Sam Holt’s Carb-Free Diet Fuels His Southern Rock Journey

By Stratton Lawrence

Sam Holt first saw Widespread Panic perform in 1989 at a tiny bar in Oxford, Mississippi. Already a Grateful Dead fan, Holt’s affinity for a lingering guitar lead aligned with this scruffy band that allowed him a vantage he couldn’t get at the Dead’s stadium-sized shows.

“I could get up close and watch their hands and see how they interacted, and feel really connected to it,” Holt recalls.

Hearing Widespread Panic inspired Holt to play guitar and to start taping their shows. A friendship forged in the “taper section” led to a roommate who became Widespread Panic’s production manager. When guitarist Michael Houser needed a technician to care for his instruments, Holt was already part of the family.

That gig springboarded Holt’s career in the music business. After Houser passed from pancreatic cancer in 2002, Holt occasionally joined Panic as a guest lead guitarist. He also founded his own band, Outformation, touring heavily and performing at venues like the Charleston Pour House and the Music Farm.

Holt’s current project, the Sam Holt Band, formed in 2012. They played in Charleston in December—including a duo set with Holt and Panic keyboardist JoJo Hermann—and will return to the Pour House this March with a “Remembering Mikey” tribute to Houser.

Now based in Panic’s origin town of Athens, Georgia, Holt works a day gig at an audio-visual company and spends most evenings at home with his wife and daughter. Just before the pandemic, he found inspiration in a healthy lifestyle, after years on the road took their toll in the form of extra pounds and exhaustion.

“I was never a huge drinker, but we play in bars, so we’d all have a shot before the show, and by the second set I’d be eight beers in,” Holt admits.

Today, he mostly abstains from drinking and sustains his onstage energy through a diet that avoids carbs and refined sugar. His interest in healthy eating began in the late ‘90s, when Dr. Robert Atkins popularized a low-carb, high-protein regimen. In 2019, Holt fully embraced a diet that encourages a state of ketosis, where the body burns fat instead of glucose for fuel. He’s lost 70 pounds in four years.

“I know that if I can avoid bread, sugar, and refined foods, I feel a thousand times better, my mental focus is clearer, and I have more energy,” says Holt. “It’s nice to have the energy to keep up with my daughter at bedtime.”

Holt does most of the cooking around his house. His secret weapon is a Ninja air fryer that he uses for steaks, fried okra, chicken breasts, and burgers. A favorite hack is making bread out of egg whites, arrowroot powder, cream of tartar, and salt.

“You mix it up and it almost looks like a meringue. It comes out with the consistency of bread, but zero carb and all protein,” says Holt, who brings his homemade “buns” out to eat with him. In familiar cities like Charleston, he’s partial to spots like Home Team BBQ—owner Aaron Seigel brought Holt a bun-less burger when he played the Pour House in December—and the mapo tofu at Kwei Fei. He’s also a fan and advocate of Fox Brothers BBQ in Atlanta, a Panic-friendly ribs-and-pulled-pork joint that hosted Outformation in their early days.

“From the start, I knew Fox Brothers was going to be successful,” says Holt. “It’s like when I first saw Panic or Phish—there was just no doubt those guys were going to go all the way, because everything they did was so good and everyone would just rave about it.”

Holt developed his weekly menu the same way he built his musical chops—constant tinkering. In his college days, he’d put on a Marshall Tucker Band or Widespread Panic recording and play guitar along with it, mastering the style. He still plays guitar without a pick, emulating the finger-picking style of Marshall Tucker’s Toy Caldwell. On stage, Holt plays through the Soldano amp and Mesa Boogie amp that Houser gifted him days before passing. The Ninja air fryer fills that tried-and-true role at home, whether he’s making pizza crust out of almond flour and mozzarella cheese or chicken tacos with avocado oil and salsa.

“Processed food and sugar are the enemy,” says Holt. “I feel blessed that I’m able to follow the path that I’m on, and to feel good doing