Sean Hofherr: A Blessing and A Curse

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I know I’m not alone when I say that Drive-By Truckers’ virtual pandemic shows were appointment viewing — something to look forward to, an echo chamber for good, and a weapon against isolation. And my pandemic life was relatively easy. When Sean Hofherr (rhymes with “gopher”) says this band saved his life, he specifically means the COVID livestreams, which kept him going during a very challenging time. 

Sean and his wife, Arielle, own a butcher shop in Northfield, IL, and they’re both big Drive-By Truckers fans. For their first date in 2011, Arielle invited Sean to an Of Montreal show, and their first DBT concert together took place on Halloween 2013, with the entire band dressed as The Rolling Stones.

In fact, Sean has a talent for showing up to some truly remarkable DBT shows. He came to our interview with copious notes and highly entertaining stories. Keep reading to hear about his wildest DBT experiences, including the outrageous, one-of-a-kind artwork he owns and how he got it.

How and when did you discover Drive-By Truckers?

I was very active on the Widespread Panic message boards back in the day. My friend Jordan, who I knew from Panic shows, he’s like, “You need to check out this band. I know you'll dig this.” And he was spot-on.

Panic was going on tour, and the Truckers were opening — that would have been ‘05. That summer, I saw them in Cincinnati, at the Riverbend Amphitheater, and then Deer Creek in Noblesville, Indiana. That was back when Isbell was in the band, and it was the three-headed monster of guitars. That was the genesis. 

You said in your email that this band saved your life. Are you comfortable elaborating on that?

Patterson always says “rock and roll saved my life.” And this band did in particular, because of COVID. My father has been battling ALS now for about eight years. It's absolutely brutal, there's no doubt about it. With ALS, they give you two to five years, so without being too punny, it's been a blessing and a curse to have him last this long. 

My wife and I own a butcher shop and specialty grocer, Hofherr Meat Co. Without getting too much into the political climate and the nightmare that it is, when COVID hit, we were deemed essential personnel and we were allowed to stay open. At that time, it was basically impossible to visit my father, because we didn't want to get him sicker. 

When Patterson and Cooley were doing those live streams, we were working so hard that we were breaking.

We locked the doors to the butcher shop and were doing curbside only. We called them “hoarder orders,” because people were just clearing us out. They wanted like 10 pounds of ground beef, but in one-pound packages, vacuum-sealed. My favorite story is, one guy had placed a $700 order, which had taken us the better part of the morning. He pulls up in a pickup truck, and he has a chest freezer in the bed of the truck, but the chest freezer was still in the box. He had absolutely just bought it.

DBT had released The Unraveling and The New OK, and a lot of that was speaking to me. But when Patterson and Cooley were doing those live streams — Patterson's up in his attic, you would see his wife fixing him a cocktail and handing it to him off screen. Cooley's outside by his fire pit. For my wife and I, that was appointment stuff. We were working so hard that we were breaking. And all of our friends in the industry, their restaurants are closing, they're just getting pulverized. 

I think after the first one that Patterson did, he asked for requests for the next one. I sent an email and — I'm getting choked up, I can't believe that — and I requested “Mercy Buckets,” for my wife. Sure enough, at the end of the next show, he's like, and “this is from . . . Sean Huff-er-her? Huff-her-her? And his wife, Arielle Huff-er-her.” It was so amazing. At that point, I realized, it's not all FUBAR. There's still good people out there, and there's still good things happening. 

So excepting the virtual concerts during the pandemic, do you know how many DBT shows you’ve attended?

I counted when you sent the questions and landed on 73. I was kind of shocked myself. That includes when they were opening for Widespread Panic, festival sets, and seeing Patterson and Cooley solo, but 73 all day.

Do you have any that particularly stand out?

I have some definitive ones. My wife and I are very big Jerry Joseph fans. On Thursday nights, he was doing a thing called Happy Book, and he kept talking about this album that he had worked on with Patterson, who had produced it, and he was pissed off because they were supposed to go on tour together. That tour came to fruition in Europe, Memorial Day weekend of ‘22. My wife and I got on a plane and went to Germany and did three nights with Jerry Joseph and what they called The Stiff Boys, which was the Truckers backing Jerry Joseph, and then the Truckers would play a full show. 

Another one is 7/25/05: they were opening for Widespread Panic at Deer Creek, and the second set of Widespread Panic, Cooley, Isbell, and Patterson came out, and they opened the second set with “Let It Bleed.” There were five guitars on stage and they were rockin’ it. That was like the majority of my heroes onstage. 

Cooley dressed as Keith Richards is outrageous in the best way. 

My wife and I got together in 2011. Our first date, she actually asked me out to see another Athens band, Of Montreal. We went on a little hiatus and got back together in the fall of ‘13. Our first Drive-By Truckers show together was the Halloween show at The Vic in Chicago. They were dressed up as the Stones — even down to EZB doing the Charlie Watts side stroke — and they played a ton of Stones covers. They opened up with “Honky Tonk Women,” they played “Wild Horses,” and they played “Let It Bleed” again. Cooley dressed as Keith Richards is outrageous in the best way. 

Do you have a song that you feel like you've listened to more than any other? 

Yeah, it depends on the mood. “Sinkhole” and also “Go Go Boots.” I love “Go Go Boots” because one of those 73 shows was also at The Vic (2/25/11), and they brought out the women from the show “American Pickers” as burlesque dancers in go-go boots. There is a video of it somewhere on YouTube, and it’s as crazy as I remember it. 

You've seen a lot of shows, but you also seem to see a lot of very unique and special shows.

I mean, I guess when you've seen 73 shows . . . 

Another one was the tour opener for the Southern Rock Opera Revisited tour in Indy. We did the VIP experience, the sound check and all that. By the time they were done with that tour, they were probably kind of sick of the VIP sound check. But for us, it was so fresh. There's like 20 of us just sitting there in this huge Egyptian Room. They did “Road Cases” for the first time in like six years. 

Is there any song that you've never heard performed and still hope to hear someday?

Yes, and it haunts me. “Daddy’s Cup.”

That’s funny, I feel like I’ve seen that song performed a lot.

Can you trade me your memory? I’ll give you those Stones ones. 

That would be a fair trade. Is there any song you feel is underappreciated that you really like? 

“Bob.” And I feel like “Bob” is appreciated. Also “Girls Who Smoke.” 

Is there any band you wished you’d seen live but were never able to? 

Uncle Tupelo. It’s clear to me that it’s very hard for both of them. They are not getting back together. 

Do you have a favorite piece of Drive-By Truckers merch or memorabilia?

The show in Hamburg was 5/31/22 at this venue called Logo, and the stage was probably 12 inches high. It was so intimate. There were these support beams on stage, so it made it very awkward for the band to move around. Instead of being separated by the support beam and not being able to see Patterson, Cooley drew a picture of Patterson and taped it to a beam so that he could see Patterson's face. And he did the same thing on the other side so that Patterson could see him. But instead of noses, it's penises, so they both have dick faces. I didn't realize it at first, but it’s very clear once you see it. 

We walk outside and look at them, and I go, “Holy shit. This is incredible.”

At the end of the show, I asked one of their tour managers, “Hey, can I have those?” Because it looked like he was about to crumple them up and throw them away. He's like, “Yeah, whatever.” We walk outside and look at them, and I go, “Holy shit. This is incredible.”

The final night was in Cologne. I said to my wife, "the goal is to get these signed by Cooley and Patterson." She's always supportive of my crazy whims. We get out of the venue, and Patterson and Cooley are nowhere to be found, but Jay Gonzalez is kind of milling around. I had them stored inside of Wired magazine, trying to keep them nice. And I asked, “Is there any way that I could get these signed by Patterson and Mike?” And he goes, “No, man. I don't know. No.”  

He went on his way, and I went on my way, and I look over and Matt Patton, Bobby Matt, is sitting by himself, just kind of chilling in the corner of this parking lot. And I went up to him, and I was just like, “Hey, man, great show. Thank you so much. Can you tell me more about this one-finger base technique that you have? Because it's really impressive.” He starts getting into the history of Motown, and we have a solid 25-minute conversation. I had almost forgotten, but I say to him, “I have these things. They're from the other night in Hamburg. Will you see if I get these signed?” And he goes, “I'll fall on that grenade.”

He took them in my Wired magazine and reappeared 10 minutes later. Not only were they signed, but Patterson captioned them. His is saying, “Hey chicken,” because that's what he calls Cooley, and Cooley’s is saying like, “You fucker.” I've got them framed. At The Hideout two Christmas shows ago, I got to show Cooley a picture, and he just started cracking up. 

Is there an embarrassing super fan thing about you? Maybe I need to take out the word “embarrassing,” because I feel like nobody's actually embarrassed. 

There was a Patterson solo show a while back where I was overserved, and I kind of was that guy. He was playing some tunes off of what was going to be his new solo album, and one of the songs on it is called “Scott’s Sister.” So he was introducing a song, and he was like, “This is coming up on the new album.” And I said, “Is this ‘Scott's Sister’?” And he goes, “Dude, how the fuck do you know all this shit?” And I was like, “Oh shit. Patterson hates me.” But after the show, when he was thanking the crowd, he turned to me and put his hands together and sort of bowed, and I felt better after that. 

 I was going to ask if you drink, but I guess you do? Do you have a favorite dive bar to recommend? I love dive bars.

I don't drink as much as I did in my early years. Obviously, I just don't have that tolerance, and because we have a butcher shop, I’m in at 4 a.m. If I'm hungover, I am worthless, and somebody's got to literally bring home the bacon. My favorite dive bar currently is Meier’s Tavern, and it's on Lake, right off of 94 in Glenview. You can get packaged liquors, so you can take your road cases with you. 

Are there any movies, books, or music that you’ve consumed that you feel like DBT fans would like to hear about?

They’ll probably know Jerry Joseph, but if they don't, I strongly believe that Jerry Joseph may be the most underappreciated songwriter of our time. A lot of people think that he's like a Widespread Panic hanger on. What a lot of people don't realize is that on nearly every Widespread Panic album, there's like two or three songs that are covering Jerry Joseph. The catalog for Jerry Joseph is immense. He has penned something like 400-plus songs. 

In the same vein, Bloodkin, from Athens, GA. Danny Hutchens and Eric Carter basically made up Bloodkin. Danny passed away a few years ago, just as they were releasing what is, in my opinion, their magnum opus, Black Market Tango. Ooh, and Margo Cilker, she is amazing. 

Is there anything else that I haven't asked you that you want to say?

Long live the rock show, and I'm thankful that there are bands like Drive-By Truckers that exist to speak truth to power and to fill your ears with auditory bliss.