photo by Jesse Lauter

In the newest episode of our podcast The Relix Audio Hour, we present a conversation between two guitarists, John Mayer and Eric Krasno, recorded backstage at this past weekend’s LOCKN’ Festival in Arrington, VA. The episode is the first in our “Conversations with Kraz” series, in which the Soulive guitarist invites musicians to speak about their craft.

Mayer, who was onsite to play four sets with Dead & Company (along with a couple guest spots), and Krasno, who shared the stage with Mayer on Saturday as the two sat in during Krasno former band Lettuce’s late-night Jerry Garcia Band tribute, begin their sprawling discussion on the topic of songwriting, with both covering their differing approaches to the craft throughout their careers. The conversation then shifts, apropos to their LOCKN’ surroundings, to the guitarists’ appreciation and discovery of the music of the Grateful Dead, along with their love of musicians like Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan (and lamenting the lack of guitar heroes who made it past 40). The duo also jokes throughout about various guitar minutiae, including how Mayer self-deprecatingly describes some of his onstage work:

“That’s what I call practicing on stage: You play a lick that you almost landed, then you just start taking stage time to basically try to nail a skateboard trick. It’s the guitar equivalent! Then you listen back to it, and you’re like, ‘Oh, no!'”

Find this episode and all installments of The Relix Audio Hour, hosted by Jesse Lauter, on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play. Previous episodes have featured a conversation between Don Was and David Fricke, our cover story on Leon Bridges, a multimedia review of the Bob Weir & Phil Lesh duo tour, and more.