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Blues great Susan Tedeschi talks cheerleading, fantasy football, and how Abe Lincoln fits in her family tree
Norwell’s Grammy winner — and now hall-of-fame cheerleader — will rock Boston and Providence in an epic 4-night run with Tedeschi Trucks Band this week.
I’ve been talking sports with Susan Tedeschi — the Red Sox (she’s a lifelong fan), Caitlin Clark, her fantasy football leagues (yes, plural) — for a good bit before this gem pops up:
“Oh, one other weird little fact, tying into the sports — our cheerleading squad is getting inducted into the Norwell High School Athletic Hall of Fame,” she says.
Wait, what?
“Yeah, our football team won the Super Bowl my senior year. I was on the cheerleading squad. So we’re getting into the Hall of Fame this month. Woo!”
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I truly have no words for such amazing local sports news.
“I know. Hilarious,” she says. “The many sides.”
The many sides, indeed.
Norwell’s soon-to-be hall-of-fame cheerleader was also a basketball player, theater kid and “physics and chemistry nerd” who almost pursued a career in marine biology, but missed her deep sea expedition (it happens) and instead went to Berklee College and became a Grammy-winning power vocalist with fiery guitar chops.
“I hadn’t gotten into drugs as a kid, so I just stayed busy,” Tedeschi, 53, tells me with a laugh.
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After cutting her teeth on the local music scene in the ’90s — from Allston to Somerville, Quincy to the Vineyard— she eventually toured with the Allman Brothers Band, where she met Derek Trucks, nephew of late great drummer Butch Trucks.
They married in 2001 and wedded bands in 2010. Today, the 12-piece Tedeschi Trucks Band has a reputation as an incendiary band best seen live.
It’s no exaggeration to say Trucks is a guitar genius. The former child prodigy who crushed “Layla” —and also played with Dylan — in middle school, can melt minds. (Even melted John Mayer’s and BB King’s.)
When Tedeschi and Trucks combine powers — with a hot 10-piece band — they can bring down the house. They’ll bring down a few this week on their “Deuces Wild” tour: a sold-out Oct. 1 show at Boston’s MGM Music Hall at Fenway, sold-out show Oct. 3 at The Vets in Providence, Rhode Island, and two shows at Boch Center Wang Theater Oct. 4 and 5.
I called Tedeschi, who now lives in Jacksonville, Florida, this week. In conversation, she talks quickly and animatedly, with a bubbly personality like we’re old friends. Laughs often. We traced her roots to Abraham Lincoln, talked Sox, Celts, TD Garden — and that time she hung with a pot-smoking Gatemouth Brown on Martha’s Vineyard during Bill Clinton’s party.
Boston.com: Boston has no openers, but in Providence, The Reckoners open.
Susan Tedeschi: That’s my old boyfriend, Tim Gearan, who I dated for four years in Boston. He’s a great guitar player, singer/songwriter. We dated for years, and honestly, he was such a sweetheart, we never fought once. He’s got a wife and a daughter. We stay in touch. I’m excited. That’s gonna be awesome. He’s a badass.
You met in Boston?
Yeah, he was a staple in the area. Played with a bunch of people. He gigged Toad’s Place for years, Johnny D’s for years. I met him there, at the Sunday blues jam around ’93. Actually Tim is on [my sophomore album] “Just Won’t Burn.” He plays on “Angel from Montgomery.”
That’s a great John Prine cover. And you met Derek while opening for the Allman Brothers Band.
I met Derek July 21, 1999. We’ve been together 25 years, married 23 in December.
What clicked?
Our record collection. And we both love sports. [laughs] A lot of musicians don’t like sports, some people don’t know that. But my husband and I are into fantasy football; we love baseball; we love basketball. We really love sports. It was a big thing for me to connect on something outside of music. Because you can get burned out. You need other things to inspire you. And music and sports, weirdly, are connected: you’re on the road a lot, trying to focus and perform every time you go to a new city. I get it.
That’s true. Are you a Sox fan? Celtics? Pats?
I’m a Red Sox fan and Braves fan because my husband and son are into the Braves — a lot of our band is from Atlanta.
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I love the Celtics. I grew up playing basketball; I’m big into hoops, I love great players. I watch WNBA and NBA. My husband got me hooked on Indiana Fever, watching Caitlin Clark. I just like watching great basketball players.
I’m a big-time Jacksonville Jaguars fan. I’m huge into fantasy football. I’ve come in the top two in our league the last five years.
Who else is in your league?
I’m in two leagues: our home league with friends and family, and our band league. My band league, I’m crushing right now. My home league, I had a lot of injuries the first week. Lot of great players went down. I was like, crap! [laughs]
[laughs] You guys had an epic run with the “The Garden Parties” last year, at Madison Square Garden and TD Garden.
Boston Garden is one of those places — shoot, I got to see Magic Johnson play against Larry Bird in that place. That’s an iconic place for me. That was a dream. That was a huge honor. To have my parents see us play there, like, “Oh, maybe they are doing OK.”
[laughs] You usually play Boston in December, which is a big family reunion for you. You’re here early this year.
I’m excited to get there earlier this year and not make my parents come out in the snow. [laughs] And I’ve never played the Wang Center or MGM Fenway. Next on the bucket-list is Fenway Park. The Red Sox are still my team.
Tedeschi Trucks Band has a lot of jam-band fans. You’ve played with the Dead often.
Yes, including [Dead Ahead in Cancun] in January. That was so fun. Sturgill [Simpson, who was there] and Derek have the exact same birthday: June 8, except Sturgill is one year older. Those two are thick as thieves. Adorable together. [laughs] His wife Sarah is lovely, she’s a badass screenwriter. To meet them through the Dead was really cool.
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Bob Weir and those guys have always been so lovely to me. I love them so much. I have nothing bad to say about them other than that, they’re a lot of fun and a little crazy, which I like. [laughs] Shoot, I played Boston Garden with them back in 2002 right after I had my son, and now he’s 22 and just got married. That’s pretty wild.
Wow. You sit in with so many great artists. Any who stand out recently?
I’m trying to think [laughs]. I’d have to look at my phone to see my pictures. Derek has actually been doing more sit-ins recently. He sat in with Phish. The other day, he [covered Crazy Horse] with the Black Pumas, then did our set, then sat in with Dave Matthews for “Lie in Our Graves.”
A hat trick.
[laughs] I know. And Dave is a sweetheart. “Lie In” isn’t an easy tune, because you have to pace yourself for that solo; you don’t want to overshoot it. Derek crushed it. Oh! Actually, one of my favorite things we did this year was playing with the National Orchestra in Washington, DC for a tribute to Leonard Cohen [“Here It Is” at the Kennedy Center].
That’s incredible. I love Leonard Cohen.
It was incredible. It was two nights. The second night Tricia Yearwood wasn’t there so they had me sing ‘Hallelujah.” Then Timothy B. Schmidt from the Eagles got sick, so I sang “Bird on a Wire.” I also did “Steer Your Way,” and “Anthem,” which are really heavy songs, especially right now with everything going on in the world. So it was deep. His music is outrageous. To me, he and Bob Dylan are two of the greatest songwriters of all time.
I’d agree.
Yeah, it’s been a whirlwind. Last week, I presented the Blind Boys [of Alabama] with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Americana [Music Association] Awards. Life is good. My kids are good; my parents are still here.
You have lots of family up here. You said your parents are in Marshfield, and your great-uncles and grandfather started Tedeschi Food Mart and Tedeschi Reality.
Yeah, my grandfather Nick Tedeschi’s first wife, my paternal grandmother, comes direct ancestry from the Mayflower. Our family settled in what became Norwell. So for example, Abraham Lincoln’s grandfather is my ninth-great grandfather: Ezekiel Lincoln, from Hingham.
Oh my God. What?
Oh, yeah. I’m a direct ancestor of Abraham Lincoln, as well as a bunch of other crazy connections. John Adams, John Quincy Adams, William Bradford, first governor of Massachusetts.
How do you know this?
My dad’s always been into genealogy. He started studying it in the ’60s and ’70s. He’s been working on it hard ever since.
You would be perfect for PBS’s “Finding your Roots.” Have they ever asked you to be on?
They haven’t! They should ask me. [laughs] The musician Greg Leisz — he’s played with Bob Dylan — we realized we’re both related to John and Priscilla Mullins from the Mayflower. So we’re cousins.
You seriously need to get on that show. [laughs] So getting to your Boston roots: You went to Berklee — but you originally wanted to be a marine biologist.
I almost went on an expedition with Dr. Robert Ballard because my grandfather donated to this expedition. But my grandfather mixed up the dates. So I ended up going to Berklee and just became a musician.
That’s wild.
I know. You never know. Life can take you many roads.
You started out playing all over Boston.
I played at Toads, Joe’s YardRock in Quincy, Nantasket Beach, Harper’s, The Plow and Stars, The Middle East, Paradise, House of Blues.
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Martha’s Vineyard was big. That’s where I got to know [Clarence] Gatemouth Brown. I was supposed to open for Gatemouth. Then President Clinton decided to have a party for his secretary [at the venue], so I got kicked off the gig. But then Gatemouth’s like, “Nope. Susan’s not leaving. She’s with me.”
And, oh my God, he was smoking pot. It was definitely not legal back then. [laughs] But he’s like, “I’m the Deputy Sheriff of Slidell, Louisiana. I’m allowed to do this.” I’m like, “Let Gatemouth do whatever he wants. This is amazing.”
Interview has been condensed and edited. Lauren Daley is a freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected]. She tweets @laurendaley1, and Instagrams at @laurendaley1. Read more stories on Facebook here.
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