Patterson Hood is best-known for his work with the Drive-By Truckers, but the Alabama native, whose father was a member of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, has a musical career stretching nearly 20 years. He's been through near-hits and near-misses aplenty. In one particularly tumultuous season, he put together an album of solo material, Killers and Stars, which became an unofficial release passed out at shows and circulated amongst fans. Now, as he's wrapping up work not only on his second solo album, but on the DBT's next release, Hood, who will be playing a solo show at ACL as well as an ACL aftershow at Club 115 here in Austin, took the time out to answer a few of our burning questions.

Killers and Stars began circulating long before it was officially released. What led to the decision to make it an official release, and why wasn't it initially released officially?

I didn't really make it for release, it was something I recorded at home in my dining room as a sort of exorcism at a really shitty period in my life. I'd just gotten divorced, the band was fighting really bad, and my general state of mind was about as bad as it gets. I recorded the songs to just get them off my chest and to keep from doing something far more negative. I was writing songs that later became the Decoration Day album -- although at the time the working title was Heathens -- and the ones that didn't quite seem like band songs became Killers and Stars.

Several years later, when all was going much better, I was approached by New West about officially releasing it, and sold it to them for enough money to finance a wedding and nice honeymoon so I guess it all had a happy ending. We went to Paris and made a baby.

Working with my Dad was part of the inspiration for doing that album. That, and wanting to record with David Barbe (former bassist from Sugar and DBT's long time producer, who played bass on 9 of the 13 songs), Will Johnson and Scott Danbom of Centro-matic (my favorite band on earth). It was a great experience. Dad and I had never really played together before and it was the perfect way for that to happen. We have another project up our sleeves, although I really want to get Murdering Oscar out first.

How do you balance your solo work with the work for the Drive-By Truckers? How do you decide which songwriting goes where?

As with about everything else, the songs really decide. Some songs just call out for a certain treatment, although the current lineup of DBT could probably do anything I threw at them. The band always comes first, but I do really enjoy doing my solo thing, as it kinda has a life of its own.

Your first solo album came out of a really tumultuous period, both for you and the Drive-By Truckers. How does this release compare? Is it negotiating similar emotional terrain?

No, not at all. Polar opposite in about every way. The skeletal heart of this album dates back to spring 1994 when I first moved to Athens, G.A. I wrote an album of songs called Murdering Oscar, which at the time I had no real way of recording -- I was broke and had no band -- so I recorded them on my jam box and gave a few hundred copies away as I met people in my new hometown. Then I got busy forming what became DBT and left those songs behind, but I really felt strongly about that phase of writing and always wanted to come back and readdress them. In January of '05, right before the birth of my daughter Ava, I had some home time and access to some studio time, and the timing seemed right. I revisited those old songs, which had been written in a pretty turbulent time of my life, and wrote a bunch of brand new songs that kind of counter-pointed those old songs. I loved the way the old songs and new songs flowed together and that became the album Murdering Oscar (and other love songs). Now its 2 1/2 years later and I've moved on in many ways, but I think the album still really holds up well. It's kind of the missing link between what DBT had been doing in '04 -- The Dirty South -- and Blessing and a Curse. I think it holds up as well as either of those albums, maybe better than the latter one.

For my Austin shows and the other shows on this solo tour, I plan to play songs from both solo albums, as well as a few brand new ones from the next DBT album, which we are mixing right now, and a handful of older songs, especially some songs that DBT just never plays live anymore to keep it fresh and interesting. Hoping I'll write a new one or two to premiere here too. I always try to keep as much distance as possible between what I do solo and what DBT is doing.

You've certainly played Austin before. Any Austin road stories you'd be willing to share?

I have a long, really great history with Austin. Its long been on my very short list of favorite cities in the world and one of 2-3 that I will probably someday call home. If it wasn't so GD hot, I'd probably have moved here years ago, but as I sit in Athens and it's 100+ degrees outside, I can't fathom moving someplace even hotter. I really fucking hate hot weather, more so every year as I get older. I ended up making several life-long friends the very first time I ever played here. Handsome Joel, who was killed in a car wreck a few years ago, the guys in Honky, my friends John Agee and Will Johnson. The list goes on and on. It was one of those towns where we did really well years before we were doing well in most places. We'd be touring and starving and think, if we can just make it to Austin, we'll do well enough to make it through the rest of the tour without having to sell our plasma. Austin never let us down.

[Patterson Hood Official Site]
[Patterson Hood MySpace