On Thursday, G. Love & Special Sauce will be headlining at Tempe’s Marquee Theatre.

Frontman Garrett Dutton III (aka G. Love), 37, who rose to national prominence in recent years by touring with Jack Johnson, is the leader behind the Philadelphia-born alternative hip-hop group.

The State Press caught up with G. Love for a phone interview before his upcoming gig in the Valley:

State Press: Let’s start off with some current material. Last week, you wrote a pretty critical but interesting blog post about how you thought lots of artists are really superficial, flaky sell-outs. Let’s discuss that a little bit.

G. Love: It was just basically like a warning, saying you got to have your s--t together. Musicians become musicians because, aside from having a talent and having this intense passion for their craft, most [of them] are pretty crazy. They’re also people that maybe don’t like to, or maybe can’t seem to, fit in with regular nine-to-five society, which is why they pursue their music.

SP: You work with Jack Johnson. Your solo albums were released on his label. Could you describe your experience with Brushfire Records?

GL: We were with Sony Records before Brushfire for eight years and it was much more like being in a corporation, whereas being with Brushfire is like being in a family. The two people who run [the label], Jack — who’s a musician and a filmmaker —and Emmett [Malloy] — who’s a filmmaker — are both artists first. The whole label is really like a labor of love that’s given artists who they admire a platform to put their music out. It’s been a really great place to be.

SP: You’ve also worked with other artists like Ben Harper and Marc Broussard. Do you have any plans or hopes for future collaborations with other artists?

GL: We’ve done a lot of collaborating with Slightly Stoopid over the years, but it’s always been on their record, so I want to do one on my record. Also, I got to know K’Naan this past summer out on the Jason Mraz tour. Hopefully I’ll be able to link up with K’Naan and do a collaboration with him.

SP: When you and your band make a new album, do you ever worry about having to take it up a notch from the previous album, or do you make each new album its own entity?

GL: Both. There’s always the thing where you want to outdo yourself or at least do something different than you did on the last record. I always feel that my new s--t that I’m writing is my best stuff. When you make a record or record a song, it’s almost like a snapshot of where you’re at in that moment. The success of your different records is [something] you can’t control. All you can do is make the best music you can make and hope that by the time your record comes out, it’s going to be timely with what the people want to hear, and what society, or at least your fan base, is feeling. It keeps you guessing.

SP: Let’s touch upon your song “Peace, Love and Happiness” on your newest album “Superhero Brother.” That song was inspired by your trip to Rio de Janeiro. How did your experience inspire you to write that song?

GL: We were down in the favelas (slums). I never saw this kind of poverty as I saw in Rio. Brazil’s a pretty wealthy nation and this kind of poverty … I couldn’t believe it. We went and played for the kids in this community center and we just had this wonderful connection with these kids. I came out of it feeling like some of my tunes were having a problem crossing the language barrier. Then I found that my simpler tunes were connecting better with these kids. So I wanted to write an anthem [kind of] tune with a positive message that could cross over more language barriers. I recorded it after our whole record had been recorded and it ended up being the single.

SP: On the topic of touring, let’s discuss your winter tour. Joining you on your tour this season will be Redeye Empire, as well as Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad for a brief leg of the tour. What do you see in those bands that attracted you and led you to choose them to be the supporting acts on this tour?

GL: Redeye Empire are friends of mine. They’ve come out with us before. They get the crowd going really well so I was happy to bring them back. Plus they just put out a new record. They’re a Canadian band so they’re trying to get their thing going here in the U.S. This past summer I had been in New York and [Giant Panda] had come to play at this bar [where] I played a solo acoustic show the next night. They’re a super tight dub band. Then it came around that they were going to be on the tour. I was pumped because I had known those guys and actually had made some music with them, so I got to know those guys a little better. We want to make sure we bring a good package to the fans. [We want to] make sure we know the music [and that it’s] something that we want to support and that we think is going to make the show even better.

SP: Plenty of people know what it’s like to be a part of the crowd at your shows. How does it feel to be on the receiving end of all the good vibes? Can you describe the rush that you feel on stage? Tell me about how the crowd makes you guys feel and what your reaction to the crowd is like.

GL: There’s no feeling that I know that feels as good. When you get on stage and you feel that energy coming from the crowd, and you’re playing well, and the lights and the sound are perfect, you have this kind of emotional upwelling. Those are the moments that you live for and make you deal with all the travel and being away from your family. That’s why I do it.

SP: Touring can be really rough sometimes. There were times when you used to play 250 gigs a year. Both then and now, how do you balance your music and your personal life when you’re on the road?

GL: Regardless of how many means of communicating there are with the people you love when you’re away, there’s nothing like being together. It’s a balancing act. That’s the hardest part of my life, trust me. It splits up a lot of relationships. There’s this old song that goes, “Who’s making love to your old lady while you’re out on the road?” You don’t really know what anyone’s doing when you’re away. You trust the people you love and they trust you. You see a lot of musicians like me [for whom] it’s tough to make that family thing work. And the girlfriend thing, that’s hard.

SP: You just have to rough it out.

GL: Yeah, you have to rough it out. But at the end of the day, money can’t buy you love, but s--t, you need some money to get with the people that you love. I’m trying to get home to see my kid and my girl as much as possible and keep this s--t going. But I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

SP: I wouldn’t blame you. Well, for everyone who doesn’t have your kind of status, tell everyone what it’s really like to be on tour. Tell me about some of the sights and sounds. Is it really a party every night?

GL: It’s whatever you want it to be. You can party or you can chill. We do a combination of both. It’s basically like this: You get on the bus, you wake up in a new town [and] you have the day to explore or just chill. You kind of get to see everywhere, but you never really get to see something too much. The minute you turn your back on the music and focus too much on the other stuff, whether it’s girls or partying or money or whatever … all the superficial stuff, then the whole experience becomes more superficial and that comes through in the shows. You have to connect with yourself and connect with your fans. If you can do that, then you can be out there. If you lose that, then you’ve got to watch out.

SP: Let’s wrap it up. “Superhero Brother” was released in June 2008, and it was the first album you had released in two years since “Lemonade.” 2008 wasn’t all that long ago, but what’s your new album going to be like? What’s next for G. Love?

GL: What’s next for G. Love will be G. Love’s best record of his career. I’ve been really excited about this record. I’ve been working on it myself since the day I delivered that last record. I’ve actually been doing a lot of writing sessions, which I’ve never done before, with some song writers and producers. I’ve been going through a really focused and meticulous process to get all my songs to a level [on] which they can just be undeniable [and] hopefully for a listener, really come forward as some of my best material that I’ve put out. The flavor of it is going to be a lot more hip-hop and also a lot more blues. By doing it that way, as opposed to doing it in a live setting, it enables me to really put a lot more acoustic delta blues stuff on it, which is something I’ve really focused on a lot over the years. We’ve developed into more of an electric band on stage, and in recordings, I don’t often get to let that shine. I’m excited to let that part of my guitar playing and the flavor of something that I do come out more on this record. [As for] the material, I want to bring people into my whole life experience, from really personal stuff, to just how I feel about stuff, to just funny s--t that I see … just bringing it all back home. That’s what we’re doing on this next record.

Reach the reporter at lenni.rosenblum@asu.edu.