Five questions with Bob Crawford

Sitting in his hotel room in Huntsville, Ala., Bob Crawford tells the familiar story of how he joined The Avett Brothers, the string-breaking, high-octane string band trio he shares with Scott and Seth Avett. He was standing in an empty Charlotte parking lot late one night, holding his new upright bass and waiting on the brothers, whom he had never met. They arrived in a Ford station wagon, played a handful of songs under streetlight glow and 20 minutes later, they were gone. "It was 20 minutes tops, and I was back in my truck on the way back to South Carolina. I didn't know if I'd ever hear from them again," he says, four years into this gig. "And then eventually I got a call from them and we practiced once before our first show."

1. What's something Scott wants that
Seth has?

Rugged good looks.

2. If you three were superheroes, who would be the supervillain?

Our manager, Dolph Ramseur.

3. If the Gallaghers from Oasis fought The Avetts, would Scott and Seth need your help?

[Laughs.] Of course they would.

4. How bad would life suck if Scott and Seth were Rich and Chris Robinson from The Black Crowes?

Ooooh, it really wouldn't suck too much.

5. You break fewer strings than both of them. Don't you deserve a raise?

[Long pause.] No, I don't deserve a raise, but ahh ... I don't really know how to answer that.

[Less than two minutes after the conversation ends, Bob calls back.] Hey, about that last question, I just wanted to say that a set of bass strings costs a lot more than they're dealing with. Like, you could buy one of my sets for 40 of theirs. Well, that's not true, but my last set cost $290 and all of my equipment costs a lot more than they're working with. So, I guess I don't deserve a raise.