Drive-By Truckers

The alternative country rock band Drive-By Truckers was formed in 1996 by Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley in Athens, Georgia. ∙ Hood and Cooley played in the late-’80s group Adam’s House Cat, which was named one of Musician magazine’s 10 Best Unsigned Bands. ∙ Critics hailed their 2001 LP, Southern Rock Opera, which interweaves the story of Lynyrd Skynyrd with that of a fictional band. ∙ Guitarist Jason Isbell was songwriter for three of their albums, alongside Hood and Cooley, before launching a successful solo career. ∙ Drive-By Truckers are one of only four bands that David Letterman called back for an encore during his 22 years hosting The Late Show. ∙ They served as Bettye LaVette’s studio band on her 2007 Grammy-nominated comeback album, The Scene of the Crime, and backed Booker T. Jones on his 2009 Grammy-winning LP, Potato Hole. ∙ In 2020, they released two politically charged albums: The Unraveling and The New OK, the latter of which included a rowdy version The Ramones’ “The KKK Took My Baby Away.”