Allman fans make pilgrimage to Macon, mecca of Southern rock

Fans traveled from near and far Saturday to bid farewell to a founding father of Southern rock.

Cheers greeted Gregg Allman’s hearse as it rounded the corner at First Street, leaving a private funeral at Snow’s Memorial Chapel.

Crowds called out “Cher” as the singer’s ex-wife strolled across Cherry Street wearing a black straw hat, cream-colored blouse and an elaborate, dark belt over flowing, black, bell-bottom pants.

The entertainer and mother of Allman’s son, Elijah Blue, got into a black Chevrolet Suburban with tinted windows that filed into the procession.

One woman, wiping away tears, stepped out into the road near First and Mulberry streets to toss a few yellow flowers at the hearse as it passed by.

Allman’s family and celebrity entourage passed by the Grand Opera House, where he had been booked to play several shows this weekend before health issues silenced his 2017 tour. He died at age 69 last weekend.

There in the grassy median on Mulberry Street, Glenn Rosen noted the irony that Allman had already planned to be in Macon this weekend.

Rosen was barely a teenager when he first saw the Allman Brothers Band play the Macon Coliseum in the early ‘70s.

“They put Macon on the map with Otis Redding and Little Richard,” he said.

Rosen’s brother, Stan, brought Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts’ band for a sold-out show at the City Auditorium in the late ‘80s.

“He came back for 40 years, and every time was a sellout. He was so popular here,” Rosen said. “He’s a legend. And it’s sad to see, as we lose them, the impact that he had on our town. It’s nice for folks to turn out today to show their respects.”

Bobby George, 66, stood just behind the orange barrels that blocked Cherry Street at First Street. He’d made a sign to pay respects to Allman. It said “rest in peace.” He also said he staked out a spot at 8 a.m., hours before the 1 p.m. service.

“I was a high school senior in 1969 when they broke on the scene,” George said, adding that he named his daughter, Jessica, after the band’s song. “Southern rock, they pretty much invented that. ... Most everybody in Macon feels like they’ve lost a family member.”

As the procession rounded Riverside Drive, where Q-106 was playing music near the old Hilton hotel, Elayne Whitten, of Ellaville, buried her head in her husband’s Allman Brothers T-shirt in an emotional embrace as she thought about how much the band meant to her.

“A lifetime of music, part of our soul and our spirit,” Whitten said. “I don’t think I could have lived without his music. It’s been part of every year of my adult life.”

Terri and Tina McKee rode from Auburn, Alabama, to pay tribute to Allman.

“We’ve seen the Allman Brothers on numerous occasions,” Terri McKee said.

Tina McKee, who grew up in Nashville, said: “My older sisters used to watch them when they were the Allman Joys.”

Pickup trucks backed up to Riverside Drive near Spring Street, and folks sought shade from the summer heat under umbrellas.

Many fans in their 60s and 70s remember the thrill of spinning a new vinyl album on a turntable, and wearing out the record with their friends.

Some, like Monticello’s Belinda McDaniel, have passed on their love of the Allman Brothers to their children.

“I don’t know that any other artist has touched my soul like Gregg,” she said after taking a selfie with daughters, Abbey and Sierra.

“It was his music, it was just him. He radiated on stage. I took Sierra to her first concert with Gregg, right here in Macon,” McDaniel said.

The front of her T-shirt read: “This girl loves her Gregg Allman.”

She choked up thinking about seeing him pass by for the last time.

“It was tough,” McDaniel said. “His soul’s going to shine forever, that’s for sure.”

Near the corner of Mulberry and First street, Georgia Allman Brothers Band Association board member Jimmy McCord set up a tent about 9 a.m.

“Gregg Allman, to me, is the greatest rock and blues singer that ever lived,” said McCord, who lives near Conyers.

He tried to make out faces in the limousines as they passed, but it was difficult.

“I saw Jaimoe. I saw Michael Allman. I saw Island, his daughter. I wasn’t able to make out many more than that,” he said.

The band brought people together like “nothing else in the world.”

“These people you see on the streets, the people at The Big House, the fans all over the world, we’re all one big family brought together by the music of the Allman Brothers,” McCord said. “This is a sad day, but the music lives on.”

As the crowd cleared out after the procession, hundreds of people headed over to The Big House Museum on Vineville Avenue to stake out a spot to enjoy music, expected to continue well into the night.

When Mike Davis heard his first Allman Brothers album in 1969, “I was immediately hooked.”

He and his wife, Barbara, relaxed in lawn chairs just outside the fence at The Big House.

They had made plans months ago to come to Macon for what at one time was scheduled to be an Allman show Saturday night.

“I’m here because this has been the soundtrack of my life,” Davis said. “It’s amazing the influence this man and this band has had on people.”

This story was originally published June 3, 2017 at 3:50 PM with the headline "Allman fans make pilgrimage to Macon, mecca of Southern rock."