The band will promote their upcoming Decoration Day reissue with their departed bandmate next month
Drive-By Truckers will reunite with their former bandmate Jason Isbell for a performance on The Late Show next month. The group is currently promoting The Definitive Decoration Day, a reissue of its legendary 2005 album, so the band will almost certainly be played a track from that album when they appear on Stephen Colbert’s show on December 2nd.
“We have always remained friends with Jason, and honestly he and I are closer now than ever,” Patterson Hood said in a statement. “I consider Decoration Day to be our masterpiece, and he was such an integral part of that album that it’s wonderful that he’s able to join us in celebrating this release.”
Ever since Isbell left Drive-By Truckers in 2007, he’s sporadically joined forces with his former bandmates for one-off appearances and festival sit-ins over the years. Most often, him and Patterson Hood have appeared in each other’s solo sets. In 2017, he popped onstage for a song when the band played Nashville. More recently, Isbell joined the Drive-By Truckers in 2021 for an impromptu sit-in at his own Shoals Fest in Alabama, playing guitar on “Heathens” and singing “The Day John Henry Died.”
The Colbert performance, however, marks the first billed and official reunion performance in 18 years.
What song they’ll perform is anyone’s guess, but if we had to wager a guess, “Heathens,” a song Isbell has repeatedly performed with the band since leaving the group, doesn’t seem like a bad bet. However, don’t expect a prolonged reunion between the Truckers and Isbell as the latter has already announced 2026 tour dates with his 400 Unit.
