Cher and Jimmy Carter to attend Gregg Allman funeral

Singer and actress Cher along with former President Jimmy Carter are among notable attendees expected at Saturday’s funeral for Gregg Allman, the rock ’n’ roll star and Allman Brothers Band co-founder who died last weekend.

In a statement emailed to The Telegraph on Friday, Carter, who was Georgia’s governor in the middle 1970s when the Allman band rose to fame, said he was attending “to show my respect and concern.”

The former president joked in the statement that when they first met “Gregg Allman was better known than I was.”

Cher, the entertainer who was married to Allman in the ’70s, in a tweet to Telegraph reporter Liz Fabian on Friday said she wouldn’t think of missing the service for her late former husband.

“I’d go if it was a Shack,” Cher wrote. “Jimmy (Carter) wouldn’t care either. It Looks Just fine. Macon is preparing ... for our beloved Gregory.”

Private services for Allman, who died at age 69, are set for 1 p.m. Saturday at Snow’s Memorial Chapel on Cherry Street in downtown Macon.

“Rosalynn and I were deeply saddened when we learned that Gregg Allman had passed,” Carter said in the statement. “I met Gregg through Phil Walden of Capricorn Records, which was headquartered in Macon.”

Carter went on to note Allman’s help raising money for his 1976 presidential run.

“The maximum anyone could donate to a primary campaign was $1,000,” Carter recalled, “and corporations could not donate anything directly to a candidate. At many concerts the Allman Brothers Band held for me, the people who attended would donate the ticket price to the campaign and then the federal government matched that amount.”

He added: “Gregg Allman was there when I needed him, and Rosalynn and I have always been grateful to him.”

This story was originally published June 2, 2017 at 4:22 PM with the headline "Cher and Jimmy Carter to attend Gregg Allman funeral."