Local artist shares Macon music legacy with free mobile art exhibit. See inside.

On a recent sunny fall Sunday, people in Macon found themselves at an unusual church — it wasn’t of the recognizable cathedrals or historic churches downtown, nor was it tied to any religion.

Nestled in the back of Carolyn Crayton Park sat a small trailer with the words “Church of Duane Allman” sprawled across the bottom, a shrine of sorts to the late lead guitarist and front man of the rock band The Allman Brothers.

Despite the name, the wheeled exhibit which made a stop in Macon on Nov. 24 is more of an art gallery than an actual church. Everything in the exhibit shares the theme of Duane Allman and his music through paintings, screen prints or photographs incorporated into larger, multi-medium artwork.

All of the art was created by local artist John Mollica, better known to many as “Johnny Mo.”

Mollica, a Boston native, has worked on music-related artwork of Duane Allman for years. He began building the “church” back in 2018 as a way to move some of his existing Duane Allman art out of his house.

Since then, he has taken the trailer across Georgia and even to neighboring states to share Duane Allman’s legacy.

“He (Allman) was the best live guitarist that ever lived,” Mollica said. “He was the leader of the band, a really forward thinking guy and he was very spiritually connected.”

Of the dozens of pieces of art found in the Church of Duane Allman, Mollica’s first piece of Allman art created decades ago still hangs on the wall. The print features Allman playing the guitar with the phrase “Skydog Lives” around him. Mollica said this print kickstarted his personal journey to Macon and his mission to share the story of Duane Allman and Macon’s place in music history.

How Macon became home for the band

The story of Duane Allman and his band is one of Macon music’s highlights.

“From 1969 to 1979, the Allmans called Macon home, and their contributions and exploits have become a legendary part of this town’s history,” according to the band’s biography from The Big House Museum.

Duane Allman, his brother Gregg Allman and the two other founding members of The Allman Brothers moved to Macon in 1969 to work with Phil Walden of Capricorn Records, according to the biography. The band recorded its first three albums at Capricorn, including “At Filmore East,” which ranks on Rolling Stone’s list of the best albums of all time.

Weeks after that album was released, Duane Allman died in a motorcycle crash in 1971. The band continued making music for the decades to follow, but Duane Allman’s—or his nickname “Skydog’s”— influence stuck with the band long after his death.

Mollica’s connection to Duane Allman and his music extends beyond just being a fan. In 1992, he owned a screen print shop in Memphis, Tennessee, right out of college. He was asked by a friend to modify a piece of Duane Allman art. Mollica changed the coloring and the text and then began selling the design on t-shirts in the parking lot of Allman Brothers concerts.

“People would go to the merchandise table and go, where’s the Skydog shirt? They would direct them to us (in the parking lot),” he said.

The design even caught the attention of the band members.

“Gregg (Allman) would always be going, ‘Hey man, you got a couple of those things? My mother needs an extra large,’” Mollica said.

He went from selling shirts outside of venues to joining Allman Brothers members Allen Woody and Warren Haynes on tour with their side project band Gov’t Mule selling merchandise. After a few years of touring, Gov’t Mule’s tour manager Kirk West invited Mollica to come live in Macon.

Mollica lived part time in Macon for several years in the ‘90s when he was in-between working on tour for other rock and roll bands. For a few months, Mollica even lived in Duane Allman’s bedroom at The Big House, the famous Macon house that The Allman Brothers lived in in the 1970s, before it was converted into a museum.

“It was really cool. It’s a beautiful house anyhow,” Mollica said. “The spirit of them (the band) was always there.”

‘All the divinely inspired art is the best art’

Mollica’s personal connection to Macon’s music history reflects itself in nearly every detail of the Church of Duane Allman.

The trailer itself originally belonged to The Allman Brothers band member, Butch Trucks. Tin sheets from The Big House garage and a chunk of the house’s wallpaper are incorporated into the artwork. Wooden slabs and the mailbox salvaged from Capricorn Studios and trim from Grant’s Lounge, where the band often performed, line the walls of the church.

Mollica said he called the exhibit a “church” simply because it just needed a name. But he did draw some inspiration from religious art.

“All of the divinely inspired art is the best art,” said Mollica, who grew up Catholic. “I dig all that art that’s in the church, like all the velvets and the old woods and the surrounds and stuff.”

Some influences of that architecture can be seen in the space — dark burgundy velvet covers the back walls of the space, repurposed wood lines the ceiling and incense burns in the corner.

Mollica requires a small fee to bring the exhibit to a festival or event, but never charges anyone to come inside and does not sell any of the work from the church, although he has recreated prints of some of the most popular items to be sold.

Mollica’s ‘ever-evolving’ church for Allman

The exhibit sat parked at Skydog Music Festival on Nov. 24. The annual outdoor concert near downtown Macon collects donations for local homeless resource center Daybreak and “ ... celebrates the life and music of Duane Allman, aka ‘Skydog,’” according to the festival’s website.

The exhibit naturally fit into the music performed at the festival, consisting of music Duane Allman created or songs inspired by him, with an audience that was mostly familiar with Allman’s legacy. The church’s first appearance was at Skydog Festival in 2018 and since, Mollica said many people have had a strong emotional response to the work.

“The people that are Allman Brothers fans from way back or their parents were, I mean, I’ve had guys come out of there crying,” he said.

However, Mollica said sometimes it’s the events where people don’t know anything about Allman where the exhibit receives the best feedback.

“Some of them are just blown away by the art and they don’t even know who Duane is, which is reaffirming because that’s really why I made it,” he said.

When the trailer makes an appearance anywhere outside of the city, an introduction to Duane Allman often ends up being an introduction to Macon as well.

“Once that happens, we just tell them about what things changed in Macon, the way things have changed over the past 10 years. Downtown has come alive and there’s a lot of music history here, but there’s a lot of music in the current day,” Mollica said. “It ends up being the ultimate Macon promotional tool.”

Six years into creating the church, Mollica still is not done with it.

“I was literally working on it last night,” he said. “I mean, it’s literally eight years of constantly putting stuff in and rearranging, making it permanent … It’s just ever evolving.”

Echoing his days touring with rock bands, Mollica’s next goal is to take the church’s show on the road and outside of the southeast. He said even if that’s as far as Colorado, he’s up for traveling to connect with fans and inspire new fans of The Allman Brothers and to tell the story of Macon’s music— past and present— along the way.

“We had like 1,000 people swearing to God that they’re coming to Macon in a month, which I feel good about,” Mollica said about visiting some recent festivals with his exhibit.

“If it does that for Macon, I’m totally cool with it … I love Macon, so I’m happy to tell them about it.”

This story was originally published December 4, 2024 at 6:00 AM.