SAN DIEGO — It isn’t uncommon for musicians whose careers have passed the 50 year-mark to hope their legacies will live on 50 years after they have gone. Average White Band bassist and singer Alan Gorrie is most assuredly not one of them.

Never mind that the acclaimed soul and R&B group he co-founded in 1972 in his native Scotland scored an international chart-topping hit with 1975’s “Pick Up the Pieces.” It remains one of the bestselling instrumentals ever released, or that the group went on to collaborate with such legendary singers as Marvin Gaye, Ben E. King and Luther Vandross.

Never mind that songs by AWB, as Average White Band is also referred to by fans, have been prominently sampled by such major hip-hop acts as Public Enemy NAS, A Tribe Called Quest, Beastie Boys and Eric B. & Rakim — or that AWB’s slinky 1975 gem, “School Boy Crush,” has been sampled nearly 170 times alone.

Never mind that Questlove, the Oscar-winning band leader of the Roots and the music director for TV’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” has cited AWB’s 1976 live album, “Person to Person,” as his all-time favorite by any artist and expressed his desire to produce a new AWB album.

“‘Person to Person’ “single-handedly changed my life,” Questlove told interviewer Jamison Harvey in 2014. “This is the record that I applied the 10,000 hours of practice to.”

And never mind that next year will see the release of “Average White Band: Soul to Soul,” a film documentary by award-winning director Anthony Baxter. It will include footage from the brassy group’s farewell tour, which concludes next month.

“Fifty years from now I don’t think anyone will be talking about AWB. I can’t see why it would go into another cycle of remembrance or importance,” Gorrie said.

“I think it’s possible,” he allowed. “But I can’t imagine it would be something that would appeal any more than Dixieland jazz appeals to young people today. It gets to the stage where it’s so far removed from whatever music will be generated 50 years from now it that it wouldn’t have any relevance.”

That said, Gorrie is proud of his band’s achievements and longevity. He happily discussed AWB’s legacy for more than an hour last week from his longtime home in Connecticut. Here are edited excerpts from that conversation.

Q: Scotland is a small country that has produced some very soulful artists with a great affinity for Black American music, including AWB, Frankie Miller, Maggie Bell…

A: And more!

Q: Why do you think musicians in your homeland connected so strongly with American soul music in the 1960s?

A: I think it’s got something to do with the nature of us Scottish people growing up and feeling a sense of being second-class citizens in the makeup of Great Britain, where the English dominated everything. And musically, the English didn’t inspire us a whole lot. Whereas Black American music seemed to strike a very passionate chord with all of us growing up. Scottish people have different throats and voices than English singers. We gravitated to singing like Black guys and it’s natural, not affected. The English have another shape to their voices, which leads to singers like Bryan Ferry, Howard Jones and (Spandau Ballet’s) Tony Hadley. They are good singers, but don’t sound anything like the Black soul musicians that we always hoped to be.

Q: I imagine that James Jamerson, the house band bassist for Motown Records, was a big inspiration for you.

A: James Jamerson was my god! He was absolutely one of my idols as a bassist; him and Stax Records (house bassist) Duck Dunn. Those were the two guys that really drove me to play bass the way I do. And then came Bootsy Collins, who was playing with James Brown when we saw James perform in London (in 1971).

Q: Average White Band was formed in 1972 by six Scottish guys who were undeniably white, but far from average. The group’s moniker suggests you had a good sense of humor.

A: You mean the tongue-in-cheekiness of the name? (chuckles) The truth is weren’t anything like your average white British band which, at the time, would be playing rock ‘n’ roll or some version thereof. We were a soul band playing, for all intents and purposes, Black music. So, there was some irony in the band’s name. But we had these phrases — “It’s too hot for the average white man!” and “It’s too wet for the average white man!” — meaning the average Joe. It was just a phrase we were tossing around, and we made it the Average White Band. People liked us and the name right away in London. But we knew we had to get to the U.S. if we wanted to be the real thing.

Q: In 1971, you and (future AWB guitarist-singer) Onnie McIntire were in the London-based rock band Forever More, and (future AWB drummer) Robbie McIntosh was in the London-based jazz-rock band Oblivion Express. Were you all biding your time to form AWB?

A: I don’t recall biding our time. We had started playing together in Scotland, in my hometown of Perth, in 1964. We knew each other and wanted to create music in some way, shape or form. That was the basis of putting together a soul/R&B/jazz-tinged group, with vocals like the ones we adored so much by the Temptations and Sam & Dave.

Q: AWB’s debut album, “Show Your Hand,” was released in 1973, followed by “AWB” in August 1974. A month later, your drummer, Robbie McIntosh, died of an accidental heroin overdose at a party at Cher’s Los Angeles home. Did you consider calling it a day? Or were you determined to forge ahead?

A: The latter. We forged ahead. It’s what Robbie would have wanted. We’d started to break down doors as a band, so it would have been stupid to stop. And we couldn’t afford to stop — we didn’t even have enough money to go back for Robbie’s funeral in Dundee (Scotland). We were stuck in L.A. and we were shattered. We probably should have had a good deal of therapy, which we didn’t get — or even know about in those days. The therapy was the music, and it was the best thing we could have done. And our producer, Arif Mardin, encouraged us to keep going. He said: “You have to get back on the horse.”

Q: Steve Ferrone replaced Robbie on drums and was a member of AWB until the group went on hiatus in 1982. Did you know Steve before he joined AWB?

A: Not well, but Robbie knew Steve really well. Steve followed Robbie as the drummer in three bands — Mal & the Primitives, Oblivion Express and AWB.

Q: “Pick Up the Pieces,” a standout song from the “AWB,” topped the U.S. charts in 1975 and the band’s career ignited in a big way. Did it feel like a dream finally come true?

A: It must have, but I don’t really recall the sensations. They say the body has no memory of pain. At the same time, it doesn’t have much sense of elation. We realized we were kicking ass with Steve and we were becoming as good as we were with Robbie. It was a pity we didn’t know Steve a little better before we made (AWB’s 1975 album) “Cut the Cake.” It would have been good to have another six months before that album. But Atlantic Records wanted us back in studio, because they didn’t want to lose their investment. For the next five to six years, it was: “Record, tour, write (new songs); record, tour, write… It was treadmill stuff. I don’t remember a great deal of feeling elated. I remember a great deal of hard work. It was concert after concert, and studio session after studio session.

Q: Why did AWB come to a stop in 1983?

A: It just fell apart. We had grown apart somewhat. It happens to all aggregations of young musicians and sports teams. One or two of you get antsy and you want to do different things, as well as some of us having being invited to do other albums with other people. So, that kind of pulled the band apart. We’d done 10 years, 1972 to 1982, just into early 1983, and it was time to stop.

Q: What prompted the band’s reunion in 1988?

A: The desire to keep playing music together. After a few years apart, we wanted to get back together. We made an album, “Aftershock,” and that was the beginning of AWB, Mach II.

Q: In a 1996 San Diego Union-Tribune interview, Taj Mahal sang the praises of Average White Band, saying: “Now there’s a band that knows how to play. We’re talking about play — not play at it, not play with it, not play around it, but play. The Average White Band is a great band.”

A: Obviously, it’s extremely gratifying to have someone of his stature say something like that. I’ve met Taj on a few occasions and he’s never been fawning in my company. He’s a great guy all around, a very interesting and erudite cat, and a great musician himself. So, it’s lovely to hear that quote, which I hadn’t heard before.

Q: What about Questlove? Have you met him?

A: The mysterious and legendary Questlove? No, I haven’t. He seems to be omnipotent!

Q: In an online interview two years ago, Questlove told Steve Ferrone that he’d like to produce a new album by AWB. Would you be open to that?

A: I heard about that. My thought was that he’s talking about (producing a new album) by people the who were in AWB, but no longer are, people who were of like minds at that time… But I couldn’t really go for that because we’re not the same people we were back then, and I absolutely love playing with the aggregation of musicians we have now.

Q: This current lineup of the band has been together since 2013. What’s the criteria to be a member of AWB?

A: The recruiting is really hard. Word-of-mouth helps; you go and see someone play. The soulfulness of the musicians is the most important thing. And we have guys in the group now who grew up in bands that were playing AWB songs. They understand the “inside stuff” about our music that you can’t teach

Q: What do you mean by “inside stuff?” Groove? Nuance?

A: Playing together really tightly is part of it. Another part of it is leaving space for the other guys in a song. Where do you drop in? Where do you drop out? All that is part of the inside stuff.

Q: You were recently back in Europe to do filming for “Average White Band: Soul to Soul,” the upcoming documentary by director Anthony Baxter, whose previous films include “Flint: Who Can You Trust?” and “You’ve Been Trumped.” How is it coming along?

A: I haven’t seen any rushes or any of the actual footage yet. It’s all been (filming) interviews and we’ve just been answering questions. They are putting it together. How it will look at the end of the day, I don’t know because they are playing it very close to vest. We’re just the content, so I just have to hope and pray they’ll get the story right and do it justice. I think they will. The film is about the phenomenon of how a white Scottish band cracked Black America and has continued to this day. That’s the basis of the documentary. They filmed us performing in Detroit, at a very African American gig. And they’ll film one more show before our final tour concludes (Dec. 13 in St. Louis). The plan is to release it in February of next year, to mark the 50th anniversary of “Pick Up the Pieces,” our first big hit, which topped the charts in February of 1975.

Q: Did you know Anthony before filming began?

A: No. We only knew him through his work as a documentary filmmaker. He’s famous for his scathing documentary on Donald Trump, “You’ve Been Trumped,” which is when I first encountered his work. And he did “The Eye of the Storm” about (renowned British landscape artist) James Morrison, along with “Flint,” his expose on the public water mismanagement scandal in Michigan.

Q: Is it a bit ironic that you just landed back in the U.S. an hour ago and we’re talking on the day after Trump was reelected?

A: Yeah, it is. We arrived and found out what the (election) results were. We kind of reeled and almost thought about getting back on the plane.

Q: AWB is now embarked on the final leg of its farewell tour. Is that bittersweet for you?

A: It is absolutely bittersweet. Being on the road was once an adventure; now, it’s a real grind. And since COVID, it’s become doubly difficult in all ways. Being on tour leaves me no time to write, to create, and do some of the other things I’d able to do at this age in life. Plus, our families want to see us. I will miss the playing, but not the road. I will not miss living out of a suitcase and being in a different hotel every night. That’s for younger people.

Q: You won’t change your mind in four years and “un-retire” the band?

A: No. No! We’re not doing that. a farewell tour means a farewell tour. This is not the “first farewell tour” — we’re not playing that game. Everybody who knows me knows that, when I make up my mind, that’s it.

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