Songfacts®:

• Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King was the seventh studio album of American rock act Dave Matthews Band. The set was produced by Rob Cavallo (Green Day, My Chemical Romance), who impressed Matthews with his passion. The DMB frontman told Rolling Stone "He had a confidence about him. He loves Earth, Wind & Fire and Fleetwood Mac, he talked about it like it was a holy thing. He listened to me. All we did was talk about music. He said he thought our next record was important."
• This piece of mournful sax is by DMB founder member LeRoi Moore, who tragically died in August 2008 as a result of injuries sustained in an ATV accident near the band's hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia. Matthews explained to Billboard magazine: "I was trying to figure out how to get it on the record, then it just dawned on me if we were going to start with 'Shake Me,' that we should definitely go into 'Shake Me' with that piece that 'Roi did. When I sang it to Rob [Cavallo] and Doug [McKean] the engineer, it came out of the air. Through the wonders of technology, we imitated the spirit of what I said and I think it's really appropriate that Roi be the first voice on the record."
• Drummer Carter Beauford explained to MTV News that the band paid tribute to their fallen comrade in the title of the album - "GrooGrux King" is a reference to LeRoi's nickname. Said Beauford: "It's a nickname for LeRoi, it's a nickname [for] myself. Now it's officially a name for Dave [Matthews], Stefan [Lessard] and Boyd [Tinsley], 'cause for the past 18 years they have been in the Groogrux academy. It's a vibe. It's a certain energy."