Coming from Massachusetts, Susan Tedeschi of the Tedeschi Trucks Band

Music

The Grammy Award-winning Norwell native – and now famous cheerleader – will be rocking Boston and Providence this week during an epic four-night run with the Tedeschi Trucks Band.

I was talking sports with Susan Tedeschi – the Red Sox (she’s a lifelong fan), Caitlin Clark and her fantasy football leagues (yes, plural) – for quite a while before this gem popped up:

“Oh, another weird sports fact — our cheerleading squad is being inducted into the Norwell High School Athletic Hall of Fame,” he says.

Wait, what?

“Yes, our football team won the Super Bowl my senior year. I was on the cheerleading team. We’re getting into the Hall of Fame this month. Solicit!”

I really don’t have words to describe such amazing local sports news.

“I know. Funny,” he says. “From many sides.”

Indeed, from many sides.

Soon a famous cheerleader, Norwell was also a basketball player, a theater kid, and a “physics and chemistry nerd” who almost had a career in marine biology, but missed out on a trip to the depths of the sea (it happens) and instead went to Berklee College and became a Grammy winner, a strong vocalist with fiery guitar hits.

“I didn’t get into drugs as a child, so I was just busy,” Tedeschi, 53, says with a laugh.

After exploring the local music scene in the ’90s – from Allston to Somerville, Quincy to the Vineyard – she eventually toured with the Allman Brothers Band, where she met Derek Trucks, nephew of the late great drummer Butch Trucks.

They married in 2001 and in 2010, they married with their bands. Today, the 12-piece Tedeschi Trucks Band has a reputation as an incendiary band that is best seen live.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Trucks is a guitar genius. The former wunderkind who crushed “Layla” – and also played with Dylan – in middle school can melt minds. (He even melted John Mayer and BB King.)

When Tedeschi and Trucks team up – forming a 10-person team – they can bring the house down. This week, they’ll be taking several players on their “Deuces Wild” tour: a sold-out show on October 1 at Boston’s MGM Music Hall at Fenway, a sold-out show on October 3 at The Vets in Providence, Rhode Island, and two shows at the Boch Center Wang Theater 4 and 5 October.

This week I called Tedeschi, who now lives in Jacksonville, Florida. In conversation, he speaks quickly and lively, with a lively personality, as if we were old friends. He laughs a lot. We traced her roots back to Abraham Lincoln, talked about the Sox, the Celts, TD Garden – and then she hung out with pot-smoking Gatemouth Brown on Martha’s Vineyard at a Bill Clinton event.

Boston.com: Boston has no openers, but The Reckoners are opening in Providence.

Susan Tedeschi: This is my old boyfriend, Tim Gearan, who I dated for four years in Boston. He is a great guitarist, singer and songwriter. We dated for years and honestly, he was such a sweetheart that we never once argued. He has a wife and a daughter. We stay in touch. I’m excited. This will be amazing. He’s a tough guy.

You met in Boston?

Yes, he was an important figure in the area. I was playing with a group of people. He toured at Toad’s Place and Johnny D’s over the years. I met him there, at a Sunday blues concert, around 1993. Tim is actually on (my second album) Just Won’t Burn. He plays “Angel of Montgomery.”

This is a great John Prine cover. You met Derek while opening for the Allman Brothers Band.

I met Derek on July 21, 1999. We have been together 25 years, married 23 years in December.

What clicked?

Our record collection. And we both love sports. (laughter) Many musicians don’t like sports, some don’t know it. But my husband and I are into fantasy football; we love baseball; we love basketball. we rely I love sports. That was a big thing for me, to be able to connect with something outside of music. Because you can burn out. You need other things to inspire you. And music and sports, oddly enough, are intertwined: you’re often on the road, trying to focus and perform every time you go to a new city. I see.

That’s true. Are you a Sox fan? Celtics? Slaps?

I’m a Red Sox and Braves fan because my husband and son like the Braves – most of our team is from Atlanta.

I love the Celtics. I grew up playing basketball; I like basketball very much, I love great players. I watch the WNBA and NBA. My husband got me addicted to Indiana Fever by watching Caitlin Clark. I just like watching great basketball players.

I am a huge fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars. I am a huge fan of fantasy football. I have been in the top two in our league for the last five years.

Who else is in your league?

I am in two leagues: our home league, with friends and family, and our team league. My league of bands, I’m crushing now. In my home league, I had a lot of injuries in the first week. Many great players have left. I thought: damn! (laughter)

(laughter) You had a great time with “Garden Parties” last year at Madison Square Garden and TD Garden.

The Boston Garden is one of those places – man, I saw Magic Johnson vs. Larry Bird there. This is an iconic place for me. It was a dream. It was a huge honor. When my parents saw us playing there, we thought, “Oh, maybe they do If he’s doing well.”

(laughter) You usually play in Boston in December, which is a big family reunion for you. You came here earlier this year.

I’m very happy that I can get there earlier this year and won’t have to force my parents to go out in the snow. (laughter) And I’ve never played at the Wang Center or MGM Fenway. Next on the list is Fenway Park. The Red Sox are still my team.

Tedeschi Trucks Band has many jam band fans. You often played with the dead.

Yes, including (Dead Ahead in Cancun) in January. It was so funny. Sturgill (Simpson, who was there) and Derek share their birthdays on the exact same day: June 8, except that Sturgill is a year older. These two are as thick as thieves. Lovely together. (laughter) His wife Sarah is lovely, she’s a great screenwriter. Meeting them through the Dead was really cool.

Bob Weir and these guys have always been so nice to me. I love them so much. I don’t have anything bad to say about them except that they’re funny and a little crazy, which I like. (laughter) Heck, I played with them at the Boston Garden in 2002 right after my son was born, and now he’s 22 and just got married. That’s pretty wild.

Wow. You collaborate with many great artists. Has anyone stood out recently?

I’m trying to think (laughter). I would have to look at my phone to see the photos. Derek has been taking part in sit-ins more often lately. He sat down with Phish. The other day he covered Crazy Horse with Black Pumas, then he played our set, and then he sat down with Dave Matthews for “Lie in Our Graves.”

Hat trick.

(laughter) I know. And Dave is a sweetheart. “Lie In” is not an easy song because with this solo you have to adapt; you don’t want to overdo it. Derek crushed it. Oh! In fact, one of my favorite things we did this year was performing with the National Orchestra in Washington, D.C. in a tribute to Leonard Cohen (“Here It Is” at the Kennedy Center).

It’s amazing. I love Leonard Cohen.

It was amazing. It was two nights. The second night, Tricia Yearwood wasn’t there, so they had me sing “Hallelujah.” Then Timothy B. Schmidt from the Eagles got sick, so I sang “Bird on a Wire.” I also did “Steer Your Way” and “Anthem,” which are really heavy songs, especially right now with everything going on in the world. So it was deep. His music is outrageous. For me, he and Bob Dylan are two of the greatest songwriters of all time.

I would agree.

Yes, it was a storm. Last week I presented the Blind Boys (from Alabama) with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Americana (Music Association) Awards. Life is good. My children are good; my parents are still here.

You have a big family here. You said your parents are in Marshfield and your uncles and grandfather started Tedeschi Food Mart and Tedeschi Reality.

Yes, my grandfather Nick Tedeschi’s first wife, my paternal grandmother, is directly descended from the Mayflower. Our family settled in what became Norwell. For example, Abraham Lincoln’s grandfather is my ninth great-grandfather: Ezekiel Lincoln of Hingham.

Oh my God. What?

Oh, yes. I am a direct ancestor of Abraham Lincoln and many other crazy connections. John Adams, John Quincy Adams, William Bradford, first Governor of Massachusetts.

How do you know this?

My dad has always been interested in genealogy. He started learning it in the 1960s and 1970s. He’s been working hard on it ever since.

You’d be perfect to appear on the PBS show “Finding Your Roots.” Have they ever asked you to join?

They don’t have it! They should ask me. (laughter) Musician Greg Leisz – he played with Bob Dylan – we realized we were both related to John and Priscilla Mullins from Mayflower. So we are cousins.

You really need to be on this show. (laughter) Going back to your Boston roots: You went to Berklee, but initially wanted to be a marine biologist.

I almost went on an expedition with Dr. Robert Ballard because my grandfather donated to the expedition. But my grandfather got the dates wrong. Eventually I went to Berklee and just became a musician.

It’s wild.

I know. You never know. Life can take you down many paths.

You started playing all over Boston.

I played at Toads, Joe’s YardRock in Quincy, Nantasket Beach, Harper’s, The Plow and Stars, The Middle East, Paradise, House of Blues.

Martha’s vineyard was large. That’s where I met (Clarence) Gatemouth Brown. I was supposed to open for Gatemouth. Then President Clinton decided to throw a party for his secretary (at the venue), so I got kicked off the show. But then Gatemouth replies, “No. Susan doesn’t leave. She is with me.

And oh my God, he smoked weed. It definitely wasn’t legal back then. (laughter) But he said, “I’m a deputy sheriff of Slidell, Louisiana. I’m allowed to do this.” I said, “Let Gatemouth do what it wants. This is amazing.”

The interview has been condensed and edited. Lauren Daley is a freelance writer. She can be contacted at (email address protected). She tweets @laurendaley1and Instagrams at @laurendaley1. Read more stories on Facebook Here.