After the death of bassist Allen Woody in August of 2000, Gov't Mule [ tickets ] singer/guitarist Warren Haynes and drummer Matt Abts didn't let their sorrow sink their band.

Instead, they enlisted help from friends and got to work with two volumes of "The Deep End," albums that featured everyone from Bootsy Collins to Flea to John Entwistle holding down the bass duties.

More recently, the group released the CD/DVD package "The Deepest End," which chronicles a six-hour Gov't Mule concert that took place last May at the Saenger Theater in New Orleans. The concert's lineup featured a staggering 13 guest bassists, including Phish's Mike Gordon, Deep Purple's Roger Glover, Jack Casady (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna), and Fred Wesley (James Brown), among others.

For the long term, Gov't Mule has enlisted Andy Hess (John Scofield) as their permanent bassist, and added keyboardist Danny Louis. The quartet is currently on tour, and liveDaily spoke with Haynes by phone while the group was on the road in Florida.

liveDaily: This tribute concert in May was a monster.

Warren Haynes: That particular show was the longest show we've ever played. It was six hours long. We rehearsed for three-and-a-half hours during the afternoon, took a dinner break, and then played for six hours. It didn't feel like six hours, but it was.

Did Matt Abts say the same thing?

Probably, yeah. I don't know how Matt does it. He's one of the few drummers that I know that can play that long and keep up that kind of stamina. Plus, not to mention how physically he plays. I remember doing records with Matt where we would play five or six hours in the studio, and then take a break and he would be playing his drums during the break. He's just crazy that way. But he sounded amazing in the final hour of the concert. I listen to the tapes and look at the film at the very tail end, and I don't know where he got his energy from.

How long had you been making the concert plans?

We had been talking about it for a few months. We knew that we wanted to do a big final blow-out that was going to be the culmination of "The Deep End" project, and we wanted to get as many of the bass players we'd worked with … and a lot of other special guests--just as many as possible. Our manager came up with the idea of doing it in New Orleans during Jazzfest, because so many people would already be there. So that made it more budgetarily feasible, because half the people were already there, and the other half we had to fly in and put up in hotels. Once we did that, it all started falling into place. We had been sending tapes to different people and talking on the phone about what material we were going to do, knowing we had a very small window of rehearsal.

Of the 13 bass players that played the show, I wanted to ask about a few specific ones, like George Porter, Jr. of The Meters.

George Porter has been a friend for quite a long time, and he's one of the people that at this point we consider family. He was one of the hands-on bass players that took his time and energy to go on the road with Gov't Mule. Porter, Jason Newsted, Greg Rzab (Jimmy Page, Black Crowes) and Dave Schools (Widespread Panic) had all gone on the road with us. They're more family than anything else.

I didn't realize that Jason Newsted (ex-Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne) went on the road with you.

Yeah, there were times that we would take two or three bass players at a time. It didn't seem right to subject these bass players to learning so many songs. When Woody passed away our repertoire was around 400 songs. All these people were taking their time and energy to come on the road, so we'd divide up the workload and say "Hey you learn these 20 or 30 songs, and you learn those 20 or 30 songs." And they would each play part of the show and they weren't overwhelmed with learning so many tunes.

Plus, you're picking tunes they know. "War Pigs" was probably one of the first songs Jason learned when he picked up the bass.

Probably. We tried to pick songs that matched the player's personality.

What about Paul Jackson (Herbie Hancock/Headhunters), who played on "Chameleon"?

Paul Jackson came on board at the last minute. He was on our long list of bass players that we wanted to work with, when we were making the CDs, but we'd never made that connection. Then, about two days before we were leaving for New Orleans to do "The Deepest End," I got a phone call saying, "Paul Jackson is around and wants to be part of this. Is there something we can do?" So I had already talked to the Dirty Dozen Brass Band about doing "John the Revelator," and I asked them if they did a version of "Chameleon," and they were like, "Yeah." So I said, "Let's do ‘Chameleon' with Paul Jackson," since, you know, he co-wrote it and was the original bass player. But that came last minute. We had five minutes of rehearsal. We were all digging that out of our past. It's something we all played growing up.

What's this tour leg shaping up to be, and what's after that?

This leg is about five-and-a-half weeks, all told. We end up in Denver, where we'll merge with Phil Lesh & Friends and do three nights at the Denver Fillmore. I'll be doing double duty with Phil & Friends and Gov't Mule, which I've been known to do in the past. From that point forward, Phil & Friends stays on the road and Gov't Mule goes home. It's been an amazing tour. It's been really cool.