Butch Taylor, long time guest member and keyboardist for The Dave Matthews Band as photographed in October 26, 2007 by his cousin and professional photographer Taylor Richards Glenn.
This morning I got an email from my favorite Dave Matthews Band fan site with the very sad news that longtime ‘guest’ member and keyboardist Butch Taylor just left the band. Here’s the story on WeeklyDaveSpeak.com titled “After 10 years of Touring, Butch Taylor Calls it Quits“. As long time Dave fans, Shannon and I have always been perplexed as to why Butch wasn’t given full band status given the inclusive nature of the band. It seems just as hard to see him leave as it would if Stefan or another member were to go. Shudder to think.
Speculation I’ve read is that he was just really tired of being on the road and wanted to be home with his family back in DMB home town Charlottesville Virginia. Funny enough, my search for more news on Butch landed me on acclaimed T.V. interviewer Charlie Rose’s web site. There I found a ‘Butch Taylor’ tagged video that was actually a one hour video special on the entire band, their music and history. I have NO IDEA how I missed this Charlie Rose special. About two thirds of the way through the special they introduce Butch and strangely enough (or not) the one thing they show Butch talking about is how difficult being on the road is and how he missed his family. Not surprisingly all the band quickly agreed with Butch but it still struck me as pretty interesting given that he made the comment seven years ago.
I’ve embedded the Charlie Rose special below and even if you’re not a huge Dave head I think anyone interested even vaguely in music would find it very interesting. There’s much to see here in terms of their highly varied musical heroes, the eclectic mix of music styles, backgrounds and personalities that are just as far ranging.
Whether you know me or not I’m here to say that only my family is more important in my life than music and no other band is more important to me or Shannon than the Dave Matthews Band. I am truly saddened that when Shannon and I see them this summer for the umpteenth time Butch won’t be playing with them. We can only hope that he’ll soon miss his band mates and that his family will understand his desire to be with them again.
Butch we will miss you and we wish you peace, happiness and our sincerest gratitude for what you’ve brought to your band’s music, the songs, the fills, the leads, the solos, the rhythm and some serious pearly sparkle. You were lucky to be with Dave and Company and they were lucky to have you. And to your family, thank you so much for sharing him with us for all those years.
