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BiTS: [Laughing] Obviously, the very energetic way that you play on stage must keep you very fit.

DD: Oh yes. Definitely.

BiTS: Tell me something about what happened to you when COVID came along. Did you lose a lot
of gigs? Did it suddenly collapse all around you?

DD: A lot of my shows got pushed back. Some got rescheduled, but there’s not much that we could
do about that. And I have a lot of loyal fans that called us. They called me and said, hey, are you all
playing? Would you like to do a house party here? We have this. We have that. We were playing at

people’s houses at least once or twice a month. It wasn’t the regular schedule that I’m used to, but
it was something to keep us going and something to keep us motivated.

BiTS: Are the gigs coming back now?

DD: Yes. I’m travelling. I’ve been working steadily -
my normal schedule since March.

BiTS: Oh, really.

DD: Yes. But now everything in Louisiana is getting
unfortunately cancelled and pushed back, so it’s like
I said, fortunately for me, I do travel, so a lot of my
jobs are out of town, which a lot of the jobs that I’m
doing aren’t cancelled because it’s out of town and
people still have these festivals and the concerts

and everything else, so that’s what’s going on in
Louisiana right now. It isn’t really affecting me, but
like Jazz Fest, French Quarter Fest and other
festivals around, have affected me because we were
scheduled to be on that festival.

BiTS: You’ve won dozens and dozens of awards for

all kinds of things. Is there any one that particularly
you find outstanding? One that you’re really proud
of?

DD: I’m proud of the award that we have for best
band, winning for best accordionist. Winning for
best album. I think that there’s a few of them that I’m really proud of. Winning the first ever

accordion contest to ever be held in America in 1999. I was able to win that. I didn’t have the
knowledge that I have today, so I’m definitely proud of that and being added into the Louisiana
Music Hall of Fame was definitely another added bonus because it’s a blessing within a blessing and
to be able to be recognised for your hard work and everything that you’re doing by your state, is
always a plus.

BiTS: How about being one of the “Top 100 Reasons to Visit Louisiana”?

DD: [Chuckling] I didn’t know I was on that list, honestly, until one of my fans came up to me and
they said, man, you’re one of the reasons people come back to Louisiana and I said, oh, okay. But I
didn’t know, so he showed me the list and there was the food, there was jazz and the Zydeco band
on there that people come back to Louisiana to see. That was a blessing. I’ve had and still are able