11 Questions with Greg

Allman

                                                      by Brad Evans

There was a rumor blowing around in the afternoon breeze that Gregg Allman was going to sit in with the Capricorn Rhythm Section at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame’s Live at Five concert. The buzz proved to be true, with Gregg stepping out from behind the stage and joining Paul Hornsby, Scott Boyer, Tommy Talton, Johnny Sandlin, Bill Stewart and Lee Roy Parnell for magical renditions of “Midnight Rider” and “Melissa.” For those of us blessed enough to be there, it is a show we’ll never forget. It was an evening for Macon today and an ode to yesterday. And if we couldn’t have been anymore astounded, imagine our excitement when he called our office a few weeks later from his home outside of Savannah.

1. First of all, I want to say thank you from Macon for showing up a couple of weeks ago at Live at Five. That was a real treat. When you’re driving into Macon, to visit friends or whatever, what goes through your mind as you come into town?

GA: Wow, what a question. A whole lot, I tell you that. You know, I live southeast of Macon, so I come in from that way, right by Rose Hill Cemetery. So there’s that, but you know, we spent so much time there. I can still get around real good in Macon. And when I was moving back from California, Macon came up as a place we might move back to.  But then, you know, I just didn’t really know if that would be the right thing to do. And I come there a lot – I love to come back there. I was just there for a while hanging out with my friend Chank, and then there is H&H. There are so many things I love there, but to live there, I just thought, well, I’ve done that, you know? So we ended up down here in Richmond Hill, and we love it here.

BE: How did the Live at Five show come about?

GA: A couple of the boys from Muscle Shoals, they live down there.  I remember getting there, and I looked on stage, and said to myself, “Wow, if Jaimoe was here, and Chuck Leavell was here, we’d have the whole rhythm section from the Laid Back record.” That was just so cool.

2. It is always surprising to me just how loyal ABB Fans are. When GABBA happens here, Macon is crawling with people from all over the world. It seems like everyone I meet over 45, or so, has carried speakers, sharpened picks or been a tech for the Allman Brothers. What do you think about what’s happening with the Big House?

GA: (Laughs) That’s hilarious. Yeah, our fans are great, man, they really are. I think it’s a good thing they are doing. It is an amazing collection, and there is a lot more to come probably. That’s such an old house. I love it so much. I just hope they don’t have to jack it up and put another one under it. I was just there not too long ago and went through the house again, and went into my room, and I’ll be damned if it didn’t smell the same way.  You know how old houses just have their own smell. The big house still smells like it did when I lived there. 

3. I’ve tried to ask this in all my interviews – what about being on stage all the time lends itself to the typical addictions, sex, drugs and rock and roll?  

GA: Well, you know, if you look at genetics of certain types of people, they just have addictive personalities, and with so many artists, those kinds of personalities are pretty prevalent. You’re just addicted to life, like everything, you just can’t take it in fast enough. 

BE: I guess the fame sort of puts all the elements in place too, right?

GA: Exactly. The fame thing puts everything there before you. All of a sudden you’re dealing with it. And I don’t care what anyone says, it scares you. And you have to go through it without letting it affect you’re music in any way. You can’t let your audience know it. 

BE: Especially with you – you not only had the whole rock star persona going, you had the teen heart throb thing going. You probably didn’t know how pretty you were, did you?

GA: (Laughs) Hell no. I didn’t. And it was a bunch to deal with. There were so many people pulling on you. But like I said, the main thing is that all this pressure you’re dealing with cannot affect the artistry you’re trying to convey. You are so afraid that you are going to let some of that crap get to you. It’s bothering no one but you. You are just afraid you are going to let it hamper what you’re doing, and the booze, and the drugs, and everything else, just sort of help you deal with it, I guess, or at least get away from it.

BE: I know you haven’t given up on rock and roll. What helped you kick your other habits?

GA: You know, Willie Nelson inducted me into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I was so drunk I was about to fall down, man, and there I was, accepting this induction from Willie Nelson into the Hall of Fame. Willie looked at me and said, “Hey man, are you alright?” and I looked up at him, barely, you know, because I was so drunk, and said, “No man, I am not alright.” I knew then that me and booze had to part ways. 

4. What can’t you live without these days? 

GA: (Laughs) Wow. Well, a lot of things. I certainly couldn’t live without music. I got a studio in the house we built last year, so I spend a lot of time down there. And I tell you what, I figured this out: we built the house so a porch faces westward, so we sit out and watch sunsets a lot. We also built it so no morning sun comes burning through the bedroom window in the morning. 

BE: Yeah, I always got that bedroom.

GA: Me too, it seems. So that was a priority. It’s hard not to living on the east coast.

5. I saw you’re son, Elijah Blue, was featured in Rolling Stones’ “Children of Rock” issue. I read that you and Elijah have re-connected over the last few years. What do you think of his project Deadsy?

GA: We really have, and it’s been so great. Deadsy is definitely different, but our folks thought when they heard our music, “That’s different.” And uh, of course generations of music are always different. I could never understand my parents music much either – big bands, Vaughn Monroe, Perry Como, I could just go on and on. It just turned my stomach.

BE: Perry Como – wow, that name hasn’t run through my head in a while.

GA: My God man, that stuff used to come on TV when I was a kid. That guy’s heart rate probably never went up. Sitting there in his little Cardigan sweater singing some (singing a rendition of Perry Como), “Du-du-du, do-wa-wah.” You know? I was just like what in the hell, man? (laughs) 

BE: Yeah, it was probably nice to make a living so nice and easily.

GA: I don’t know, man. I just don’t know. Is he still around?

BE: I hope not. A new generation could be exposed.

GA: Yeah. Wow. I hope not too. (Laughs) He sure couldn’t have moved too far too fast.

6. Who shot you I the foot so you could avoid the draft?

GA: I did.

BE: I heard it was Duane somewhere, but it wasn’t real clear.

GA: Well he started to, but I thought he was going to miss and hit me in the head. I went out there to do it, but I came back in. I mean it was nuts – I was about to shoot myself. So I came back in and had a few drinks and Duane said, “Give me the damn thing, I’ll go out there and do it.” So I gave it to him, went out and put my foot in a box of sawdust, and Duane was weaving all around, stumbling, and finally, I just grabbed his arm and said, “No wait,” and I just did it. 

BE: If they brought back the draft and put rock stars over 40 in the box, would you do it again?

GA: (Laughs) Shit Brad, that’s a whole bunch of ifs. If they did that, man . . . I’d put two or three of ‘em in me. They don’t want me in their army. 

7. In this issue, I also interviewed Johnny Jenkins. What do you remember about him?

GA: I do remember him. Wait a minute, why the interview? Did something happen to him?

BE: No, he does have some health problems, though, and he’s a tough one to get in front of to [interview], so we just did it while we had the chance. I sat on his front porch with him in his underwear and talked for a couple of days.

GA: In his underwear on the front porch? Man, that must be nice. I tell you, I’ve always really admired Johnny Jenkins for his showmanship and his whole delivery. And that record [Ton Ton Macoute] he did with my brother – that was one of my very favorite records. They ought to re-release it. Not Capricorn though, but someone else. 

BE: Johnny actually has some choice words for Capricorn in the interview. I think the words were something like this: “They way we used to handle things in the country, if a joker did you wrong, was to just put a knife in his ass, but we couldn’t do that in them days.” 

GA:(Laughs) Well, he probably could have found someone to sharpen the blade for him. I’ll tell you this though, Alan Walden is a friend of mine. He is straight up. Please, please put that in there. 

8. I heard recently that Derek [Trucks] is about to go out with Eric Clapton. He is an amazing guitar player to watch. Can you brag about him just a little for us?

GA: Yeah, that’s what I hear. He starts in April and does a show every other month. You know, we look at Derek and think, well, that’s how we were brought up. He’s got us to steer him away from drugs, but hell, he never cared about them anyway. All he cares about is playing and his wife and kids. That’s it. It doesn’t matter where he’s playing; he just loves it. He’s kind of like me that way. We’ll play for a nickel or for ten grand, as long as we can play. 

BE: The last few shows I’ve been to, and y’all’s last record for that matter, really sounded like everyone in the band had the same thing going. Is it still feeling like a family after all these years?

GA: Oh yeah, man, totally.

9. You don’t have to answer this, but I know so many things have happened with the band – you’ve gone through so much, and I realize y’all had to do what you had to do, but do you ever look out over you’re organ, and expect Dickey to be out there?

GA: No, I don’t.

BE: That parts just over, huh?

GA: Yeah it is. And I’ll tell you this – that slowly all that stuff slowly started brewing, simmering around the time my brother died. I didn’t know it back then. That’s why so many people when it first happened were like, “What the hell is going on man? He’s a charter member! What is the deal?” Well the deal is, Dickey can just be a bully, you know? He’s a strong personality and was hard to deal with for a long period of time, and it just came to a head. It wasn’t something that just came to us one day. It wasn’t an easy decision.

10.What’s next for you? Are you working on any projects right now?

GA: My next project will probably be a solo record. We’ve been doing some things in my studio here. We’ve got about two and half real good ones. Two good ones and we’re working on another one. We’ll just keep plugging away until we have it done. And it’s not necessarily going to be about everything that I WROTE.  It may include some things that I had nothing to do with as far as writing. That was another thing about Dickey – it was always, “Well, if we didn’t write it, we ain’t going to play it.” I don’t really think about that, man, what about “Mountain Jam”?

11. Why have you decided to stay in Georgia all these years?

GA: It’s where I belong, you know? I was born in Nashville, Tenn.; at the age of nine I moved to Daytona Beach, Fla. I have this memory of a house next door to my grandmother’s house. This retarded guy lived across the street – Jimmy Paine. He had a swing on his porch. And he was outside painting his car one day (laughs) with a bucket of paint and a paintbrush. He had this silvertone Sears and Roebuck guitar sitting up there on the swing. I was over there and saw it, and I said, “What do you have here?”

He said, “That’s a guitar.”

“Can I play it?”

“Yeah, go ahead, you can’t hurt that thing.” A few minutes later he took it from me and played me “She’ll be Coming Around the Mountain.” I thought, well, if this guy can do it, so can I. He showed me a few chords and that moment really changed my life.

BE: It always seems like little moments change your life when you look back.

GA: Yeah it does – those little moments.  And so many of those moments are in Georgia. 
You know, there are so many books about the Allman Brothers. None of them authorized, you know. I keep saying, well, I should just write one. I know what really happened. Hell, I was there.