It was thirty something years ago when Gregg Allman first sang the words “the road goes on forever.” Remember? He was down to his last silver dollar at the time. Here it is, the summer of 2002, and through all of his ups and downs Gregg Allman has not only survived, he has triumphed. When the final chapter of rock and roll is written it just may be the Allman Brothers Band and not the Grateful Dead that will be remembered as the greatest touring band America has ever seen. The road goes on forever indeed!
So as Gregg is in the midst of yet another tour with the Brothers, a tour that will bring them to Hartford on August 11th, he is also being celebrated as a solo artist. Epic/Legacy Records has just released “No Stranger To The Dark: The Best Of Gregg Allman.” Gregg’s career as a solo artist has paralleled his tenure with the Brothers. I talked to Gregg by phone on the afternoon of July 10th. He was calling from his home in Savannah, Georgia. We talked about this new record, a new Allman Brothers record coming out, the two bands, touring in general, September 11th, and other assorted topics.
BH – Congratulations on ‘No Stranger To The Dark,’ it looks like you really had an active role in that project.
GA – “I really did. But you know by law they can do it two years after your contract is up. So they said to me ‘do you want to co-produce it’? I said yeah. So I did as much as I could do by phone and then they would mail me the different mixes for me to o.k and it worked out pretty good.”
BH – You got some unreleased songs on there too. What’s the story with ‘Brother To Brother’ from the ‘Next Of Kin’ soundtrack?
GA – “I enjoyed that one to a certain extent. When it was recorded I flew in from the last gig with the Allman Brothers that summer to Nashville. And after all those miles and all that singing my throat was, as you can tell by listening, was just gone. Somehow the key was changed too but I did my best.”
BH – What about ‘Hopelessly Miss You,’ it sounds like heavy metal for you Gregg!
GA – “I had to try it.”
BH – Then there’s the Jackson Browne song ‘These Days.’ What made you pick that one?
GA – “Well it’s laid back and I like the tune but you gotta understand. Even though I picked all the songs, I changed a few times because I’m in a lawsuit with Universal right now because they bought all our stuff from Polydor. They weren’t entitled to these songs and I’m right in the middle of this thing now so we had to take certain songs off because I ain’t gonna buy a license for my own damn tunes.”
BH – That sucks.
GA – “Yeah it does but it looks like it’s going in our favor and it’s cool.”
BH – I understand you’ve been writing some new material.
GA – “Yeah I got some new ones for the Allman Brothers record we just finished. Oh man it is so killer. The working name for it is ‘Victory Dance.’ It’s really nice, the vibe is right. It’s the best record, I repeat, it’s the best record we cut since my brother was around. The vibe is good now, the vibe is so good it’s a pleasure like it used to be.”
BH – Is it tough balancing the two bands, Gregg and Friends and the Allman Brothers Band?
GA – “Not at all. Let me put it this way. It’s like being married but having a girlfriend cross town. Your wife kinda knows but don’t want to know. Anyway, that’s a pretty bad parallel. But since 1973 I’ve always had a band on the side and the band on the side is wide open. It’s a release from the Allman Brothers. The two together work wonderfully for me because musically I do just about everything I want to. And they keep me inspired. I can’t imagine just playing with the Brothers.”
BH – When you write a song how do you know if it’s a Gregg and Friends song or an Allman Brothers song?
GA – “They just kinda find their way. Plus they’ll be a time I’ll concentrate on a Brothers song or I’ll concentrate on a G and Friends song. I don’t know, it doesn’t quite feel like well, you got one tub over here for these songs and one tub over here for the other ones. They kinda find their own way. Sometimes you write a slow song and find out that if you put a lot of guts worth of music behind it, you know, it will be a good rocker.”
BH – How has all the touring changed through the years?
GA – “Is that before or after Clear Channel? (laughs) They’ve really made things change in the record business, the radio business, and the touring business. How’s it changed? Outwardly? Man, the fans they’ve just stayed and stayed and stayed and gotten better and better. You look out there now and they’re six to sixty. It’s such a blessing.”
BH – What trends in the music industry do you find most disturbing these days?
GA – “You see, I just came to play. I said that when I got here and I still say that. I’m not a businessman and I don’t want to be one. It takes away from my artistic ability and my inspiration, it really does. Anybody would tell you that. I just hope it all gets resolved, that’s all. But just being able to dial a Rembrandt and download it, I don’t think that’s the way to go about it. I don’t know about the Napster bullshit. It just doesn’t seem right. It’s thieving. I would hate to admit to any of my friends that I did that unless it was logistically necessary or temporary, like one time.”
BH – And this is coming from someone who doesn’t mind when his fans tape his concerts.
GA – “That’s right but something you’ve done in the studio, you’ve done all the artwork. You’re working with million dollar machines. I mean how good of a sound are you going to get at a show? I’ve heard them and they don’t sound like a studio. In fact it doesn’t have any effect on all this. I mean music has to be contained. So we, as of yet, haven’t decided if we’re going to put it (the new record) out on our own label or if we’re going to get a distribution deal from a large label. It’s already done, paid for, in the can and ready to go. It’s not mixed yet but it will be very soon. If you put it out yourself you get your underground crowd. You sell it at the gigs and you sell it on the internet. You won’t get it at Kmart or Walmart though and that’s an issue. I’m pretty sure that even if the man upstairs cut a record, if it didn’t get in the shops, it wouldn’t sell.”
BH – You know Gregg your story and the story of the Allman Brothers Band is fascinating to guys like me. Have you ever considered writing an autobiography?
GA – “Yeah but I’m not that kind of writer. I got about four chapters and maybe you’d like to read them sometime and see what you think. A lot of it is painful man and I’m not old enough to write an autobiography anyway. I’m scared of books, everything you’ve ever seen book wise put out on me is a bunch of bull. It’s just crap and you can write that by the way. It was very, very embarrassing.”
BH- To be honest with you I’m not sure what you’re referring to.
GA – “It’s this book by Red Dog. Let’s put it this way, whether those things in there were true or not, there they sit for people to read. So it’s like a damn uh I call it the Lawrence Campbell, that’s his real name, the Lawrence Campbell Enquirer. You can get all the issues at once. It is appalling and you can print that!”
BH – Lets change the subject. If you don’t mind me asking, where were you when you first heard about the terrorist attack on September 11th?
GA – “I had just gotten up. My lady had handed me my coffee in my favorite cup and I sat down and Matt Lauer said ‘we’re going to have to break away, seemed like somebody has run their plane in to a building.’ And I thought what fool with all that space would hit the World Trade Center? And as I was watching here comes that other plane and then I knew what it was. I mean so many Americans became so aware in such I few short seconds. Oh yeah, I knew where the body was buried then.”
BH – Do you remember the first time you took the stage after that? Was it weighing on your mind?
GA – “The fact is my boys were down here rehearsing and they got stuck here. I got two of them from California, Mark McGee and Tommy Miller. ( G & Friends guitarist and bassist respectively.) Hell, they got as far as Atlanta and they stayed in the airport Hilton there for a while. It came down to our going out on this tour or not. As a matter of fact, this month right now, my band was suppose to be in Europe. But I just thought no, lets let some time die down here. Those people over there have been fighting ever since I’ve been alive. But it was a bad, bad, terrible, heinous thing to do to our country and there are a whole lot of people at fault on both sides if you ask me. And all I can do is pray that nothing else happens like that again.”
Gregg Allman is 53 years young. He has been clean and sober for a few years now and the positive changes he has made in his life has brought a renewed vitality and energy to his music. He is still a rock and roll rebel but he has also become a rock and roll icon and one of the great blues musicians of our time. He is right about being too young to write an autobiography. There are still too many chapters left to go.