Dylan LeBlanc photo by Abraham Rowe
Americana Highways’ Key to the Highway series
Fans always clamor to learn more about their favorite, most beloved musicians and those who travel with them. There’s such an allure to the road, with its serendipity, inevitable surprises, and sometimes unexpected discomforts. This interview series is a set of questions we are asking some of our favorite roots rock Americana artists to get to know more about them and what they’ve learned and experienced on the road for music. We are sure they have key insights to share and stories to tell. Here’s one from Dylan LeBlanc.
Americana Highways: How do you like your coffee or other morning wake-up beverage?
Dylan LeBlanc: I’m from Louisiana which has a rich French ancestry and I’m Cajun on my father’s side so I like my coffee dark and thick with milk and sugar.
AH: What’s the most interesting or strangest motel/hotel or place you have stayed (while on the road for music?)
DL: Hotel Congress in Tucson Arizona is one of my favorite places to stay. It looks like you walked into a Time Machine and stepped back into the late 1800’s.
AH: If one CD is stuck in the player in the van for the entire tour, what do you hope it is? And why?
DL: That’s such a hard question but since this has happened to me before I will say Out of Time by R.E.M. That CD was stuck in my van for a couple years and I never minded cranking it right on up.
AH: What’s one personal item you must have with you on your road trip?
DL: A jacket. People make fun of me because I always have a jacket on but I love having a lot of space to stash things and a jacket is the perfect piece of clothing for that. Cigarettes, keys, dice, jewelry, cash, phone! Other things… I would look like I’d been stung by a bee on both sides of my leg If it weren’t for a jacket with lots of pockets. Haha.
AH: What is your relationship with food? How do you handle this on the road, and what’s your favorite dish on the road, (or restaurant, and what do you order there)?
DL: I love food. Too much probably. Jambalaya, gumbo, this is comfort for me and always reminds me of home. But I will drive out of my way on a tour if I find a restaurant that I like. Sometimes I’ll go to the Red Iguana in Salt Lake City even if my tour doesn’t go through there. Shhhh don’t tell anyone. I love that place. Also I love to go to Canters in LA. Pats in Philly for a cheesesteak. I try to eat healthy on the road but there is just too much great food in the US. But on driving days I get beef jerky and a bottle of water mostly.
AH: If you could pause your life for a few weeks and spend some time living in a place you only have passed through, which would you choose, and why?
DL: I would like to spend a few weeks in Italy. I’ve never toured there but I took my girlfriend there for her birthday one time. We spent a weekend in Rome and I rented a motorcycle and we just drove all day looking at the city and it was the most fun way I’ve ever traveled to see things. I love motorcycles.
AH: What quote or piece of advice have you gotten from someone on the road that has really stuck with you?
DL: “Don’t sh!t on the bus” and “Don’t talk too much, kid.” And keep yourself as clean as you can. You follow those rules everyone will love you and you’ll be just fine.
Find more information and tour dates on his website here: http://www.dylanleblanc.com
See other Key to the Highway interviews here: https://americanahighways.org/category/interviews/key-to-the-highway-series/ (click here for: Vince Herman Jimmy Smith Ben Nichols Bruce Cockburn Charlie Musselwhite Nicki Bluhm Jim White Danny Barnes Patterson Hood Jerry Joseph BJ Barham Rodney Crowell Todd Snider Elizabeth Cook Tommy Womack Eric Ambel, Dan Baird, Robbie Fulks, Malcolm Holcombe Jon Langford Steve Poltz, Lilly Hiatt Sarah Shook & the Disarmers Sadler Vaden )
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