Gregg Allman, rides into his final midnight

Gregg Allman, one of the pioneers of Southern Rock has passed away. He leaves behind his genius as a recording artist and a great musical composer. His turbulent life was a fascinating rock n’ roll journey.

“If I fell over dead right now,” he once wrote, “I have led some kind of life.” Gregg Allman the founding member of the legendary American Southern Rock band, ‘The Allman Brothers Band,’ died of liver cancer at his home in Savannah Georgia. Gregory LeNoir Allman was 69- years- old.

The distinctive whisky-toned voice and his musical compositions set the rock world on fire. But that fire also damaged his life. His heavy use of drugs and alcohol is well documented; still, the brilliant music always had first priority in his turbulent life. His compositions like ‘Midnight Rider,’ ‘Melissa’ and ‘Whipping Post’ are testimonies of genius that he leaves behind. But Allman often followed the beat of a drum that was strange and not easy to decipher. He was once married to Cher, the third of his six wives. Apparently, one day Allman, lazing at home, said he was going out to buy a pack of cigarettes. At the store, he met some musician friends, who were touring. They asked him to tour with them, and Allman said yes. He forgot to call up his wife. Cher heard that her husband was touring from newspaper reports.

Allman came back home after 4 days; and Cher, being Cher, looked at him and asked, “Did you get your pack of cigarettes?” They were married for 9 days when Cher filed for divorce. Later there was a reconciliation of sorts, and a son named Elijah Blue, but the relationship foundered and finally fell apart. Allman carried on with numerous affairs on the road. He is survived by three sons and two daughters, all from different women. Four of his children are professional musicians. But Allman never was a family man; the road and his guitar were the fulcrum around which his life revolved. That was Gregg Allman, a midnight rider, born a rambling man chasing that lost chord.

Allman seemed to be born under a bad sign in Nashville in 1947. When Allman was 2-years-old, his father, Wills Allman was murdered by a hitchhiker. Devastated the family his mother Geraldine Robbins Allman moved to Daytona, Florida. Music was already beginning to haunt the adolescent Allman and he saved enough money to buy a $ 21. 95 Silvertone guitar from Sears. His elder brother Duane liked the guitar too and soon their mother had to buy him his own instrument. Soon the brothers were jamming, they formed a band, called themselves The Allman Joys, and proceeded to tear local bars apart with their raw interpretations of classic rock and blues songs; and that’s how the legendary Allman Brothers Band started. Later in Jacksonville, they invited bassist Berry Oakley, drummer and percussionist Jai Johanny Johanson, guitar player Dicky Betts and Butch Trucks on drums to join the band. Duane by now had become a guitar virtuoso and played as a session musician at the Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama.

 The band now moved to Macon Georgia and that’s when things began to unravel. Their first record mixed and recorded at Atlantic Studios in New York, ‘The Allman Brothers’ released November 4, 1969, was a disaster, and so was the follow-up. But in 1971, ‘At Fillmore East’ seen the band break through the rock wall. They were now constantly touring and then one day in 1971, in Macon Georgia, Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident. He was 24-years-old. The shadow of death was hovering over the band, and in 1972 bassist Oakley died in another motorcycle accident a short distance from where Duane Allman had crashed. By this time, the remaining members of the band were a ragged bunch of drug and alcohol wrecks, still, the music continued with fantastic compositions.

They recruited bassist Lamar Williams and keyboard player Chuck Leavell, and played all over the world to huge audiences. In 1973, The Allman Brothers Band rocked 600,000 fans at The Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, New York. Gregg Allman held the band together, and they made headlines by supporting Jimmy Carter for President, “Gregg Allman and The All Man Brothers Band just about put me in the White House,” Carter said later. But inner tensions and drug and alcohol problems began to take a toll on the band. The Allman Brothers Band disbanded in 1976. Allman went solo, but his demons followed him. Finally, he kicked the junk monkey off his back in 1995 and was clean for the first time in his life. But he contracted Hepatitis-C in 2007 and later received a liver transplant. His brilliant composition ‘I’m No Angel’ rocketed up charts all over the world. His album ‘Low Country Blues’ was nominated for a Grammy in 2012. He also wrote a searing autobiography ‘My Cross To Bear’ and a film of his life, titled ‘Midnight Rider’ began rolling, but tragedy struck again when camera assistant Sarah Jones died in an on-set accident. Allman finally shelved the project.

Allman’s 7th and final marriage was to Shannon Williams. He was 64, she 24. The tabloids had a field day when they learnt of the 40 year age difference. But Allman chuckled at the sensationalism and proudly stated that for the first time in his life he was “in love.” They lived near Savannah, Georgia with their two dogs, a Yorkipoo named Otis and a miniature poodle, Maggie. The Allman Brothers Band, through the years, has had a number of reunions and then came a shocker. On January 24, 2017, Butch Trucks, original All Man Brothers Band drummer, committed suicide by a “self-inflicted” gunshot to his head in his West Palm Beach home in Florida. He was 69-years-old, the same age as Gregg Allman when he died.

Allman’s work with The Allman Brothers Band and his 9 solo albums stand as a great musical reminder of his astounding prowess as a musician and composer. Allman remained creative through the years of drugs, deaths and personal storms. Before he passed away, he recorded his final album ‘Southern Blood,’ which is scheduled to be released this year.

All through his amazing turbulent life, Gregg Allman often talked of how he missed his elder brother Duane, “I talk to my brother in the morning and he answers me at night,” he once said. Finally, in death, he gets to meet that blood brother again.

Photo: peteryang.com