Christian and Molly Koch: Daddy Needs a Drink

A father-daughter interview with Christian and Molly Koch, where we talk about multigenerational music taste and being a DBT family.

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When Molly Koch was a little kid, she knew her dad listened to music about spiders. In frequent rotation were "Box of Spiders" and "Let There Be Rock" — with the lyric "I thought them lasers were a spider chasing me."

When I ask Molly if she remembers the first time she heard Drive-By Truckers, she recalls being 5 or 6, sitting in her dad’s car, with the windows down and Go Go Boots on the stereo. Her dad, Christian Koch, attended his first DBT show in 2010, when Molly was a baby, and she grew up listening to the band.

Now Christian (56) and Molly (17) both count DBT among their favorite bands. In their fandom family dynasty, DBT music acts as a secret language, with inside jokes and lyrics woven into everyday conversation. Molly is a musician and a painter whose work is heavily influenced by DBT; you may have seen her art on display at the Nuçi’s Space fundraiser during HeAthens Homecoming 2026. Christian is a professor who teaches at Georgia College and Kennesaw State University; in his spare time, he’s a devoted DBT ambassador. Recently, I wrangled Christian and Molly into a father-daughter interview from their home in Atlanta, where they talked about multigenerational music taste and what it’s like to be a DBT family.

Molly and Christian Koch. *Photo courtesy of Molly Koch*

Christian, you mentioned you have five children. I’m curious if they're all Drive-By Truckers fans.

Christian Koch: They all are except for my oldest — she has not been to a concert. But everybody else, it's generational. We have three girls and two boys: Lily and Chip are twins, and they are fans; my younger son Colin is definitely, and then Molly is bringing up the rear. I would say four out of five is a pretty good statistic. Over the last 15 years, my wife has gone from not interested at all to coming to the shows. To me, that was the biggest conversion of all of them.

You are an excellent ambassador. When did you get into Drive-By Truckers?

CK: March 13, 2010. Molly was like seven months old. My wife's parents were in town, and I had a friend say, "Hey, we have tickets to show downtown at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta." I was a little under the weather, but I wanted to get out of the house, so I'm like, "OK, I will meet you down there." And it basically changed my life. I loved seeing that band live.

Do you remember what it was about them that initially hooked you?

CK: I think Patterson and Cooley do such a great job explaining the human condition in words and music. There are things in life that people all go through, and I think the Truckers have done a great job of expressing that in different phases of their music.

Very well said. And Molly, what about you? Do you remember when you were introduced to DBT?

Molly Koch: I have one specific memory of driving in my dad's BMW, picking up my siblings from NYO [an athletic facility]. He put on the album Go Go Boots, and I remember seeing Wes Freed's art and thinking, “WOW.” I think the windows were down. I was maybe 4 or 5. He always played it when we were growing up.

"A lot of their music is storytelling, and a lot of their songs connect to one another, so it's like a huge, long story."

CK: Molly’s oldest brother Chip was playing Pop Warner football, and the coach would ask us all for a rally song for a mix CD, and I put "Birthday Boy" on the CD. It was one of my favorite songs at the time. I think the families were like, "What is this?” My wife was thrilled, by the way.

Molly, now that you're a little older, do you know what it is about their music that appeals to you?

MK: Patterson and Cooley have such a rich way of explaining the experience of life. A lot of their music is storytelling, and a lot of their songs connect to one another, so it's like a huge, long story. They use such vibrant language that I can put it into a painting super easily. I just think their lyrics are phenomenal. I'm in two bands, and I'm obsessed with music, and they're unlike any other band ever.

What instruments do you play?

MK: I'm new to bass, and I've been playing guitar for the last three years. I have a Cooley bird on my electric guitar. I'm in a band at my school with my good friend Jackson, his friend Ben, and my boyfriend. That's a really fun band. We're playing Dire Straits, we're learning a Beatles song, and we're also playing "Zip City," which is exciting because my boyfriend's a huge fan of Drive-By Truckers as well.

My other band is Neil and Kevin's Gar Car. It's a long name, but it's for Neil Young and then Kevin Kinney from Drivin N Cryin. And gar car is just an inside joke. We play all kinds of stuff. We play a lot of Jason Isbell. We've done Jeff Buckley. We've done a lot of Hole. We played "Sinkhole," which is really hard.

CK: When we were at Nuçi’s Space in February, she asked Patterson, "How do you play it?"

MK: I was like, "hey, what’s the tuning, man? I can’t figure it out."

Molly Koch and Mike Cooley. *Photo courtesy of Molly Koch.*

Tell me how you ended up showing your art at Nuçi’s Space.

MK: Courtney is one of my really good Drive-By Truckers friends. She's one of my favorite people ever. She knew that I was an artist, and a lot of my art is inspired by the Drive-By Truckers. She asked me if I wanted to maybe show some of my art and put one in the auction, which I didn't do this year, but hopefully next year I will. I’m working on a piece right now to probably put in the auction.

CK: She sold one to Cooley's wife!

MK: Oh yeah, I sold one to Cooley. Or to his wife, I guess. She was such a kind person. I sold Jason Isbell's Here We Rest album cover to them.

"I feel like I’ve gone from loving Patterson as a professional to appreciating him as a person. When he performs, I enjoy spending time with him."

Christian, you already told me your first show, but I'd be curious to hear Molly's first show as well.

MK: My first show was November 2024. It was at the Tabernacle in Atlanta, for Southern Rock Opera revisited. We had gotten these preview tickets, where you could watch them tune up and play a couple extra songs. I had drawn a portrait of Patterson; at this point, I hadn’t started painting yet. I ran up to Patterson to show him, and he signed it and said, "This is really good." And I started my first painting class after that. I got the set list for that show, and he gave me one of his picks. It was a great time.

Was the compliment from Patterson one of the reasons you decided to take a painting class?

MK: I've always loved painting, and I always loved painting people; everyone’s face is so different. Patterson definitely inspired me to keep trying something new. I've always been influenced by Wes Freed's art too.

Christian, are there DBT shows that stand out as the best shows you've seen?

CK: My wife and I saw them in New York City at Terminal 5 in 2010, right before Craig died. So Craig was on stage, and it was New Year's Eve, and we flew up to New York just to see the show. That was special.

I’ve seen them probably around 40 to 50 times. I've seen them several times in Asheville at The Orange Peel. That's one of my favorite venues. I’ve seen them in Memphis and D.C. One of the concerts that was really memorable was in Virginia when they were performing "Used to Be a Cop," and they all came out with cop uniforms and shades.

There was one show — I don't remember if it was Arkansas or Tulsa — but the lights went out in the middle of the show. Like a 15-minute intermission, it was pitch black. And then the lights went back on. It was in the middle of "Daddy Deeds a Drink" when they lost power, and they didn’t miss a beat. And each year we look forward to going to Homecoming.

MK: Last year was my second time, and I love it so much. I'm going all four nights this year. I better be.

CK: One memorable experience as a family was November 18, 2023. November 18 is my birthday, and I just got lucky enough that the Truckers were playing in Atlanta. My son and my daughter, the twins, bought me a shot at the bar because they both turned 21 that year. My son goes up to the bartender and goes, "Get my dad a shot." It was hilarious yet surreal as a dad.

Molly, do you have anything to add about being a DBT family?

MK: My brother drove me to school for I don't know how many years, and we would always play Drive-By Truckers and Jason Isbell. He is such a big Isbell fan, it's crazy. Being able to sing the songs with my brothers, and having those memories attached to our childhood, it's just awesome.

Let’s move on to songs. Do you have a favorite song or a song you have listened to more than any other?

MK: Definitely "Go Go Boots" is one of my favorite songs. "Heathens" is definitely on my list because you know, as a teenager, sometimes you can feel like an outcast, but "Heathens" is like "oh we I have a community, and you can call me a heathen, but I still have other heathens with me."

I love "Hearing Jimmy Loud." This year, I would listen to that song before my finals every single day. I'd come in the parking lot, and one of my friends was walking down the sidewalk, and she's like, "Oh, Molly's here." Because anyone who knows me knows that I am actively blasting Drive-By Truckers in my car.

I also like "Sandwiches For the Road," which is definitely one of my dad's favorites. "I Do Believe" — that's such a summer song to me, and I also have a memory of being in my dad’s car and listening to that one. "Angels and Fuselage" is so fun when you're on the highway and it's getting dark, and you're like, "I need to get home.”

CK: That’s on my list too.

MK: That one is just . . . wow. That’s one I really want to paint. I’m painting "72 (This Highway’s Mean)" now. What would you say, dad?

CK: I like "A World of Hurt." That kind of touches my soul. I also like "Angels and Fuselage." It cuts to the bone. "Box of Spiders." "Too Much Sex, Too Little Jesus."

MK: I also think that the South is super religious, and that’s very much in all of their music.

"It galvanizes me to see religion in a different way, maybe from a cultural perspective versus a religious perspective."

CK: My wife and I have been married for almost 30 years, but we're different religions. She's Catholic, I’m a Christian scientist, and we've had a great marriage. But that religion tie-in to the Truckers speaks to me. The religious component that we together as a family had to wrestle through. It galvanizes me to see religion in a different way, maybe from a cultural perspective versus a religious perspective.

Are there any songs you haven’t gotten to see live that you still hope you do?

CK: A Blessing and a Curse, that whole album: "Wednesday" and "Daylight," and "A World of Hurt" is on that one. I play that album a lot, but I haven’t heard many of those songs.

Patterson, Molly, and I got a chance to have a brief conversation at Nuçi’s Space, and I told him, "you know, Molly is the future of the Truckers. She's the next generation." And then I'm like, "by the way, I love 'Used to Be a Cop,'" and he played it that night. I think they genuinely pay attention to their fans.

I feel like I’ve gone from loving Patterson as a professional to appreciating him as a person. When he performs, I enjoy spending time with him. I always tell him,"Thanks for doing what you do, because I can't do that." I’m sure I’ve told them that at least a dozen times over the last 15 years. They have plenty of old people like myself, which is great. But Molly is definitely the future. My hope is that we can get more people like Molly, because she's really the future of the Truckers.

We need more Mollys!

MK: Trust me, I've been converting my friends. I go on the speaker sometimes in my art classroom, and I'll put on Drive-By Truckers and make everybody listen to it.

Molly, any songs that you feel are underappreciated that you would like to see live?

MK: I've been to only 10 shows, including seeing Patterson solo and Cooley solo. At one of my Patterson solos, I heard him play "Pauline Hawkins." I had never heard that song before, and I was like "Oh my gosh, I need to paint this."

*Painting by Molly Koch.* Says Molly, "Rather than painting humans, I chose to paint the dogs, because of Patterson's use of animalistic language and the use of the word 'cage.' I think a lot of time when somebody views a dog as a 'bad dog,' it’s because they have had bad experiences in the past and feel the need to defend themselves as a way of protection. They don’t want to feel vulnerable, and nor does Pauline."

I went home, I drew out what I was going to paint, I painted it, and I went to bed at 2 a.m. Then I went to school and skipped two of my classes that day just to finish this painting. So I would love to see "Pauline Hawkins" with the whole band.

And "Pauline Hawkins" is inspired by a novel. So now it's a novel that inspired a song that inspired a painting!

MK: Absolutely. I love going to solo shows because he gets to sit down and tell you why he wrote those songs, and that's one of my favorite parts about art. I love sitting down with somebody and hearing the origin of this story. That's the reason I like "The Opening Act."

Yeah, the backstory adds so much to it.

CK: It appears that Patterson has had a lot of awareness as his life has progressed, and he can talk about it, which is really interesting. Same with Cooley. I think that gives them a unique perspective.

Is there any really cool DBT merch or memorabilia that you own?

MK: I'd say probably Cooley's pick and Patterson's pick. And — I brought it down to show you — this is my dad's. [She holds up a well-loved t-shirt with a Cooley bird on it.] It's from 2011, so I was 2. I just think this is so sick.

Unfortunately, my brother ripped it at a frat party, so now I can't even wear it. Colin and I were fighting over it, and as the nice, gracious sister I am, I was like, "Colin, you can have it. Go show all your Northern buddies what Drive-By Truckers are." And then he called me one night and was like, "Molly, you have to come sew this shirt!" I'm like, "you could have ripped anything in your closet, but of course you ripped the one shirt that we can't get back." But I think this design is super cool.

What’s the most DBT superfan thing about you?

MK: I think it’s that everybody who knows me knows about the Drive-By Truckers. I talk about them in a lot of my essays, because I love to connect books to songs. I paint them. They’re my background on my computer. My room is filled with posters, and they are the majority of my posters.

CK: The simple answer is we continue to go back each year. We continue to spend the money. We want to come back every time, so we can be a family together. I just think that speaks volumes of them growing and still being relevant and real. I have memorabilia, but it's the 15 years of memories that are most important.

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