| Gregg Allman | |
|---|---|
Gregg Allman with the Allman Brothers Band at the Beacon Theatre |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Gregory Lenoir Allman |
| Born | December 8, 1947 Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Genres | Southern rock Blues Country Gospel |
| Occupations | Musician, Songwriter, Actor |
| Instruments | Vocals, Organ, Piano, Guitar |
| Years active | 1965 – present |
| Labels | Liberty, Atco, Capricorn, Epic |
| Associated acts | The Allman Brothers Band, The Hour Glass, Gregg Allman Band, The Allman Joys |
| Website | GreggAllman.com |
| Notable instruments | |
| Hammond B-3 Organ | |
Gregory Lenoir Allman (born December 8, 1947 in Nashville, Tennessee), known as Gregg Allman, is a rock and blues singer, keyboardist, guitarist and songwriter, and a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. He was inducted with the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 [1] and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2006. His distinctive voice placed him in 70th place in the Rolling Stone list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".[2]
At the beginning of the 1970’s, The Allman Brothers Band enjoyed huge success [3] and a number of their most characteristic songs were written by Gregg. Unusually for the time, the band was based in the Southeastern United States and their music, which has been called ‘Southern Rock’, a term derided by Gregg, [4] incorporates an innovative fusion of rock and jazz.
Following the death of his older brother, the guitarist Duane Allman in 1971 and bass guitarist Berry Oakley around a year later, in motorbike accidents, the band struggled on and continued to perform and record. In addition, Gregg developed a solo career and a band under his own name. Gregg’s solo music has perhaps a greater resonance of soul music than his work with ABB, possibly because of the influence of artists such as Bobby Bland and Little Milton, singers who he has long admired.
Despite recent health issues, Gregg still tours. [5]
Gregg's memoirs of his life in music are scheduled to be published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, in Spring 2012 [6]
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Gregg is the younger son of Willis Turner Allman and Geraldine Alice (nee Robbins) [7]. He was born in Nashville Tennessee in 1947, thirteen months after his brother Duane. His father was in the army and in 1949 the family relocated to Fort Story, Norfolk, Virginia. Shortly after, his father was murdered by a casual acquaintance [8] and Geraldine 'Mama A' Allman was left to raise the boys. In order to retrain as an accountant, she sent her sons to Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon, Tennessee, which they both loathed.[9] Eventually, in 1957, when his mother had finished her course, the family settled in Daytona Beach, Florida, and the boys attended Seabreeze High School.
Both Duane and Gregg became captivated by music at a young age; Gregg has revealed that Duane and he went to see Jackie Wilson, Otis Redding, Patti Labelle and B.B. King perform and that he was particularly struck by B.B.’s Hammond organ player. [10] Gregg took an interest in the guitar before Duane did, learning the very basics from his grandmother’s neighbour in Nashville. Duane would soon become the superior guitarist, giving up school in tenth grade to focus on it while Gregg practiced his vocals and keyboards, remained at school and finally graduated in 1965. Although he planned to become a dentist, Gregg fell in with his brother’s plans that they should become musicians, intending to go to medical school after a short while; it didn’t happen. [11]
In the mid- to late-1960s, Gregg and Duane Allman played in a series of bands including The Escorts and The Allman Joys, mostly around the Southeastern United States.
Toward the end of the decade, The Allman Joys relocated to Los Angeles, California, and were signed to Liberty Records, which renamed them The Hour Glass. In addition to Gregg and Duane, The Hour Glass consisted of three other players who would later become renowned studio musicians in Muscle Shoals, Alabama: Pete Carr, Johnny Sandlin and Paul Hornsby. Strongly controlled by the label management, the group produced a couple of psychedelic blues albums. All the players were deeply dissatisfied with the results; Duane Allman, in particular, spoke bitterly of the Hour Glass' output. The label executives were, however, impressed with Gregg Allman's abilities as a vocalist and keyboardist. The band left Los Angeles for the South and disbanded. In Florida, Duane and Gregg joined a band called 31st February with a drummer named Butch Trucks but Gregg returned to California as Hourglass still owed money to Liberty Records which believed that Gregg had potential as a solo act.[12]
Duane became employed as a session musician at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and began to assemble the group that would become The Allman Brothers Band - Duane and Dickey Betts on guitars, Berry Oakley on bass guitar, and Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson on drums. In the meantime, Gregg had grown unhappy with the Liberty Records arrangement so when Duane called from Jacksonville, Florida in March 1969 to say that he had assembled a band that needed a singer, Gregg jumped at the opportunity and returned to the South.
He had long wanted to play the Hammond Organ, and was given one immediately upon joining the band, which he had to learn to play in a hurry. Ever since, he has played the Hammond B-3 with a preference for a 1969 issue B3 hooked to a Leslie speaker 122RV and handled much of the lead vocals and song writing for the band, along with occasional piano and guitar contributions.
After the death of Duane Allman in 1971, Gregg Allman started out on a solo career. His first album, Laid Back, was released in 1973 to a positive critical reception.
It included a couple of reworked Allman Brothers songs, such as a horn-infused version of "Midnight Rider" that made it to #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and originals like "Queen of Hearts", the other ABB members felt did not quite fit the Allman Brothers sound. Gregg also covered a traditional gospel song "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" and former California roommate Jackson Browne's song "These Days."
His solo career has continued intermittently throughout the subsequent decades, sometimes touring when the Allman Brothers Band is off the road. Generally, these solo efforts - first with the Gregg Allman Band, and later with Gregg Allman & Friends - eschew lengthy guitar solos and cast Allman more in the mode of his favorite soul singers. The bands often include a horn section and are more groove-oriented, mixing original songs with reworked Allman Brothers songs and covers of blues, R&B, and soul songs.
Gregg's second chart single came in 1987 with the #49 peaking "I'm No Angel", from the album of the same name. The album went on to be certified Gold for 500,000 copies sold and led to a renewed interest in Allman and to a reformation of the Allman Brothers Band less than three years later.
His solo album, Low Country Blues, was produced by T-Bone Burnett and issued in early 2011. It is a collection of eleven blues standards and one new song written by Gregg.[13] The album was nominated as the Best Blues Album for the 2011 Grammy Awards.[14]
He has also made guest appearances on albums and concert videos by a wide variety of other artists, including a concert DVD celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of The Radiators, playing Midnight Rider with that band.
In addition to his musical career, Gregg took acting roles in the films Rush Week (1989) and Rush (1991), and in episodes of the TV series Superboy. He also had a brief speaking cameo in the Family Guy episode "Let's Go to the Hop".
Gregg has struggled with drugs from the 1970s and through much of his musical career. These were both illegal and legal, primarily cocaine, heroin, and alcohol. He has been sober as of the mid-1990s.
During the mid 1970’s, there was a prominent court case involving Gregg and John ‘Scooter’ Herring, Gregg’s road manager.[15]
He was diagnosed with Hepatitis C in late 2007[4] which he attributes to infection from his extensive tattooing [16] and on June 23, 2010, he underwent surgery for a liver transplant.[17] The operation was successful and he has recovered well. Despite this blow to his health, Gregg has resumed touring.
Allman has been married at least six times and has several children and three grandchildren.
His first son, Michael Sean Allman, who is a vocalist, was born in July 1966 to Mary Sutton. His marriage to Shelley Kay Winters (later Jefts), produced another son, Devon Allman, on August 10, 1972. Devon is also a musician, leads the band Honeytribe, and has appeared with the Allman Brothers Band on a few occasions.
At the time of his first solo album, Laid Back, Allman was married to Jan Blair, sister of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' bassist, Ron Blair.
Allman was married to the entertainer Cher from 1975 to 1979. They had one child together, a son, Elijah Blue Allman, who later formed his own band, Deadsy. The couple tried a musical collaboration, releasing an album Two the Hard Way (billed as Allman and Woman) in 1977. It was universally panned, and it has long since been out of print. The Hard Way Tour did not achieve success either. In an interview on NPR's On Point in March 2011, Allman expressed that he and Cher split due largely to his desire to no longer live in Los Angeles, and his growing discomfort with his wife's celebrity lifestyle.
Allman was married to Julie Bindas from 1979 to 1981. They had a daughter, Delilah Island Allman, November 5, 1980.
In the late eighties he convinced the future porn actress Shannon Michelle Wilsey "Savannah" to travel to San José, California, to make a casting, when they arrived she discovered the movie thing was fake, later she was pregnant by him and lost the baby (or aborted it).
Around 1992, he met Shelby Blackburn, who had interviewed him at a radio station where she worked. Out of this relationship came daughter Layla Brooklyn Allman, born March 31, 1993. Layla fronts the band Picture Me Broken.
He married Stacey Fountain in 2001.[18]
Allman currently lives in Richmond Hill, Georgia.[19]
| “ | Rock 'n' roll was born in the South. So Southern rock is like saying rock rock. | ” |