Warren Haynes says Matt Abts' medical leave is holding the Gov't Mule album

Warren Haynes has given a straight answer about where Matt Abts is, and about what his absence has done to Gov't Mule's recording plans. "Matt's going through some medical issues, and it breaks his heart to not be here," Haynes told JamBase, adding that the drummer would rather be playing than doing anything else and that the band hope he is back soon.

Abts last played with Gov't Mule at Island Exodus 15, the band's destination event in Jamaica, in January 2025. He addressed the absence himself that August, saying he had decided to stay home and deal with lingering injuries from years behind the kit, and that he needed time at home to rest and recover before getting back on the road.

Terence Higgins has handled the drum stool since. Haynes is careful to praise him while making clear that nobody is being replaced, saying Higgins is doing a fine job in the interim but that Abts is one of his favourite drummers and one of his favourite people, and that the situation has to be dealt with in a way that does not rush him.

The consequence for the studio is the part that had not been reported before. Haynes wants to make a Gov't Mule record with Kevin Scott, the bassist who joined the band in 2023, and said plainly that Abts' situation is what is keeping that from happening. It would be the band's first studio album since Peace... Like A River, also from 2023.

Haynes has plenty out in the meantime. Dreams and Songs: A Symphonic Journey arrived on 18 September, a sixteen-track live album documenting the 2019 debut of his orchestral project with the 64-piece Asheville Symphony Orchestra. It draws on his work with Gov't Mule, the Allman Brothers Band, the Grateful Dead and his own solo catalogue.

The band itself is back on the road from 23 September, opening the Dreaming The Same Dream Tour with Ziggy Marley at The Rooftop at Pier 17 in New York. Gov't Mule have been leaning on the songbook while Abts is out, and in one recent set they opened with three ZZ Top songs for Frank Beard. That kind of gesture is where a rock band with four decades of road history puts its feelings.