Gregg Allman, Southern rock pioneer, dies at age 69

Gregg Allman, who along with his brother, Duane, and their influential Allman Brothers Band, captured the hearts and ears of Middle Georgians as they rose to rock ’n’ roll stardom in the 1970s, died Saturday at his Savannah-area home. He was 69.

The band burst onto the regional scene in 1969 and into the fabric of Macon itself, enthralling a generation of music lovers with their unique sound, creating in essence a family here in their adopted hometown. As the years wore on, in various incarnations, the Allmans and their tunes would entertain those same fans’ children and their children’s children.

After Duane Allman’s tragic death in a motorcycle wreck on Hillcrest Avenue in October 1971, the band he co-founded played on with Gregg at the helm. Its music has long since become a point of civic pride.

On Saturday, as word of the singer’s death spread, current Rolling Stones keyboardist and Twiggs County tree farmer Chuck Leavell, who played with the Allman Brothers for a time in the middle 1970s, said Gregg Allman’s passing was “a sad, sad day for music and all of us that loved Gregg. I hope he’s at peace.”

Leavell recalled being a 20-year-old musician whom Allman looked after “much like a little brother.” Decades later when they would meet, Leavell said Allman always had “a hug and a smile.”

“He’s left such an incredible legacy,” Leavell said, “between the great music that he’s written and the great voice that he had.”

And that voice is one that has endeared itself to the town where it took flight. Not to mention the band that it sang for and its storied ties to Macon’s Big House or the H&H Restaurant or the no-doubt thousands of long-ago chance meetings that locals still tell their friends about.

“Macon, Georgia, was in Gregg’s blood,” Leavell said. “And the golden days that we had with Capricorn Records will stand as one of the golden times in music. I knew that Gregg had a special love for Macon.”

In 1983, on the eve of a return-to-Macon concert, Allman, living in Sarasota, Florida, at the time, told The Telegraph, “I made a lot of good music there. And learned a lot of good music. I went through a lot of changes, both good and bad.”

Saturday evening, upon learning of Allman’s death, Macon-Bibb County Mayor Robert Reichert said, “We have certainly lost a legend.”

He said Gregg Allman and the Allman Brothers Band were part of the city’s divine musical trinity as it were: Little Richard, Otis Redding and them.

The mayor, who grew up here, remembers the Allman Brothers Band from the days before it became a household name.

“I knew they were popular here but I had no clue” about the fame to come, Reichert said. “Then when we started hearing their albums and seeing them playing in New York and around the world. It was amazing.”

Throughout the late afternoon Saturday, fans of the frontman and his legendary band visited the Allman Brothers Band Museum at the Big House on Vineville Avenue.

Denny O’Connor, in town from New Mexico, was visiting friends in nearby Dublin and decided to drop by. O’Connor was eating lunch when he learned of Allman’s passing on Facebook.

“I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to come here or not, truthfully,” O’Connor, who is in his 60s, said. “It’s a pretty sad day to visit the Big House. They were a good band. I listened to their music since I was a teenager.”

Allman’s death comes four months after drummer and founding band member Butch Trucks died — also at age 69.

Big House marketing director Maggie Johnson said, “With Butch Trucks passing earlier this year, it was really hard on us, but we say all the time, no matter what happens to these musicians, we hear them in the music that they play.”

‘I won’t forget Gregg’

Kirk West saw aspects of Allman’s life and personality that others didn’t.

West, who worked with the Allman Brothers in various roles, including as tour manager, for a quarter-century, took thousands of pictures of his time on the road that he turned into a book.

“He was quite a jokester,” West said of Allman, “and in the right frame of mind, in the right mood, he would lay into you — in a good way. It was all just a joking thing.”

The touring life could be rough, West recalled. They did what they could to pass the time. They even went bowling.

“You live in a bus for nine months out of the year. You sleep 4 feet from each other,” West said. “There was a time period in ’95, ’96, where people were trying to keep the lid on things, so on days off, we all started going bowling together. We’d have a day off in Omaha, Nebraska. What are you going to do? ‘Well, let’s go bowling.’ … The guys got bowling shirts and formed a little team. It was a hoot.”

Allman wasn’t a bad bowler, West said. “He was very competitive.”

As West reflected on all those fast-paced years Saturday evening, he said, “A lot of those good memories are bubbling to the surface. ... Any rock-star musician can be tough to deal with. I mean, they live in a different world than you and me.”

As for the Allmans and their musical legacy here, West said, “They helped weave this musical tapestry that’s Macon. And it's a great thing. ... You can travel any place in the world and people know of Macon, Georgia, because of the Allman Brothers or Otis Redding. What a wonderful thing.”

‘The best medicine’

In a Telegraph article in September 1971, Gregg Allman said, “I made a break-through. I’ve written more songs than ever before, and when I was working on my solo album I found out you cannot be passive when you’re working on your life’s work.”

After Telegraph writer Madeleine Hirsiger showed up to talk to him for that interview, she later wrote that “trying to contact Gregg at his house in Macon during the daytime is a virtual impossibility.”

When Hirsiger did find the singer, Allman, apologetic and with a grin, told her, “Man, I only got to bed just after lunchtime. I was up writing songs all night.”

A month later, as the Allman Brothers topped the music charts with their “Ramblin Man” single from the “Brothers and Sisters” album, an artist’s drawing of Gregg Allman was on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.

Inside was a story about the Nashville-born brothers, Duane and Gregg. At the time, at least one local bookstore didn’t order enough copies and had to order 150 more.

In 1975, Allman’s relationship with and short-lived marriage to the singer Cher was an entertainment-news sensation. That June, days before they married, Cher accompanied Allman to Macon, and the two attended a Jaycees’ concert in Central City Park.

Before his return concert to Macon back in 1983, Allman was asked what he thought of the music of the day. His answer has meaning today — much like the songs, the tunes, the times he sang of.

“Good music,” he said, “is always going to be enjoyed. People don’t like crap.”

But it was a long Allman quote from a year later that perhaps best sums up the musical appreciation and the gifts that he leaves behind. He was recording in Florida and Telegraph reporter Scott Freeman wrote that the stage for Allman seemed “an oasis away from his troubles.”

“It makes you remember who you are — not that I ever forgot who I was,” Allman said. “Playing is my whole life. I mean, it’s my peace of mind. … People say to me, ‘Why do you sing the blues? Are you down and out?’”

“Man,” Allman went on, “that’s probably the best escape for really having the blues that there is. … It’s the best medicine anybody’s ever made.”

This story was originally published May 27, 2017 at 7:52 PM with the headline "Gregg Allman, Southern rock pioneer, dies at age 69."