road with. There was nothing but love between our two bands, but my manager did get punched out by their guitar tech in Las Vegas once. It might have been his fault, overstepping where he was supposed to stand onstage and being a wiseass about it, but those guys are living the lifestyle they sing about. It’s a real thing.
Q: I’m looking forward to your show.
Dutton: Park City and Salt Lake City have been awesome to us over the years. I mean, every show at The State Room sells out. The music culture in Utah, being up in the mountains, it’s all great. Utah’s been huge for us since day one, and we’re excited to get back out to you guys and jam the Lemonade record. People coming together, stepping out and sharing a community of live music, that kind of warmth and love and openness is what everybody needs right now.
Q: A little bird told me you had another Utah connection, that you used to come out here and flyfish. Does that sound right?
Dutton: Yeah, my buddy Joe Mitchell is one of the top guides there. He does the Provo River and some other rivers, and we’ve done lots of flyfishing together. On top of that, some of our best friends used to own the Suede nightclub in Park City. For years, we’d come up during the Sundance Film Festival and do huge shows. We told them when we came through to make sure and have enough bartenders, because our crowd’s a drinking crowd. They like cold beverages.
Q: You’re playing one of my favorite places on this tour: Beachside Tavern out in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.
Dutton: That’s a rowdy place, too. I won’t be talking about politics there. We’ve played for the owners, Mark and his wife Heather, for years. It’s the last show on this first leg, and they’re excited.
Touring is crazy; it is no joke to keep your voice, health, energy, and spirits up. A famous musician told me the two-and-a-half hours where you’re on stage is the easy part. The other 21-and-a-half hours are the real marathon. We’re on tour a month out and have about 10 days left. I have to thank the fans, because it blows my mind. Tonight we’re in Roanoke, and we’ve got a sold-out show. Tomorrow, it’s Southern Pines, North Carolina. I’ve never ever been there, but it’s a sold-out show. Greenville, South Carolina, is next, and it’s sold out.
Q: So you’re definitely doing something right.
Dutton: I’ll never take it for granted. It never ceases to amaze me that this is happening. A dream come true, every day.
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