The Allman Brothers Band: The Post-Duane Years | After The Crash | Amplified

[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]

Channel: Amplified - Classic Rock & Music History

Views: 341,767

Keywords: Allman Brothers tribute, Amplified - Classic Rock & Music History, band collaborations, band developments, band formation, band history, band milestones, band revelations, band story, iconic band, music biography, music industry, music journey, music pioneers, rock cinematography, rock guitarist, rock icons, rock memories, rock music, studio recordings

Id: tnAvjpf5HlU

Length: 109min 35sec (6575 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 29 2023