All language subtitles for DUANE ALLMAN - The Rise and Tragic Ending of the Guitar Great [DownSub

Southern rock can be linked
back to March 26, 1969, when

Duane Allman, the founder and
leader of the Allman Brothers

band, summoned his brother
Greg to join a band that

fused blues, rock,
jazz, and country music,

a combination literally
unheard of at the time.

From forming the Allman
Brothers band in 1969

to his untimely death two and
a half years later, today,

we're looking at the life and
tragic death of Duane Allman.

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Now, to the whipping post.

Sometime in the summer of
1960, Howard Duane Allman

bought his first motorcycle.

According to his brother
Greg, the 14-year-old Duane

became a terror of
the neighborhood

with that motorcycle.

He was frequently
seen and heard ripping

through Daytona Beach, Florida,
where the Allman family moved

two years earlier.

The same summer Duane
bought his motorcycle,

the 13-year-old Greg got a
summer job as a paper boy.

After several months
on the job, Greg

went to a Sears department
store one afternoon

with the intention of
buying a pair of gloves.

His attention
though was diverted

by a display of guitars.

Instead of gloves, Greg bought
a Teisco Silvertone guitar.

Back home, Duane used
to play the guitar

on the sly, which
infuriated Greg and caused

the brothers to fight.

But according to Greg's 2012
autobiography My Cross to Bear,

there was no question that
music brought the two together.

When Duane rode his
Harley into the ground,

he traded in the
salvageable parts

for a Silvertone of his own.

Greg gave his older brother
a few basic lessons,

but Duane was a quick study.

And after a year of practice
and an inspirational BB King

concert, the Allman boys
formed several local bands,

including the Kings,
the Uniques, Y Teams,

the Shufflers, the Misfits,
the Escorts, the Allman Joys,

and Allman Act.

In early 1967, the
Allman boys were

booked for a month
long engagement

in St. Louis, Missouri.

It was here that
the brothers bumped

into the nitty gritty dirt
band's manager, Bill McEwen.

McEwen told the Allmans to
stop spinning their wheels,

give it the road,
go to California,

and get serious
about making music,

and get a recording contract.

Duane and Greg left Florida
and relocated to Los Angeles

with their group.

McEwen got them an audition
with Liberty Records, who

then signed the band.

But the record company
wanted to mold them

into a bland commercial rock
band similar to Los Angeles

rock bands such as Iron
Butterfly and the Byrds.

Soon after signing the
Allman Brothers five piece,

Liberty changed the
band's name to Hourglass.

They were forced to wear
ridiculous hippie costumes

and even restricted
their live gigs

to preserve the band's mystique.

Liberty didn't even let
Hourglass choose the songs

on their self-titled debut album
and only loosened the reins

on their second album after
the failure of the first.

Greg Allman called Hourglass's
output a shit sandwich.

Yep, that's probably where
Spinal Tap got that line from.

After the demos for a
potential third album recorded

at Fame Studios in Muscle
Shoals were ejected by Liberty,

Duane and Greg moved
back to Florida

and sort of dissolved Hourglass
without really telling anyone.

When Liberty Records
threatened to sue Hourglass

for breaking up, Greg
went back to Los Angeles

in the fall of 1968 to record
a solo record for them,

which would fulfill
the band's contract.

With the disaster of
Hourglass behind them,

Duane spent a few months jamming
with local Florida musicians.

Nothing was really
clicking for him

in regards of
forming another band.

Duane was in a holding pattern.

Luckily, Fame Studios
owner Rick Hall

remembered Duane from
Hourglass's recent sessions,

sent him a telegram to see if
he was interested in a paid gig.

And in November of
1968, Duane Allman

played lead guitar on Wilson
Pickett song "Hey, Jude."

It was during the
sessions for that album

that inspired
Pickett to give Duane

his nickname Sky Dog because
he could hit the heights.

Paul was also pretty impressed
with the Duane's session work.

He signed Sky Dog to
a five year contract

as Fame Studio's
primary guitarist

where he played for Aretha
Franklin, Percy Sledge, Otis

Rush, and countless others.

But it was Duane's work with
Pickett that created the buzz.

This is how Eric Clapton put it.

"I remember hearing Wilson
Pickett's "Hey, Jude"

and just being astounded by
the lead break at the end.

I had to know who that was
immediately, right now."

While under contract with
Rick Hall's Fame Studio,

Duane slowly put a band together
consisting of drummer Jaimo

Johanson, Johnny Sandlin
as the second drummer,

Paul Hornsby on guitar and
keys, and bassist Berry Oakley.

The group had
immediate chemistry.

And Duane's vision for a
different sounding band,

one with two lead
guitarist and two drummers,

began taking shape.

Duane was thrilled at how well
his unnamed band was gelling.

But Duane was slowly
becoming frustrated

with being what he called
a robot for Fame Studios

producers and musicians
that came through using him

as a young gun for hire.

Now, depending on who's
telling the story,

Duane's future was decided
by either Rick Hall

of Fame Studios or Atlantic
Records vice president Jerry

Wechsler.

According to Jimmy Johnson,
co-founder of the Muscle Shoals

Sound Studio, the moment Jerry
Wechsler heard Duane's solo

on Pickett's "Hey, Jude" on a
lo-fi playback over the phone,

he called Phil Walden, who
had been looking for an artist

to manage ever since his
client Otis Redding died.

After quite a successful run
managing soul and R&B acts,

Walden wanted to switch
genres into rock music.

So Wechsler
excitedly told Walden

about Duane, who
then immediately flew

to Muscle Shoals to buy
Allman's Fame Studio

contract from Rick Hall.

Walden and Wechsler
envisioned Duane and his band

as the foundation of their
new Atlantic distributed label

Capricorn Records.

Now, if Rick Hall
tells the story,

he says he wasn't happy with
Duane or as recording methods.

According to Randy Poe's
2008 biography Sky Dog:

the Duane Allman Story, he
offered Wechsler and Walden

the chance to buy out Duane's
contract and the tracks

his band recorded for $10,000.

Given a second
chance, a new contract

with Capricorn Records,
and the freedom

to make whatever kind
of music he wanted,

Duane returned to
Jacksonville, Florida.

Duane was now in search
of the perfect band.

Already jamming with
Berry Oakley on bass

and Dickey Betts on lead
guitar, Jaimo on drums,

Duane also recruited
Butch Trucks

as his band's second drummer.

And a couple weeks after
he assembled these players,

the five musicians
found themselves

jamming in a small
room at Oakley's home.

The jam went on for
three or four hours.

And when the music trailed off,
Duane looked around the room

and said to no
one in particular,

"Man, anyone who
ain't in this band

has got to fight their way out."

Now all they needed
was a singer.

But Duane already had a plan.

Duane called Greg
in Los Angeles,

where unbeknownst to
him, his little brother

was considering suicide.

Greg explains the situation
in a letter he drunkenly

wrote to Cameron Crowe
in 1973 while on tour

promoting their most recent
album Brothers and Sisters.

"I'd been building the nerve
to put a pistol to my head.

Then Duane called me and
told me that he had a band.

He said, 'I want you to
come down here, round it up,

and send it somewhere.'

I put my thumb out and caught
the first thing smoking

for Jacksonville."

Greg was intimidated by the
musicians Duane put together,

but his big brother pressured
him into singing his guts out.

It was a sink or swim
moment, and Greg delivered.

It was at this rehearsal
on March 26, 1969,

when the group was rehearsing
"Muddy Waters, Trouble No More"

that Dwayne's vision
came together,

and southern rock was conceived.

Four days later, after
Greg's first rehearsal

with Duane and the group,
the Allman Brothers band

made their debut
on March 30, 1969,

at the Jacksonville
Beach armory.

Oddly enough, Greg
didn't perform

with the band for this gig.

Duane Allman was
only 22 years old.

But after a year and
a half in Hourglass,

he taught himself to become
arguably the greatest slide

guitar player in the world.

He invented a genre of
music that would later

become southern rock.

And in two and a half
years, he would be gone.

Once the Allman Brothers were
signed to Capricorn Records,

Duane didn't break from his
cycle of rehearsing, recording,

and touring for two years.

Phil Walden suggested moving
the band to Macon, Georgia,

where he was in the process of
setting up Capricorn Records.

The band eventually moved
into the former frat

house near the local
college the band

christened the Hippie Crash.

Pad.

It was there the
Allman Brothers band

recorded their self-titled debut
between August 3 and 12 of 1969

and released it on
November 4, 1969.

They then set out on a
rigorous two year tour,

performing nearly 500
dates in an econoline van

and later a Winnebago
nicknamed the Windbag.

As a result of the band's
relentless touring schedule,

their second album
Idlewild South

was recorded in bits
and pieces over a period

of five months in
various cities,

including New York, Miami,
and Macon between February

through July 1970.

When sales proved to be as
slow for Idlewild South,

Duane pushed the band
to perform 300 gigs

in 1970, which actually earned
the band a reputation of being

a phenomenal live band.

This revelation gave Duane
a career making idea.

The Allman Brothers third
album would be recorded live

at the Fillmore East, Bill
Graham's legendary New York

rock venue.

And it would be here where Duane
Allman would become a legend.

At Fillmore East was released as
a double album on July of 1971.

And within two weeks, it
landed on the American charts.

The group encountered
huge crowds

at every gig
following the release.

And guitarists would
seek out Duane backstage

and tell him how
much he had inspired

them to stop playing
safe commercial rock

and play real music.

Finally, enjoying
a little success

after two years on the
road since their debut,

the band decided to
take a short vacation,

relax, and enjoy some
of their success.

On October 21, 1971,
Duane took a short ride

on his Harley Davidson Sportster
to Berry Oakley's two story

band headquarters and
residence the group

called the Big House in Macon.

He was going to wish Oakley's
wife Linda a happy birthday.

Shortly after leaving the
Big House at about 5:45 PM,

Duane headed east out on
Macon on Hillcrest Avenue.

It was at the intersection
of Hillcrest and Bartlett

that Dwayne spotted a flatbed
truck crossing Hillcrest

from his left to his right.

The truck suddenly stopped
in the intersection,

forcing Duane to swerve
sharply to the left.

At this point, Duane clipped
the back of the truck's bed

and was thrown from
the motorcycle.

Duane's Sportster flew in
the air, landed on him,

and slid between 50 and 90 feet
beyond the point of impact.

The weight of the motorcycle
crushed his internal organs.

According to a report by
John Lando from Rolling Stone

on November 25, 1971, Dwayne's
girlfriend Dixie Meadows

and Berry Oakley's sister
Candy were following him

from some distance behind and
had not seen the accident.

When the girls had found
Duane under his motorcycle,

they stayed with him until
an ambulance arrived.

He reportedly stopped breathing
twice in the ambulance

but was revived both
times through mouth

to mouth resuscitation.

Although Duane was alive
when he arrived at the Macon

medical center, his
massive injuries

were too much for his body
despite three hours of surgery.

Doctor Charles Burdon,
the intending surgeon,

later said that any of
those injuries Duane

sustained-- his collapsed chest,
his ruptured coronary artery,

or severely damaged
liver-- would probably

have caused his death.

But the combination
of all these injuries

left very little
hope upon arrival.

And at the age of 24,
only two and a half years

after the Allman Brothers
formed, Duane Allman was dead.

Services were held three days
later on Monday, November 1,

1971, at Macon's
Memorial Chapel.

Nearly 300 friends, relatives,
and admirers attended.

Duane's guitar
case was propped up

at the front of his
floor wreath casket,

and the Allman Brothers
band gear was set up behind.

At 3:00 PM, the
remaining members

of the band played several
of their songs as a tribute

to Duane such as "The
Keys to the Highway,"

which Duane had recorded
with Eric Clapton on "Layla,"

then did "Stormy Monday"
and "Elizabeth Reed."

Greg also sang a
couple of the songs

by himself while playing
Duane's antique guitar.

When Greg finished,
he lowered his head

and fingered the guitar's
fretboard nervously and said,

"This is a very old guitar,
a very beautiful piece.

It was made in 1920.

And I'm very proud to have it.

And I'm very proud
that you all came."

Although the Allman Brothers
band stayed together until 2014

with several hiatuses and
several different musicians

along the way, they were never
the same after Duane's death.

Bassist Berry Oakley died in
a drunken motorcycle accident

about three blocks away from
where Duane died a year and two

weeks after Duane's crash.

Greg testified against Scooter
Herring, his personal road

manager and valet,
after Herring was

charged with multiple
counts of conspiracy

to distribute narcotics.

Greg's testimony labeled him
as a snitch among band mates,

and the Allman
Brothers band broke up.

The band reformed,
but they never quite

captured the spirit
they possessed

when Duane was their leader.

So what do you think
would have happened

if Duane would have lived?

Would he have been the
greatest guitarist of all time?

Let us know what you think
in the comments below.

And while you're at it, check
out some of these other music

stories from our Weird History.