Original subtitles

[Music]

when the Allman Brothers Band broke out

of Macon Georgia in the late 1960s it

was as the standard bearers of a new

movement known as southern rock

though they remained an underground act

their distinctive sound and white hot

live shows led by the unique guitar

playing of Dwayne Orman had built a

dedicated fan base

their music was now identifiably their

sound unique from anyone else

and I saw him and I was I was just I was

brought to tears it was just so magical

I think of the top 10

shows rock and roll shows I've ever seen

in my life The Allman Brothers got at

least three or four of those

what sets them apart is their music is

Indescribable it has elements of

everything but what do you call Jessica

what do you call in memory of Elizabeth

Reed they're clearly very Jazz

influenced but they're not jazz songs

proper The Allman Brothers could play

Stormy Monday they could play with

Albert King BB King Bobby Bland and

sound great more so I would say than

just about any other band of their era

but it's very limiting to call them a

blues band and that's why the Allman

Brothers are the Almond Brothers they're

a singular musical entity

[Music]

the sudden death of Dwayne in 1971 came

at a time when the band were reaching

their Peak and had honed their

musicianship to the point where they

were ready to carry the quality of their

concerts into their Studio recordings

it's just breathtaking in the studio the

outtakes were just just magic I mean

they weren't used because there was

something with one more magic but they

were great

but as the almonds started a new chapter

in their story the road ahead would be

fraught with difficulty a tale of

success loss dissolution and the

eventual Triumph of rock and roll's

greatest survivors when I met them in

1983 they were all struggling yet at a

certain point

their legacy was gone

these days you hear nothing about share

you hear nothing about scooter Herring

you hear nothing about how bitter the

breakup was in 1976.

what do you hear is

how that ban was probably the greatest

live band in the history of rock they

built themselves back up to a point

where today they're bigger than they

they ever were

foreign

[Music]

[Music]

in the winter of 1971 the Ormond

brothers were a band devastated by the

loss of their talismanic lead guitarist

Dwayne Orman

tragically killed in a motorcycle

accident on October 29th Dwayne had

founded the group and raised it in His

image

it had been the clarity of Dwayne's

Vision that it set the almonds on an

Unstoppable rise to success and his

Peerless musicianship that had attracted

Legions of fans

in the emotionally fraught aftermath of

Dwayne's death the band was forced to

confront the question of whether they

would be able to carry on without him

[Music]

Dwayne's death just knocked the air out

of all of us

and that whole weekend

is just kind of a daze

one of my jobs was to

uh

take the family members and friends to

view Dwayne in the casket

and boy that was heart-wrenching because

not only my grief but sharing everybody

else's grief and uh

then we had the funeral which was really

uplifting that's when I

that was my first realization that

everything was going to be all right

because

the band played the music was there and

we came out of that funeral

if you can believe it uplifted

we had a meeting the week after the

funeral

and

everybody agreed

unanimously that there was no way the

band would break up that we would

continue on

and uh

within a couple of weeks we were back in

New York working

and I remember the very first date

without Dwayne to see that empty spot on

the stage was really

strange and there's obviously a hole in

the music but the band was still there

the music was still there and everybody

was determined to go on because they

knew that that's what Wayne would have

would want the van was going to go and

start playing

about three or four weeks after Dwayne

had died at first I was surprised but

then I thought well this is what Dwayne

would want them to do that's what always

got us going with some music we've

played the music everyone felt felt good

they got along and things were happening

and uh

so it just it was that's the only thing

they could do the people on the street

that were out there in the street and my

peers the people that were promotion

people and you know with Colombian RCA

and all those labels back then that were

doing well ABC they said man Advance

Dwayne Allman is the band I mean you

know he's the go you know look here he

is the band well I actually heard more

than I'm I'm a

songwriter myself so I like I like the

lyrics you know and Greg Allman is the

best white blues singer ever period I

mean you know they people say Joe Cocker

and Rod Stewart and no no best blues

singer Greg Allman so I'm I'm kind of

saying well if he can carry it

if Greg can carry it then yeah let's you

know put them on the road let's go

but whether Greg could carry it remained

an open question

in trying to stabilize their career The

Allman Brothers first had to address the

leadership vacuum created by Dwayne's

death and bassist Barry Oakley initially

stepped in to try to fill the void

after Dwayne passed away

it was impossible to expect Greg to

become what he wasn't and what he had

never been

you know he was the only almond still

left in the Allman Brothers Band and

people naturally assumed he was the

leader but

you know that it was just something he

was not capable of doing Barry Oakley

really tried to

step up and assume Dwayne's leadership

mantle

and he really wasn't suited for it he

didn't have the personality for it plus

Barry was really getting lost in drugs

and alcohol

and just didn't have the the strength to

pull that off Barry Oakley really died

the same day Dwayne did he walked around

for a year but

the death of Dwayne just took every bit

of his strength and soul out of him he

just spiraled down downhill so he's he

wasn't able to do it

uh

Greg for whatever reasons grief

and not being a natural leader

he couldn't take it over and Dickey was

more of a

musical leader so there was really

nobody to take up the mantle of

spiritual

leader

and the band desperately needed to take

hold of their career which was moving

fast as years of touring had seen the

ormonds develop a reputation as one of

the finest live acts in America

between 1969 and 1971 the original

five-piece of Dwayne and Greg Ullman

drummers jamo and Butch trucks bassist

Barry Oakley and guitarist Dicky Betts

had released two critically acclaimed

Studio albums before achieving a

commercial breakthrough with the live

record at Fillmore East by 72 the heat

that had been progressively building

around the group had taken them to the

very edge of national stardom

it is sort of stunning to look back and

realize that Duane was only with the

band for less than three years and for

the first couple of years they were

slugging it out and they were such a

strong live band that everywhere they

went they developed more fans it was

growing it was growing and just weeks

before his death live at Fillmore East

uh at Fillmore East came out and really

was a hit and Dwayne knew it he knew it

was coming Dwayne had had this

unflagging enthusiasm and confidence

that he kept everyone going whenever it

else was was starting to drag and lose

faith and it was just starting to happen

the vision that he had set forth to

everyone was starting to come true they

were on the up of the diving board they

were diving and they were just about to

to hit the ark and and he never really

got to see that and what had really

established him was this Fantastic live

band that was totally rooted in the

Blues but not at all a Blues Band I mean

they could go anywhere with this sort of

fearless improvisation of the Grateful

Dead with far more precision and

foot in rock and roll food and Country a

foot in jazz and just doing it all

beautifully in a way that didn't sound

forced or contrived

[Music]

and there was also a new record to

attend to

sessions for what would become the

band's third studio album eat a peach

were already underway at the time of

Dwayne's death and having recently

achieved a commercial breakthrough with

at Fillmore East the ormond's next

release was widely anticipated in

December 71 the group traveled to

criteria Studios in Florida to work with

their regular producer Tom Dowd on three

new tracks that would comprise the

album's first time ain't wasting time no

more La Brea in a minor and Melissa

those three tracks were very critical

for the band because it was going to be

the first time in the studio without

their leader without Dwayne Allman and

they had a lot to prove a lot of people

didn't think they could make it without

Dwayne and this was their way of saying

yes we can Dicky all of a sudden showed

up playing Electric Slide which no one

really knew he could do and he had just

never done it because that was Dwayne's

thing so that was an important element

they still had that slide guitar

component

the instrumental of a minor is really

interesting because it's it's like they

recorded it expecting Dwayne to come in

and add his guitar parts

except there was no place for Dwayne

Allman solo I mean it's I listened that

song the other night it's

just so obvious they were missing

they didn't know what to do with that

absence in that song

Melissa

was really the song that

said we're gonna be okay

it was an old song that Greg had written

back in 68 or 69.

and it was actually the original

recording was the first time Dwayne

played slide on record

and Dickie played this really beautiful

lead guitar behind the vocals that has

been often imitated it was melodic

it was

just it set the mood of that song

Perfectly and

I think that one song really

was a statement

we're not only going to survive we're

still going to be creatively viable

they're gorgeous away

and I believe I can run a piece of

marathon thank you very much download

v-lean now

[Music]

I'm here

[Music]

Egyptian

s

with Sweet Melissa

the fact that they were able to come up

with those in the immediate aftermath of

Dwayne's death and their emotional

Devastation is quite striking I don't

think it's really fair to say that they

were over it I think what it shows is

that their form of therapy was musical

they poured everything they had all of

their grief all of their anxiety all of

their nervousness all of their passion

to continue into the music and what came

out were very very strong tracks

as the almonds only remaining guitarist

Dicky Betts naturally assumed greater

prominence onita Peach he stepped up to

take vocals for the first time singing

on his own composition Blue Sky in a

significant step in the band's evolution

Blue Sky really mined a new direction

for the Almond Brothers he didn't want

to sing it and everyone heard his demos

like are you crazy

you're perfect for that

you know he wrote that for Sandy Blue

Sky who who he was dating at the time

and that song is just so filled with

love and warmth for my money that is

Dwayne Allman's greatest guitar so it

was an important thing for the Allman

Brothers because it showcased for the

first time Dickey's country influences

foreign

[Music]

foreign

it obviously opens up a whole new

direction for the band it's one that the

band went heavier in because of the

absence of Dwayne and will never know

just how much they would have continued

to explore it with Dwayne but I think

what's also interesting about blue sky

is that it opened up new avenues of

Dwayne's guitar playing as well which is

often overlooked and he plays

beautifully and differently than he had

before and then of course there's the

Fantastic Harmony lines I would have

loved to have heard what Dwayne and

Dicky would have done in that vein

further

Capricorn records released Eat a Peach

on February the 12th 1972. it was an

instant success peaking at number four

on the Billboard Chart

although some boost in sales might be

attributable to the media attention

around the death of Dwayne Allman the

critical and Commercial reception given

to the album suggested that the second

incarnation of the Allman Brothers Band

was poised to exceed the achievements of

the first

well the people that I was promoting to

didn't even know who the Allman Brothers

Dwayne Allman was

so it was the music

and um

I mean they may have heard your reading

billboard about you know uh Regional

band member dies in motorcycle wreck or

something like that but they didn't know

anything about making Capricorn you know

it was all brand new territory and here

we come with this operatic Jazz

influenced

shuffledown Boogie southern rock and it

was not fitting in anything in the

playlist that were out there at the time

it was had to go in at midnight and and

things like that because it was just

totally uh 180 degrees out from what was

being played

following a tour behind eat a peach The

Allman Brothers returned to the studio

towards the close of 72 to record a

follow-up brothers and sisters

Capricorn had recently ended their

distribution contract with Atlantic

Records for whom Tom Dowd was a staff

producer and the band now turned to

Johnny Sandlin former drummer in Greg

and Dwayne's early band The Hourglass to

oversee the sessions

I admire Tom down immensely I've

listened to all his records and I was

and especially the brothers

and uh I liked some of his ideas I took

and then I modified him with some ideas

I came up with but

it was it was just getting the band to

play right and having the tape runner at

the right time and you might come up

with an idea

put this verse here in that at a bridge

or something but it was nothing that

totally changed the meaning of the song

or the other record

but uh

I was really proud of the time when I

could bring ideas at time and personally

given me and use them

but as work on brothers and sisters

commenced sandin was called on to divide

his time in an unusual fashion parallel

to sessions with the Allman Brothers

Band he would also produce a Greg Allman

solo project laid back

Greg at this point had a set of songs

that

he didn't really think fit within the

Allman Brothers structure he had this

new arrangement of Midnight Rider he had

Queen of Hearts which was a very Jazzy

song that really you know I don't think

at that point The Allman Brothers could

have done

uh he had multi-colored way which was a

ballad

is he had all these different flavorings

that

you know

were sort of almond brother-ish but

really didn't fit into what they were

doing so I think he was actually smart

to want to do a solo album Greg Allman

has always had several sides to his

musical personality and without a doubt

he submerged some of them for the sake

of the Allman Brothers Band The Allman

Brothers Band was Dwayne's idea really

Dwayne put the whole band together and

then called Greg and said I got this

great band and you got to come be the

singer and he did and he was fantastic

and Greg was the main songwriter

initially he was the only songwriter

really and he was writing songs and they

were picking songs that would fit into

the Allman Brothers Band catalog Greg

wrote almost all the songs on the first

album Greg wrote almost all the songs on

the second album Dickie was just

beginning to emerge and at the same time

he was writing songs that he didn't

think fit into the Allman Brothers

catalog and he was putting them aside

Greg has this fullky side of him he

loved Tim Buckley loved Jackson Brown

who was his first songwriting

inspiration as a young man they were

roommates in Los Angeles on laid back he

plays Jackson browne's these days which

Jackson has since said he had to relearn

the song Greg's way because Greg had

done it from memory and actually had

made up some of it

out that I'm walking

I don't do that much

[Music]

these days I sing to thank a lot about

the things that I forgot to do

for you

and all the times

well I

love her

he wanted to go into a different area

explore a different world than what the

Allman Brothers were exploring

it's a cool thing you know to get a

great song and and it's fun to play and

fun to hear and fun to perform and

you play it and it goes this way and

it's it's over in four minutes and 20

seconds and

on to the next you know it's it's it's a

fun thing to do so

the

it's not surprising that's what he

wanted to do I think that Johnny Sandlin

and Greg Allman had a more clear

understanding when they did laid back of

what it was and that that was

appropriate to put Greg in the

foreground the musicians were in fact

the backing musicians which is very

different approach than the band and I

think that did affect the overall sound

of laid back which is a fantastic album

I think it's Greg's greatest solo work

and there it was almost thrown off in

between recording sessions for brothers

and sisters but I think that it had been

building up with ingrag playing was

great his singing was great and I think

Johnny Sandlin was there and understood

it and captured it and it's just a

fantastic album that has stood to test

the time you know from what I've been

told was very therapeutic for him

because

he had that outlet and he had

a way to express his grief you know one

thing Johnny Sandlin talks about is you

know that is a very dark album in many

ways and I think for Greg it was it was

a release

I don't remember him being

morose or or

you know uh

I think he was

moving on I'm certain that somewhere

inside him it was a wonderful way for

him to move on

and which his brother would

have been quite pissed at him if he

hadn't

the laid-back sessions also had radical

implications for the Allman Brothers

Band

among the collection of musicians

recruited to back Greg was a young

pianist Chuck Lavelle Johnny sandon had

been contemplating a means by which to

reimagine the Almond sound in the

post-dwayne era and he now suggested to

Greg that they invite Lavelle to sit in

with the group on brothers and sisters

the band agreed to give the idea a try

I was amazed at his playing and I

started using him for piano and

everything I did

and he was just wonderful

he could sit in on anything it's not the

nice it's nicer guys anybody could ask

to meet

and things just went smoothly with him

on the piano

after Dwayne died the brothers had gone

through looking possibly for another

guitar player but they weren't too they

didn't like that idea it's just nobody

could place Dwayne and uh Chuck showed

up and he seemed to fit any knew their

music he seemed to fit in and they'd got

him to play and it was just natural and

easy and once that once he started

there was no denying and he was there

he had played with uh Alex Taylor and Dr

John who often opened shows for the

brothers and chuck would actually set up

his little keyboard without a sound

system behind the stage and play along

with the band so

even though he wasn't in the band or

invited to be in the band he was playing

in the band after the laid-back sessions

we had a meeting at Phil wallin's office

and the band tendered him an offer to

join and he was excited and accepted and

that was again it it was not a new

guitar player and it didn't replace

Dwayne but it added something to the

music that hadn't been there before

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

the five-man shows without another

instrumentalist their ability to carry

on was very impressive was was inspiring

really but you could also hear a musical

hole and they filled that whole

brilliant way with Chuck Lavelle Chuck

allowed them to continue on with the

harmonies but completely different

harmonies instead of two guitar

harmonies you now had piano and guitar

harmonies and often three-part harmonies

with the guitar the piano and Greg's

organ and something that's often

overlooked is in that transition to

Chuck Lavelle Greg actually became quite

a bit more involved musically if you

listen to Greg's organ Parts they're

becoming much more intricate than they

were before he's not just playing a pad

he's playing a part of a three-part

Harmony which is a very complex thing to

do

foreign

[Music]

brothers and sisters was paused at the

beginning of November 72 as the band

renegotiated their contract with

Capricorn records and made their debut

television appearance on Don kirschner's

in concert

less than two weeks later however

disaster befell the brothers once again

in a scarcely believable twist of fate

Barry Oakley was killed in a motorcycle

accident just a few hundred yards from

the site of Dwayne's death

burial head

been on a downbound train since Dwayne's

death the drugs and alcohol and the

grief were just eating him alive

but he had also been the social director

of the band and that particular weekend

he had planned an event with the road

crew and the band wives that were going

to have a jam session a show at a local

nightclub

and in the preparation for it he was out

on the bike with Kim Payne

and within a very

near radius to where Duane's accident

was he had an accident he did not make a

turn in the on his motor and he hit the

side of a city bus and uh

he went back to the big house he refused

to go to the hospital he said he was

okay

and as he got back to the big house he

immediately his condition

worsened and he was taken to the

emergency room and

he did not survive

he had fractured his brain and was

hemorrhaging

and what the doctor said was

they there was nothing they could have

done even if he had gone to the hospital

immediately after the accident

and I'll never forget campaign

looked back and saw this in this very

brutal thought flashed through his mind

it's like oh [ __ ] there we go again

I remember the last time I talked to him

he'd call me in the afternoon say uh

some of us are going down to whatever

the local bar we were going to then

to jam

I want you to come down there and sit in

with us and I said all right

and I was planning to go down there and

jam with him but that afternoons when I

got called to the hospital again for

Barry there were some very

Eerie similarities between Dwayne's

death and Barry's death obviously they

were both on motorcycles Dwayne was

traveling down Hillcrest Avenue in Macon

he passed ivernus and then hit a truck

at the intersection of Bartlett

Barry was going up Napier Avenue which

runs parallel to Hillcrest

he had just passed Bartlett Avenue and

he hit the bus at the intersection of

iverness

so these crashes happen about a thousand

yards apart you know both Dwayne and

Barry were 24 at the time

and the accidents happen exactly a year

and 13 days apart

so it was

you know to a lot of people in the

Brotherhood it was just a very spooky

Coincidence of how these two accidents

almost paralleled one another

[Music]

coming so soon after the death of Dwayne

the almonds were hit even harder than

they had been 13 months earlier and were

now overwhelmed by a sense of compound

loss but once again they pledged that

they would continue drummer jamo's

childhood friend Lamar Williams took

over on base and the band completed work

on what would become their most

commercially successful album brothers

and sisters

although Barry had passed and he was

such a critical member of the band there

was no stopping that was a band that

there were musicians that's all they had

I mean really when it comes down to it

it was their their spirit and their

music

and no one even thought about quitting I

mean that would be almost

the antithesis of what

Dwayne would have wondered what bear

would have wanted

and

so they were carried on and they they

were they got they held auditions and

came up with Lamar it was a great bass

player too and a nice guy it was just

death death Death I mean every day who's

dead you know neocratic good friend of

our the Capricorn killed in a you know

to flip the Porsche over and you know I

mean it just it just seemed like every

week that someone was the way that was

close to the family close to Capricorn

family was dying off so I mean we're

just all like in shock and just we just

said well like I guess maybe like

soldiers in war you know they're so used

to you know people and everything they

just you know we're on a mission and

that's basically what we were as a

capital we were on a mission we wanted

to we wanted to stick this music up

everybody's ass

and with brothers and sisters Dicky

Betts had clearly emerged as the band's

key creative Force save for two songs by

Greg Allman all the album's original

material was written by Dickey who

developed the country strains previously

heard on Blue Sky into an integral part

of the Allman Brothers sound

I think brothers and sisters is a

fantastic album so it's hard to pick

Stand Out tracks because the whole album

is a standout but Ramblin Man actually

obviously stands on its own as their

biggest hit and it's something that

doesn't really sound anything else like

the band has ever done in addition

Jessica is an all-time classic it's

Jessica is a song that will be heard as

long as anybody's listening to music it

will be on the radio it will be on

commercials it will be on baseball

football it's one of the most joyous

happiest songs ever recorded

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

I think of Jessica had not been there

the complexion of that entire album

would have changed Dramatical you know

Jessica

was another

song that was

sort of earmarked by Dickey's country

influences it was a purely Western swing

song

and it not only gave Chuck his first

real showcase

it gave Dicky an incredible showcase

[Music]

I think maybe Dicky felt a little

liberated you know he was

while not the designated leader he was

more or less a musical leader

there had always he had always had that

country background he started writing

more and more songs I think probably

again that he was the musical Direction

of the band it definitely was a key

driving force you know he would talk to

me about something if Greg they were

going in the studio he would say well

Greg is Rewritten and you know changed

the chord structure and Rewritten and

interpreted a blues song so he would

mention this to me we might be at a

restaurant or having a a beer or

something and so uh Dickey was very

um appreciative of everybody in the band

in their music in his own music

um you know as a writer of instrumental

Tunes

uh unbelievable

one of the standout tracks to Bear

Dickey's distinctive musical imprint was

the Allman Brothers first hit single

Ramblin Man

released in September 1973 as the lead

single from brothers and sisters Ramblin

Mann was a breakout crossover success

reaching number two on the Billboard

Chart and being heavily played on radio

across America

was a completely new musical direction

for the Allman Brothers the only hint of

what might that it might be there was in

Blue Sky which is still quite different

but it's it's in a similar vein

um I don't think the band was completely

surprised when Dicky pulled Ramblin Man

out for these sessions because there's

recordings of him showing it to Dwayne

as early as during the early demo

sessions for eat a peach so Dicky had

been kicking the song around for a while

I think Dicky's interest in country

music was well known to everyone in the

band so they probably weren't shocked

laughs

[Music]

I think that was the first real post

Dwayne Allman song

that is the song where Dicky came into

his own

I can't imagine Dwayne playing on that

song and I think that was really where

they turned the corner

and became

in reality this new version of The

Allman Brothers Band that was led by

Dickey Betts

[Music]

as I traveled around the country and we

always had a car radio on in the rental

cars

I started hearing Rambling Man about

every 30 minutes on every station I said

this is going to be a hit record and it

was Dickie's song and it was originally

thought maybe too country for the band

but uh

yeah Dickies

Dickies flavor was all through that

album radio

you know was looking for something to

play off that record and couldn't find

anything but Rambling Man Rambling Man

and so that's what they played and we

just got behind radio radio you know

pretty much forced that off the album so

we just got in behind that and went with

it even though it wasn't the Allman

Brothers sound but it fit radio format

you know and you can't argue with radio

you know I mean or anybody in media

that's got that big of a blowback you

know you just you go with it you know

and it's a lot easier to pull out of the

radio stations once you've got these

plethora of radio stations on it you

know get on this because you got 500

stations on it well everybody they all

joined on then

[Music]

the release of brothers and sisters in

the summer of 1973 saw the band arrive

at the absolute peak of their Fame they

performed in front of expensive sold out

audiences on a U.S stadium tour

culminating in playing the Summer Jam in

Watkins Glen New York where a crowd

numbering 600 000 watched The Allman

Brothers headline what was the largest

concert in history

[Music]

their new album Memoir was also breaking

records sales exceeded 750 000 coppers

in just three weeks making it one of the

fastest selling LPS of all time

[Music]

73 was really when they went from a big

band to a super group band the stadium

shows

I mean no one could could uh help but be

uh cognizant of what was going on as far

as the success of the band the crowds

the adulation the success of the records

I used to comment how funny it was that

the band would in the 1970 would play

for free or for a little or no money and

they would do the same show in 1973 and

be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars

for it

we never got the sense that we were one

of the biggest bands in America we

always consider ourselves the underdog

so we're always you know swimming

upstream and uh

the success of the album like I said but

that time you know all the machine you

know was rolling the publicity the music

the radio uh the articles I mean just

everything was rolling so basically at

that point we were just you know

um

working like you would if you were in

the shoe business you know fill this

order fill that order fill that order

[Music]

but with the fame came creeping issues

that threatened the professional Harmony

of the group

success had been accompanied by excess

with band members over indulging in

drugs and alcohol

two shows at Madison Square Garden had

been arranged around a stint in rehab

for Greg who tried in vain to get a

handle on his heroin addiction

egos had started to inflate and the

overblown Entourage that surrounded the

almonds became increasingly belligerent

with the road crew in particular prone

to throwing their weight around matters

came to a head at a gig in Washington

when Capricorn records promotional

director dick Wooley was assaulted label

Chief Phil Walden decided to fire a

warning shot and dismissed two of the

band's longest-serving Roadies campaign

and Mike Callahan Phil had really

started cracking down on the Roadies

because like I say the Allman Brothers

were great wonderful to work with but

all the Roadies thought they were rock

stars and acted like rock stars so this

Roadie stopped me at the top of the

stairs said you can't go back stage and

I said well those are my seats over

there there's my wife and Peggy and Phil

and everything I got these beers and I'm

going over here no you're not and I said

yeah I am and so uh I I was wearing

cowboy boots and had a couple of drinks

myself so I wasn't you know I wasn't in

fight and shape but when the guy hit me

then I went after him and uh I was you

know one thing you want to be in a fight

you know is uh uh you know on bottom if

you're going to be swarmed and I could

see the Swarm coming

so I rolled over on the bottom and I'm

punching this guy in the face you know

and uh and I was a pretty good puncher

like I say I was Taekwondo I was uh uh I

was I was a damn good fighter if I do

say so I got a couple of trophies to

prove it from the road Cruise point of

view the stage had gotten dangerous they

felt like it was even buckling to the

point that one more person

uh up on stage even a friend or family

person would be dangerous and they just

made a complete cut off I just remember

getting you know

Bright Lights uh

um and someone getting me and pulling me

out from underneath that pile by this

time four or five guys big huge guy one

of the Grateful Dead Roadies I think

they had some kind of a nickname like

killer or you know uh King Kong or

something but he was huge and had me in

one of these police holds and I'm you

know I'm I'm still fighting you know and

he saved my ass is what he did by

pulling me out of there I thought he was

going to do me harm but he pulled me out

of there saved my life probably that was

the breaking point for taking crap you

know from these Roadies you know a road

is a baggage handler you know or a

Furniture mover so I mean you know this

attitude's got to cease so that was kind

of the breaking point right there so I

think he he fired that that night he

fired and let him know you know that you

know hey this is a business even though

creatively and financially things were

still on an upswing

uh there were problems beginning

as far as the road crew who were heavily

drugged out and I'm no no one will deny

that

and the pressures that they went through

on these big stadium shows and outdoor

shows there was tension there

the band was starting to get a little

aloof a little apart from one another so

there was kind of a a drift beginning

but the year ended on a high with the

Allman Brothers named as Rolling Stones

Band of 1973 and featured on the cover

of that Christmas edition

Greg's solo album laid back climbed as

high as 13 and the charts following its

release in October to cap a roller

coaster year in which he had married his

second wife Janice Blair Mulkey and

struggled through drug rehab the dawn of

1974 saw his version of Midnight Rider

become a top 20 hit and the first ever

Greg Allman solo tour commenced in March

when I talk about laid back I like to

confess that is my favorite album that

I've ever done

I felt like we we had good songs and

Greg was in top form

and it worked out we had good

Arrangements and good players it was an

immediate commercial success and we went

on tour with Greg and a big string

audience a string section and a full

band and scenery and lighting it was

completely different from the Allman

Brothers and it was a very big

successful tour unbelievable band two

drummers

uh organ piano two guitars me and Scott

Boyer a five-piece horn section uh three

female background singers and uh on we

did two tours and on one of the tours

was the string section so at one at one

any given moment on stage there was

probably I think 26

24 of 26 people on stage and and the

power of that is just a great feeling

and the tour was done on a

really classy high level kind of in

keeping with the spirit of the sound of

the laid-back album it it's slick you

know it's it's slick without you losing

the soul

uh and so we did all the best theaters

and and all the biggest cities it was

wonderful you know the Allman Brothers

Band was Dwayne's

vision of a group and Greg was a piece

of that a very important piece

but it was someone's definition of what

the sound should be like you know it

wasn't Greg's vision for what his sound

should be you know Greg always wrote

songs that

didn't always fit within the structure

of the Allman Brothers and his solo

album and solo tour really helped him

Define who he was both artistically and

as a person

you know in a way that was Greg getting

out from under the shadow of his big

brother

and him coming of age as a musician

I don't know if it's coincidental or not

but he seemed to be writing less

material that was

adaptable to the Allman Brothers Band

but Greg's drug addictions were

deepening

now supplied directly by his personal

assistant scooter Herring he struggled

to perform on stage regularly unable to

play reliably alongside the band

with the excesses and addictions came

escalating tension and the members of

The Allman Brothers Band started to

drift apart with the family ethos of the

group increasingly looking like a

utopian dream now consigned to the Past

drug use was really getting to be

a problem at that point

I got a phone call in New York at the

hotel

that

Greg had overdosed and

it looked very serious I rushed over

some other band members had gotten there

before me

uh

we were able to

revive him

and

you know I don't think he realized the

seriousness of it but we did

they were all young they all had money

they were all partying very hard in

I think a lot of that was

them trying to deal with grief and doing

it and not not very healthy way

and there was nobody to say no once they

came into money it sort of took them

away from their Roots you know the first

couple years they all lived together

by 74 yeah they were scattered all over

the place when they went on tour

they would they would

rent Suites for each band member and

they would spend like five minutes awake

and then just crash they never saw the

rooms Butch would order five bottles of

Dom Perignon and leave four of them

behind for the maid

Greg got a limo so Dicky had to get a

limo

and it just

the spirit that really propelled them

seem to get lost it was at this point

you could really start to see it

beginning to unravel I don't know that

they changed so much on the basis of

success I think it's a time it's in and

not necessarily a musical disharmony I

think it's just uh

uh you know when you how much are we

going to work what are we going to do

what are playing uh are there outside

influences

are there some bad habits are there

different influences of all of these

types they play A Part every band you

read about

you know of you go why did they break up

and then why did they come back together

so I think everybody was aware maybe not

aware enough and maybe not knowing

exactly maybe how to help in some

circumstances

The Omen Brothers Band agreed to take a

break and after a summer tour they went

their separate ways for the final four

months of 1974.

Dickey Betts took the opportunity to

launch his own solo career and his debut

album Highway call matched the success

of Greg Allman's laid back in Breaking

the top 20.

dick is always one with surprises and

and I love the music that he'd be

brought in

I thought well this is a fresh look at

at uh more country music and I loved it

and there again we got to work with some

very talented people and Dicky was just

showing his old different side of

himself

and he is super talented

I mean he is

writing and singings always been good

but it's guitar playing

this is pretty amazing

and you've put him around these other

great musicians and it's gonna it's

gonna happen right

[Music]

I'll Always Love The Home Road

Precious Memories

[Music]

me

I love the songs and I love the music we

had fun doing it

we had late nights and we start like 10

at night I think dick you had to watch

the I can't remember what this show I

think it was kung fu as a TV show of his

own didn't come on until nine o'clock at

night and he would have to see that

before he'd come to the session

Dickey Betts uh solo debut Highway call

is I think a fantastic album I would put

it up there as well recorded just after

laid back and these in in both Dickie

cases and Greg's case was their full

first solo albums and in many ways their

most successful one I would call shows

Dickey Betts conception of country and

it's very different than the conception

of country coming out of Nashville at

that time and it's also very different

than the conception of country coming

out of sort of California hippies

without a doubt in my mind if Dickey

Betts had decided to move to Nashville

and just start hanging out full time

with Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings

and that crew he could have been a

linchpin of the Outlaw country music in

some ways what Dickey was doing was a

precursor to the Outlaw country that was

just just budding although again it was

distinctly different he had this sort of

Rebel country rock thing it was country

music filtered through the guy who had

played on live at Fillmore East Dwayne

Allman and of course that was different

[Music]

wake up

there's something in your song

[Music]

you keep me rolling along

keep me rolling on

I'll tell you by then after the Allman

Brothers and the look what was Greg's

album

and Dickey's album I guess you got to

got to a point I don't mean this sounds

all stuck up you know but I thought the

illness we have a magic thing here and

it's going to keep working

of course that doesn't keep working

forever but

if it would ride it while we could

and in the winter of 1974 two of The

Allman Brothers Band went head to head

as both dickiebacks and Greg ulman

embarked on U.S solo tours

wary of being in competition with one

another the two camps negotiated on

venue dates and who would have their

pick of available backing musicians we

tried to keep their dates to their shows

from being in conflict with each other

in terms of selling tickets you know

all of a sudden both shows are on sale

in the same Market you know and they're

a week apart well we tried to keep them

greater than a week apart and the

routing to treat them as far as apart

and all of a sudden you're crisscrossing

the country and they end up maybe in the

same city on the same night you just

couldn't avoid it uh 100 and I think

maybe a couple of times they were close

and one would go over and see the other

one and so forth so my efforts to sort

of separate them was not a personality

issue so much as it was that if one was

playing the same venue in the same town

but four weeks apart

you know you could just you know they'd

have a chance to not competing with the

Allman Brothers Band audiences for which

if a public is going to make a decision

give their give the fans the time to get

a little more jingle in their pocket get

another payday behind them get some

money in their pocket and go see both

doing their solo tour

there was never any overt competition

between dick and Greg but I think it was

covert I think they couldn't help but

uh each being jealous somewhat I don't

know if jealous is the right word but uh

not resentful but just maybe a little

professional jealousy in the fall of 74.

when Greg and Dicky were both out solo

and I obviously couldn't go with both of

them at the same time I think Dickie was

feeling that maybe he was getting the uh

stepchild treatment that Greg's tour was

getting the best of the Roadies it was

very diplomatic we had to share Roadies

uh again I went with Dickie as maybe the

senior road person

but Greg got some of the better

musicians it was

it was a little chippy there Dickey

Betts was

more country than Rock and he had a lot

of country musicians he was built as

Richard Betts at his request I think

maybe he confused his fan base

his tour was not nearly as successful as

Greg's

he didn't make as much money off of it

and some many of the shows were just not

successful I I think there was some

confusion in the marketplace on that my

next guest is a very special member of

the rock music scene for the past two

years he was voted number one in the

All-Star Rock and Jazz poll you know

he's got enough Gold Records to open up

a chain of banks he's also the lead

singer in the great Allman Brothers Band

he's a guitarist a composer

and he's really terrific he's also a

very good friend of mine Mr Greg Allman

[Applause]

in January 75 just a month after

finalizing a divorce from his second

wife Janice Greg Allman met Cher and the

two began dating

sessions for a new Allman Brothers album

had been planned to start at Capricorn

Studios back in Macon Georgia but gray

could move to Los Angeles where he was a

sconced with Cher

the recording process for what would

become win loser or draw proved to be

torturous with producer Johnny sandling

finding it an almost impossible task to

cajole the band into taking the project

seriously

[Music]

everybody was separated there were very

few times when everybody was in the

studio at the same time

with everybody playing or or working

opportunities

and there's so-and-so would have a song

the other person would have a song and

they put them together but they'd work

them up usually on their own there was

no interaction between them

but it's just

you know you can see that it just wasn't

the interest on their part

I think more than anything they weren't

pretty as much

as a time into it or just much as much

gift to it Ray and Dicky

would call if they didn't want to go

they didn't go

if they didn't want like when the

session was they wouldn't go they

wouldn't show up and this was

much worse on on Greg than it was Vicky

but

I don't know if Capricorn had anything

to do about they were trying to get a

record out the record company was and

and it seemed like the only way to do it

was to put up with this nonsense really

to compound all that during those

sessions Greg started dating Cher

who was the biggest television star in

Hollywood and not only kept Greg and La

during those sessions but kept

two of them

on the cover of every tabloid

in your supermarket checkout line

so for a large part of that session Greg

was not even in Macon and at a certain

point Johnny sent tapes to La for Greg

to do his vocals

and what happens

Greg cuts his vocals when he has a cold

that when loser draw album was just a

disaster from every angle you look at

you could just see the end was not far

off

Win Lose or Draw was released in August

1975 after months of arduous sessions

though the ormond's popularity ensured

that sales held up reviews were largely

negative with some critics floating the

notion that the group was out of time

okay this isn't brothers and sisters but

yeah it still has some great music High

Falls

it's just a brilliant instrumental that

that Dickie put together when loser draw

was a great song that Greg wrote he

wrote it about a friend of his who had

done time in prison but the band

butchered and Greg recorded it with a

cold so his vocals were not what they

should have been either

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

looking back on that album

[Music]

it really wasn't very good

yeah it was the Allman Brothers Band was

running on fumes

the win loser draw tour

fall of 75.

started off with a bang we opened up the

Superdome the first concert in the

Superdome but as

the tour progressed and the album was

not doing as well

we were having more and more

performances that were lackluster jamo

was having back problems again

I could definitely see things slipping

away and by

the end of the tour we actually canceled

a couple of shows and it just it was not

a successful tour financially

when the tour concluded the legacy of

Greg's drug use came to wreak havoc on

his entire world

scooter Herring Greg's assistant and

dealer was arrested on drugs charges

Herring was loosely associated with the

Dixie Mafia a large-scale organized

crime outfit that operated across the

southern states and the FBI swiftly came

for Greg pressuring him to incriminate

scooter and hand them leverage in their

attempt to break the Dixie Mafia

Greg agreed to cooperate and scooter was

sentenced to 75 years in a federal

penitentiary

Greg was given immunity and he was told

you know if you don't Testify the way we

want you to

you're going to end up doing a lot of

time in federal prison with long blonde

hair

at the time the band didn't really

understand and to the whole Allman

Brothers persona

you know to turn on one another was was

just unacceptable and the whole band at

that time

didn't understand Greg's position and I

among them I thought he was a rat but I

came to understand that he didn't really

have a choice

when the whole power of the federal

government is on you there's just not

much you can do

after scooter was convicted Greg was

getting death threats from within the

Brotherhood

people were very angry

incredibly angry

jamo wrote a letter to the editor

to the make and Telegraph

basically saying he was no longer going

to play with Greg he couldn't play with

Greg because Greg had betrayed

someone who was very dear to them all

uh Dickey

shortly thereafter

said the same thing you know Greg

betrayed the Brotherhood he betrayed

scooter there's no way I can ever play

with him ever again

Butch came out and said the same thing

Greg on the other hand was trying to

explain to them hey I didn't have any

choice there was a band meeting shortly

after the trial Dickey refused to even

speak to Greg and shortly thereafter the

band broke up

it was very bitter I mean it was very

publicly played out

it was basically confirming all the

rumors that had been flying for the last

two years

that they were on the verge of

splitting and

you know what finally drove them to that

point was a scooter hearing trial

as the Allman Brothers personal

relationships collapsed warning signs

started to flush around their business

Affairs evidence emerged that Capricorn

records the label founded by Phil Walden

in order to sign Dwayne Allman had been

underpaying the band

a series of financial issues now convert

to heat pressure on both the band and

their label

[Music]

at the end of the

1976 tour the early part of 76.

when I tallied all the debits and

credits and remaining cash balance I

found out that the tour had really been

a disappointment it showed a profit but

it was a major profit the band members

individually were still comfortable and

they weren't ever broke but it was a big

disappointment corporately

and I always used to joke that that last

tour was I call it the brother-in-law

tour because everybody had their

relatives their friends the family we

had a bloated payroll

the band had taken like a year off

during that recording paying everybody

full salary which is unheard of

for the road crew and the band everybody

and it was just like we took a year off

and no income and all out go Dickie

hired his own accountant

to audit the royalty statements

and he filed an arbitration case saying

he was owed at least two hundred

thousand dollars next up Johnny sandwin

sued Capricorn saying he was owed over

eight hundred thousand dollars

and at the same time

the breakup of the Allman Brothers Band

devastated Capricorn because that was

their Cash Cow people started

not receiving the checks they were

expecting alimony payments that were due

were not getting paid child support was

not getting paid

during this time Phil signed a deal with

polygram records and ultimately borrowed

I think 8.8 million dollars to keep the

label going

as security he put up

the Capricorn catalog

the recording contracts even the studio

thinking

this thing is going to turn around and

you know and it doesn't turn around

the bottom basically fell out of what

was commonly known as southern rock

they had also had a relatively

unsuccessful album and the record

royalties

had

begun to diminish things change

um

but if you become set in your way and

you hear something that's a little bit

different

um

and you sort of reject it you know just

immediately

then you're asking to be kicked in the

rear by the public

as the music changes and there was an

opportunity for example to get involved

with Dire Straits from Capricorns

records point of view might not have

ever happened but it was not something

that Phil really heard

so around that time period at my agency

I was bringing in 999 and gang of four

and squeeze and police and Phil was

pretty much stuck in one place musically

and I think that's the difference I

think he he he sort of shut off

you know in that journey of finding some

new sounds and some new music well it

was all cocaine everybody you know Phil

was just you know he was doing

probably three four hundred dollars

worth of coke a day his decision-making

capacity was diminished by 70 percent so

he was basically working on about 30

percent of his intellect and capacity

and the only thing I remember is you

know film making bad decisions buying

you know magritts and you know thirty

thousand dollar paintings here and in

the meantime he's going through a couple

thousand dollars a week in cocaine last

time I saw a Phil he was on his hands

and knees trying to snort up a piece of

cocaine that had dropped in a rug with a

straw and uh

uh you know I said this is not good I

gotta get out of here

[Music]

with the band dissolved in the labeling

crisis Dickey Betts successfully sued to

get out of his contract with Capricorn

and signed to Arista records as a solo

artist

Greg now father to a baby boy with Cher

continue to pursue his own solo career

though drug and relationship problems

persisted in the winter of 1977 he

released an album of duets with Cher two

the hard way

build as all men and women for many

critics the record represented the

absolute nadir in Greg's declining

fortunes

[Music]

I thought it was very very strange idea

but you know who knows sometimes those

kind of off the wall ideas work

and I was hoping it would I was hoping

it would do good

I don't think it made a charge but

I don't know but it was fun to make but

it wasn't a great album

share was just wonderful to work with

just together she's professional and

and I really liked him you know I

thought she was a sweet say girl

I was proud to work with her

[Music]

you dare only

cause I would back and see

[Music]

that album

could have been the greatest thing since

Abbey Road and

people would not have given it a chance

Greg and Cher were on the cover of

National Enquirer every week the

supermarket tabloids

Johnny Carson was making jokes about

them on The Tonight Show

I mean Gary Trudeau made fun of them in

Doonesbury

I mean that's

Greg and Cher had pretty much turned

into a laughing stock I mean

everyone who loved to make fun of Greg

and I think it not only damaged his

reputation

his

Merit as an artist

I think it also

really diminish The Allman Brothers pen

to the point where

no one was talking about the music no

one was talking about

the incredible albums that they made

with Dwayne Allman they were not talking

about

the spirit of that band

all of a sudden Greg Allman was that

coked up singer he's married to Cher and

oh yeah and the Allman Brothers or his

backup band

and that's what it became

and

I think it took them

25 years to get over that

during all these years Greg

have been lost

was it for the whole time and it had to

be worse after the thing with scooter

and all

that just had to be worse I mean

everything was kind of folding in on

itself now

on the subsequent tour Cher brought an

end to her turbulent relationship with

Greg Ullman and left the troubled singer

in the final weeks of 77 taking their

son with her

with royalty payments from Capricorn

having dried up the other members of The

Allman Brothers Band were broke and

struggling to meet their deaths

the reason for the band split scooter

Herring had had his conviction

overturned and his sentence reduced from

75 years to 30 months gambling that

their attitude towards him would have

softened a penitent Greg approached his

former badmates to suggest a reunion

only Chuck Lavelle and Lamar Williams

declined

share filed for divorce and as much as

that had been a sanctuary for Greg I

think in the end that felt like a trap

because the first thing he did was he

flew back to Macon and he was determined

to put the Allman Brothers Band back

together unfortunately

[Music]

you know Chuck and Lamar and jamo had

started their own band called sea level

jamo was back in the fold with the

Allman Brothers But Chuck and lamari who

acted to stay with sea level they

brought in

two guys from Dickie solo band Dan Toler

on guitar

David gofi is on base

and you know that further changed their

sound

I think that the loss of Chuck Lavelle

and Lamar Williams

didn't immediately seem to hurt the band

they were replaced capably David

goldflies was a very solid bass player

been playing with Dickey Betts in Great

Southern and understood what Dickey

wanted and was able to fit in musically

Danny Toller is a fantastic guitar

player again I've been playing with

Dickie and knew what he wanted and was

able to fit in

and in the original Reincarnation of the

band it all seemed to work pretty well

but there was a certain level of

intuitiveness that was lost and every

step away from the original band and

although Lamar Williams and Chuck Lovell

of course never played with Barry Oakley

and Dwayne Allman they were direct links

back to that and each step away from

that hurt the band and I don't think it

was immediately apparent it wasn't that

there was a steep musical fall off but

there was a residual effect that over

time came to impact them more and more

[Music]

in February 1979 the reconciled

reconfigured Allman Brothers Band

traveled to criteria studios in Miami to

reunite with producer Tom Dowd and begin

sessions for what would be their sixth

studio album enlightened Rogues we were

really optimistic the uh there was a new

manager been involved with uh with

Dickie and the American Indian

foundation so in Leighton Rogues we had

a great great anticipation for its

success when they hired Tom Dao to do

the comeback album I firmly believe that

was

an acknowledgment by the Allman Brothers

that we went off track

we went down a path

wasn't particularly good for the band

and another thing they did which was

very interesting is they all lived under

the same roof while they were recording

that album

they were really trying to get that

Spirit of the Brotherhood back

and I think for a while they got it

in white and Rogues was very well

received critically

it had a lot of fresh energy to it

a lot of Vitality

in

it was everything that women lose or

draw wasn't

[Music]

down

[Music]

a lot of people still love the album I

find it to be good but not great I don't

love it

but I think it was a very successful in

the sense that

it sounded like the Allman Brothers Band

it sounded like we're going to be back

to who we were we're not going to be

this uh tepid band that petered out

we're back we're strong we're here and

they went out and took it on the road

and they they were original shows in

1979 and 1980 were very strong and there

was a very powerful sense amongst the

fan base and amongst the band themselves

that they were back and that they could

do this again

[Music]

the one thing missing on that album was

someone to creatively challenge

and creatively motivate decades as a

guitarist

sometimes Dan togar did a so-o but most

often it was Dicky did a solo

it was vocals Dickie solo back into

vocals

and there was none of that beautiful

interplay that had marked the early

years and the Allman Brothers

but despite breaking the top 10 on the

Billboard Chart and generating a hit

single and crazy love enlightened Rogues

came too late for Capricorn records

which finally ran out of money and filed

for bankruptcy in October 79.

[Music]

when Ryan Rose was released Capricorn

was struggling

and they saw that album and the reunion

of the Allman Brothers as I was going to

pull them out of their troubles but even

as the Allman Brothers were on tour to

support that album which did go platinum

by the way

polygram

called up Capricorn

um

you owe us about five and a half million

dollars and we want that today and

Capricorn of course didn't have that

money and went into bankruptcy and

polygram wound up with the Capricorn

catalog all their recording contracts

all their artists

everything

with the final demise of Capricorn The

Allman Brothers signed a new deal with

Arista records where labelhead Clive

Davis had a vision to remodel and update

the band sound the consequences were

disastrous

the two albums released on Arista reach

for the sky in 1980 and brothers of the

road in 81 were considered by the Allman

Brothers themselves to be the worst

records that they had ever issued

critics shared that sentiment and widely

derided arista's attempt to Crowbar the

band into traditional song forms

overlaid with glossy modern production

to add to their difficulties between the

two albums jmo Departed the group in a

dispute over money and another founding

band member was lost

they had signed with the new record

label and the idea was a foot that they

should be competing in the marketplace

of current music

and it didn't work out very well

but to be fair to the Allman Brothers

and I guess to some extent even to

Arista

that's what people were doing at the

time it wasn't unique to them the idea

was if you want to compete you have to

modernize a little bit and get away from

doing things the old way so they weren't

unique in that regard

but they also weren't unique on the

other hand and having the strength and

ability to say no this is not what we're

going to do we're the Allman Brothers

this is what we're going to do they

tried to play the game and it didn't

work out very well

[Music]

we were reaching and age and the

evolution of popular music where guitars

were not cool

guitar solos were not cool this was the

age of synthesizers punk New Wave

and

aristor tried to get the Allman Brothers

to make a turn and into that

and that was one of the dumbest things

that's ever happened in the history of

music to me

Brothers of the road is not better than

its original reputation implies and to

some extent every band has a couple of

Records in their history if they've been

around long enough that you wouldn't

really listen to and that's where these

two records fall for me so if you're

writing a history of the band you got to

spend a little bit of time listening to

them if you're not I don't know why you

would really listen to these records

they're they're not good they're sort of

sad statements of a once proud and great

institution falling apart and losing its

way

[Music]

baby we can start all over again

[Music]

and entire album is about getting a hit

single Straight From the Heart charted

so they reached that goal what that song

had to do with the Allman Brothers Band

Escapes Me Rolling Stone I thought

had the perfect review and what they

wrote was all the Allman Brothers Band

can do right now is give people a

lingering suspicion that they stole

their name

[Music]

after a half-hearted tour The Omen

Brothers dissolved for the second time

in the early weeks of 1982.

the band members now found themselves

cast adrift in an unfamiliar world of

synth pop and corporate Rock a landscape

unrecognizable to the icons of the 60s

and 70s almost all of whom struggled

badly during the 80s

Greg Allman put a band together and went

out on tour but his profile had

collapsed so precipitously that he

struggled to play Anywhere larger than

bars and not a single record label was

willing to offer him a recording

contract the 80s were a very dark period

for Roots Music

synthesizers were huge at this point if

you played guitar you are not cool

you played a guitar solo you were

self-indulgent you know the 80s were

about disco and pop and there was no

Blues influence at all and there was not

a lot of musicianship

and

you know Dickie was playing bars jamo

was playing bars and Greg was playing

bars you know they were no longer

playing stadiums they could barely fill

up

a 500 seat bar is an illustration of how

far they had fallen

I spent a year playing in a band with

jamo you know and it was sort of

how did the universe allow something

like this to happen and it was a great

experience for me but

why is jamo playing in this little bar

and making in a cover band I was in an

early retirement I was just having a

good old time and I got a phone call

in late 1983

and it was Greg Allman and he said

would you consider coming back to work

with me and I said well hell yes and I

when I hung up the phone I literally

jumped up in the in the air off the off

the floor because that's this is what I

really wanted to do

and uh

I went to see the Greg Allman Band in

Jacksonville Florida

and I was shocked because

I was used to stadiums and Arenas and he

was playing a nightclub with maybe 200

people so we've been playing all to the

summer I could at real large nightclubs

you know they're building some big clubs

now because these Arenas just

doesn't seem like very many people are

making a kind of money because

you go into an arena or ballpark or

whatever and you have four five six acts

I mean

tickets gonna cost anywhere from 12 to

20 dollars

and

people just don't have that kind of

money nowadays

I plan on uh we plan on cutting an album

hopefully to have maybe a January or

February release

uh it's not for sure but that's what

we'd like to aim for

and uh we have a lot of it written he

sounded better than ever to me

but he had no record deal he had

tremendous tax problems all this stuff

had happened after he

left the uh the Macon Georgia scene

and

it was a really shocking to me that how

low he had fallen professionally not not

personally but professionally and he did

have personal problems too he still had

a tremendous alcohol and drug problem is

Greg Allman going to hit the uh

don't take this one it's Greg Allman

going to hit the heights

in the past

well if I don't it won't be because I

didn't try

there's always a little bit of

you know a little bit of a preference of

bias at the record labels to find the

new you know 18 year old

uh so it's a disadvantage if you've been

around a while and a couple of record A

and R guys who were friends of mine and

loved the Allman Brothers said some

pretty you know uh not nasty just sort

of quips that you know I don't need a

used tire or whatever you know I mean

just stuff that kind of it's like really

don't you understand you know

but in 1986 fate intervened to revive

Greg's flagging fortunes

he encountered a composition by

little-known English songwriter entitled

I'm No Angel and on the strength of a

demo of the song Greg Allman was offered

a deal by Epic Records

Greg said something to me he said I

really want to hear my music on the

radio again and that really struck a

chord with me and I said you know damn

it I'm going to do my best that to see

that that does happen and after about

four years it did but it was a long

a long hard slog to get people to give

him another chance we were booking uh

Dickey Betts my agency we were booking

uh Greg Allman and uh us I just decided

that it it you know might be in you know

a good thing to work with Greg and let

him rebuild you know kind of you know

from the ground up he liked to play and

he had the Toler brothers who would put

together some instrumental tracks and

Greg could write lyrics to those in

instrumental tracks I don't know if Greg

would remember this but I listened to

uh not hundreds but probably thousands

of songs that people would send or own

albums obscure albums or new albums and

almost became in myself sort of in a

bubble of looking for a song for Greg

but a guy

um sent this cassette out to a number of

people songwriters do that and

Publishers do that and I heard uh I'm No

Angel

[Music]

I'm

[Music]

sure

come on love me baby

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

so I must

[Music]

No Angel

it was written by a

guy from the UK

but it sounded almost autobiographical

for Greg and we all felt man this is a

hit song and the folks at Epic Records

called us back and one of the radio

promotion guys said I can get this song

on a on 200 radio stations So based on

that they made us an offer

and uh we signed Greg with epic and it

was a big success it was uh

we had probably four tracks that were

number one at aor album oriented songs

it was the number nine MTV video I'm No

Angel and it was a gold record so we

were back in the ball game

Greg's Resurrection coincided with a

wider Rehabilitation of lead guitar and

blues-based Rock towards the end of the

80s

Stevie Ray Vaughan the virtuosa

guitarist from Texas was creating waves

across the music world with his searing

modern brand of Electric Blues and

audiences were reawakened to the sounds

and styles of southern rock

foreign

[Music]

with his guitar stepped into that Arena

it was not involved to be a guitar

player and be on a label and think

you're going to have a shot

and Epic Records printed the grand total

of 10 000 albums in the beginning

and they've sold like a matter of

minutes or days or hours I mean it was a

week or so and they were gone and the

code number changed and they reissued

and they got busy really fast and they

did the bottom line and it got up a lot

of attention Mick Jagger came to that

show but Stevie was uh was definitely a

bridge to a new acceptance for you know

a guitar band Dickey always talks about

how Stevie Ray Vaughan really kicked

open the door again and made it cool

to be a guitar player it made it cool to

play Blues based music

and as a consequence of the new

favorable climate The Allman Brothers

Band reformed once again

Greg Allman jmo Butch trucks and Dickie

bets reconvened as the nucleus of the

group while highly regarded guitarist

Warren Haynes and pianist Johnny Neal

came across from Dickey's solo band and

Alan Woody joined on base in the summer

of 89 polygram released the dreams box

set a compilation of recordings from

across the band's career and pre-history

that attracted Universal critical praise

to capitalize on the successive dreams

the ormonds embarked on a triumphant

20th anniversary tour of America

because of the new technology known as

the CD the record business was

plundering its own vaults reissuing

things and putting together box sets the

dreams box set which was compiled in

large part by Kirk West was

brilliant it was one of the real

Paragons of the art form of the box set

it re-established their greatness it put

it into a context it allowed a certain

number of outtakes and behind the scenes

looks and it was obvious that the time

was right it was friendlier time for

them to get together

I remember jamo called me up one day

and he said good things come to those

who wait

and I was like what do you what do you

what do you mean

we're getting back together

the happiness and GUI in his voice

you could hear it in every word he said

he

it was like going home and it was like

that for all of them I don't think it

was clear to anyone at that point that

it would be more than a 20th anniversary

tour it was certainly put together with

the concept that if it works if everyone

can stand each other if the music is

good if he can regain a bit of that

Vitality that the band had in its Heyday

yes let's keep going they brought in

Warren Haynes on guitar and they brought

in Alan Woody on bass

and Warren

was stepping into Dwayne's chair and he

was up for that challenge Warren was

smart enough to evoke Dwayne in his

solos

but he was also good enough to where he

could bring his own voice

and they gave the Allman Brothers Band

something they hadn't had since the days

of chocovel

and that is a first class

improv soloist

who could really

take them back to

where things were with Dwayne when they

went on stage you didn't know what was

going to happen the tour was pretty

successful so it was stepping back up

into that into that you know uh level

that they'd seen uh before and and there

was a lot of energy and acceptance for

it

was everything you know were they really

creating the the the new Legacy that

that'll be others to decide but uh it

was a fun tour

[Music]

for the revitalized band The 90s Were a

Rich era with the 80s firmly consigned

to history music listeners were Keen to

look back and discover key artists from

Rock and roll's Heyday together with a

series of successful Studio albums

released over the course of the decade

the Allman Brothers incredible Legacy

was finally recognized with induction

into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in

1995.

hurry up

[Music]

early in the morning

feeling Nearly Dead

beautiful part of the comeback was the

Allman Brothers didn't just bring back

their old fans

and there are a lot of people just like

me it just stopped listening to them

because

just it wasn't the Allman Brothers Band

anymore

the 90s they not only

recapture their legacy

they pretty much stole the show at

Woodstock in 1994. they did an

incredible unplug show on MTV that was

highlighted by this acoustic version of

Elizabeth Reed it was just mind-blowing

they released two incredible Studio

albums

all of a sudden they became

legitimate again they became a band that

mattered I was surprised somewhat that

it lasted as long as it did I mean when

in the 19 in 1970

we were wondering if we could make it

into the next year and then it did and

then 1989 came and went and then all

through the 90s and up until just now

recently it

a little surprise but not not all that

much there's a second generation of fans

and they're fan base their original fan

base it's just amazing they're

I'm amazed I probably get a hundred

emails a day or Facebook inquiries about

you know the band and uh there are

people who still live and breathe at 24

7 that bad

but as sweet as the comeback may have

been the Allman still had one last

bitter pill to swallow Dickey Betts had

not resolved the personal problems that

had so blighted the lives of many of his

associates over the decades and his

erratic Behavior had begun to affect the

band's ability to function at their top

level

in May 2000 Dickey was fired from The

Allman Brothers

it was stunning news to those of us who

paid a lot of attention to the band it

was impossible to imagine the band

without Dickey bets

I among many others were skeptical of

their ability to perform without Dicky

Dicky was very clearly and all the more

so especially after the reunion in 1989

the band leader on stage I think if

anybody had dropped into a show from

planet Mars and knew nothing about the

Allman Brothers they would assume he was

the he was the guy he was the band

leader

after the Allman Brothers induction into

the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995

that was sort of a low point for Greg he

was really a mess he checked himself

into rehab the next day

and it was not a straight line in Greg's

recovery it was a lot of zeking and

zagging and falling off the wagon but he

began to

get better

and as he began to be in better shape

he wanted to assert himself and

sometimes

and there were tensions Dickey had a

pattern in which he would fall off the

wagon and go on drinking binges there

had been an incident where

Warren and Alan Woody they had their own

band Government Mule they had signed to

the reformed Capricorn records that

upset Dickey

they had a band meeting and what I was

told was a fist fight broke out

Warren and Allen left

the band

um

there were instances you can hear on a

live album they released Dickies play

and got very sloppy

and at a certain point they just got

tired of it

I think that Dickey thought it was

impossible for him to be fired and his

behavior

was as such Dicky probably thought

maybe everybody thought until the very

moment that they decided to perform

without Dickie that the most inevitable

thing to happen would be they would

break up again maybe take a break for a

couple of years and get together again

that had been the pattern but they had

different ideas this time and they

decided to try to perform without him

with the loss of Dicky bet searing lead

playing the band now reconfigured around

two outstanding talents Warren Haynes

returned to the fold after the sudden

death of his Government Mule bandmate

the former woman's bassist Alan Woody

while Butch trucks young nephew Derek a

guitar Prodigy who had first come on

board in 99 now became the focus of the

group

Greg personally called Warren up asked

him to come back and Warren agreed to

come back for the beacon shows in March

of 2001 as a special guest he was not at

that point a member of The Allman

Brothers his agreement was basically

I'll see how it feels and how these

shows go and they were a Triumph and he

rejoined the band

it was a very unexpected turn of events

without

there's without Warren Haynes returning

to the Allman Brothers It's hard to

imagine how they would have been able to

continue without Dickie bets I think it

was a superb lineup that was rivaled

only by

the chuckleville lineup and then the the

comeback in 1990 with Dickie and Warren

you know Derek just brought

something special to that band I

remember I was living in Macon and

chuckleville called me up and

and he was like

Butch trucks nephews playing this little

Barn you know I'm gonna go see him you

need to come you need to hear him he's

11 years old and I remember it was like

seriously you're you're you want me to

go see 11 year old kid

and we went to the bar and Derek's

Gibson SG was taller than he was

he spent the entire show with an Atlanta

Braves cap hiding his face pretty much

nice stood there with Chuck with my jaw

dropped open

kid was 11 years old and playing like

that

[Music]

[Applause]

oh

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

awesome

I think

his presence really enabled them to go

to new heights and to continue

performing as a group

if they hadn't had him on hand I'm not

sure what they would have done

[Music]

in March 2009 the band celebrated their

40th anniversary with a show at the

Beacon Theater but on the same stage

five years later the curtain fell for

the last time as on the 28th of October

2014 The Allman Brothers Band Played

their final gig having restored

themselves to the summit of esteem

Within the Music World and achieved the

recognition that it deserted them during

the 80s the almonds bowed out as one of

the great comeback stories of the

Millennium what they've done is unheard

of in the music business they have a

music career they didn't have to go into

films or do a TV show you know they uh

rent a Beacon Theater in New York every

year for 30 days sell it out within 10

minutes

and here it is 40 45 years later

my God I mean I've never heard of that

in the business

[Music]

there's a whole new generation of

children of children from the from the

60s that are into this band now

a lot of us are growing older some of us

much older but

to me they could go out and and do it

again you know it's not beyond my dreams

that Dickey Betts could maybe come back

for one more run you know who knows

never never ever underestimate the

longevity of the Allman Brothers Band

[Music]

to continue through deaths

drug issues breakups marriages breaking

up and everything else that they

endured and continued through is a

strong message about the power of

perseverance I think that it's something

that should resonate with people who

love the band and people who don't even

know anything about the band

everybody in their life faces

Hard Times few people face as much

difficulty and hard times as the Allman

Brothers and their ability to persevere

continue on and and keep moving with

their heads up in a positive direction

I think is very inspiring and something

that everybody should take a little bit

of inspiration from

[Music]

the 70s The Allman Brothers Band had

lost everything that it once was

with the reunion going on tour with

Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes they got

that back and not a lot of people can

say that and I think that's very

important because

that band

was once the best band America had to

offer and I think that's a very

important Legacy and it's one that was

forgotten I think the fact that it's now

back again

you know that that's

the way the story should end

[Music]