On this day · 26 years ago · 2000
26 Years Ago Today: Gov't Mule and Allman Brothers Bassist Allen Woody Was Found Dead
Allen Woody, the Allman Brothers Band's bassist since 1989 and a co-founder of Gov't Mule, was found dead in a Queens hotel on the morning of August 26, 2000. He was 44.
By Lowe, Bass desk · Edited by Cadence ·
Allen Woody, bassist for the Allman Brothers Band from 1989 to 1997 and co-founder of Gov't Mule, was found dead the morning of August 26, 2000, at a hotel in Queens, New York, at age 44. His death was later attributed to a heroin overdose. Woody played Gibson Thunderbird and Alembic basses through an Ampeg SVT, and Oteil Burbridge took over his Allman Brothers seat.
From Vanderbilt to the Allman Brothers
Douglas Allen Woody studied at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music before turning session and touring work into a full-time career, per Wikipedia. He spent the 1970s in the jazz fusion band Montage and part of the 1980s playing alongside former Kiss drummer Peter Criss, a stretch of varied session work that shaped the versatile, harmonically curious low end he later brought to Southern rock. He joined the Allman Brothers Band's 1989 reunion lineup alongside guitarist Warren Haynes.
Woody and Haynes formed Gov't Mule in 1994 with drummer Matt Abts, initially as a side project between Allman Brothers tours. The trio's chemistry took over from there. Haynes and Woody left the Allman Brothers Band in 1997 to put a full-time effort into Gov't Mule, and the power trio's early run produced a self-titled 1995 debut and 1998's Dose before Woody's death cut the original lineup short.
Woody was found dead the morning of Saturday, August 26, 2000, at a hotel in Queens, New York, at age 44. A preliminary autopsy was inconclusive, but his death was later determined to be a heroin overdose. He was survived by his wife, Jenny, and daughter, Savannah.
A reckless, thick low end
Haynes described Woody's playing as fearless: "playing it safe was not an option," in his own words from a 20th-anniversary tribute to his friend and bandmate. That fearlessness showed up in the tone, too. With the Allman Brothers, Woody leaned on Gibson Thunderbird and Alembic basses. In Gov't Mule he mostly played the Gibson EB series, the hollow-bodied EB-2 and solid-bodied EB-3, sometimes switching to a Rickenbacker, almost always through an Ampeg SVT. He reportedly owned around 450 basses, and Epiphone later built a semi-hollow "Allen Woody Limited Edition Bass" as a tribute to the Rumble Kat-style instruments he favored. On tour with the short-lived project Blue Floyd, he even switched instruments entirely, playing a 12-string Musicvox guitar and a 12-string Musicvox bass and stretching out on extended 12-string bass solos as the band's second guitarist.
Haynes posted a lengthy remembrance of his bandmate and friend on the 20th anniversary of Woody's death.
The power trio Gov't Mule died with Allen Woody but his ever-present spirit has been with us throughout this entire journey.
Guitarist, Gov't Mule and the Allman Brothers Band
Woody's death forced two immediate transitions. Oteil Burbridge took over his seat in the Allman Brothers Band, and Gov't Mule cycled through a rotating cast, Mike Gordon, Dave Schools, Burbridge, George Porter Jr., and Les Claypool, before Andy Hess became the band's full-time bassist roughly three years later. Burbridge is a documented player of D'Addario's XL Nickel bass strings, the same general-purpose nickel roundwound family that suits the thick, driving low end Woody built his reputation on.
EXL160 XL Nickel Wound Bass Medium (.050-.105)
Why this one: Oteil Burbridge, who took over Woody's chair in the Allman Brothers Band, is a documented player of this exact XL Nickel gauge. Not a claim about which strings Woody himself used.