Slideshow
Biography Wikipedia
Wikipedia:
Gregory LeNoir Allman (born December 8, 1947 in Nashville, Tennessee), known as Gregg Allman, is a rock and blues singer, keyboardist, guitarist and songwriter, and a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. He was inducted with the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2006. His distinctive voice placed him in 70th place in the Rolling Stone list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".
At the beginning of the 1970s, The Allman Brothers Band enjoyed huge success and a number of their most characteristic songs were written by Allman. Unusually for the time, the band was based in the Southeastern United States and their music, which has been called ‘Southern Rock’, a term derided by Allman, incorporates an innovative fusion of rock and jazz.
Following the death of his older brother, the guitarist Duane Allman in 1971 and bass guitarist Berry Oakley around a year later, in motorcycle accidents, the band struggled on and continued to perform and record. In addition, Allman developed a solo career and a band under his own name. Allman’s solo music has perhaps a greater resonance of soul music than his work with ABB, possibly because of the influence of artists such as Bobby Bland and Little Milton, singers who he has long admired.
Despite recent health issues, Allman still tours.
Allman's memoirs of his life in music, My Cross to Bear, was released on May 1, 2012.
Early years
Gregg is the younger son of Willis Turner Allman and Geraldine Alice (née Robbins). He was born in Nashville Tennessee in 1947, thirteen months after his brother Duane. His father was in the army and in 1949 the family relocated to Fort Story, Norfolk, Virginia. Shortly after, his father was murdered by a casual acquaintance and Geraldine 'Mama A' Allman was left to raise the boys. In order to retrain as an accountant, she sent her sons to Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon, Tennessee, which they both loathed. Eventually, in 1957, when his mother had finished her degree, the family settled in Daytona Beach, Florida, and the boys attended Seabreeze High School.
Both Gregg Allman and his brother Duane became captivated by music at a young age; Gregg Allman has revealed that he and Duane went to see Jackie Wilson, Otis Redding, Patti Labelle and B.B. King perform and that he was particularly struck by B.B.’s Hammond organ player. Gregg took an interest in the guitar before Duane did, learning the very basics from his grandmother’s neighbour in Nashville. However Duane would soon become the superior guitarist, giving up school in tenth grade to focus on it while Gregg practiced his vocals and keyboards, remained at school and finally graduated in 1965. Although he planned to become a dental surgeon, Gregg fell in with his brother’s plans that they should become musicians, intending to go to medical school after a short while; it didn’t happen.
The Escorts, The Allman Joys, The Hour Glass and 31st February
In the mid-to-late-1960s, Gregg and Duane Allman played in a series of bands including The Escorts and The Allman Joys, mostly around the Southeastern United States.
Toward the end of the decade, The Allman Joys relocated to Los Angeles, California, and were signed to Liberty Records, which renamed them The Hour Glass. In addition to the Allmans, The Hour Glass consisted of three other players who would later become renowned studio musicians in Muscle Shoals, Alabama: Pete Carr, Johnny Sandlin and Paul Hornsby. Strongly controlled by the label management, the group produced a couple of psychedelic blues albums. All the players were deeply dissatisfied with the results; Duane Allman, in particular, spoke bitterly of the Hour Glass' output. The label executives were, however, impressed with Gregg Allman's abilities as a vocalist and keyboardist. The band left Los Angeles for the South and disbanded. In Florida, Allman and his brother Duane joined a band called 31 February with a drummer named Butch Trucks but Allman returned to California as Hourglass still owed money to Liberty Records which believed that Allman had potential as a solo act.
Formation of The Allman Brothers Band
Duane became employed as a session musician at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and began to assemble the group that would become The Allman Brothers Band - Duane and Dickey Betts on guitars, Berry Oakley on bass guitar, and Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson on drums. In the meantime, Allman had grown unhappy with the Liberty Records arrangement so when Duane called from Jacksonville, Florida in March 1969 to say that he had assembled a band that needed a singer, Gregg jumped at the opportunity and returned to the South.
He had long wanted to play the Hammond Organ, and was given one immediately upon joining the band, which he had to learn to play in a hurry. Ever since, he has played the Hammond B-3 with a preference for a 1969 issue B3 hooked to a Leslie speaker 122RV and handled much of the lead vocals and song writing for the band, along with occasional piano and guitar contributions.
Solo career
After the death of Duane Allman in 1971, Gregg Allman started out on a solo career. His first album, Laid Back, was released in 1973 to a positive critical reception.
It included a couple of reworked Allman Brothers songs, such as a horn-infused version of "Midnight Rider" that made it to #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and originals like "Queen of Hearts", the other ABB members felt did not quite fit the Allman Brothers sound. Gregg also covered a traditional gospel song "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" and former California roommate Jackson Browne's song "These Days."
His solo career has continued intermittently throughout the subsequent decades, sometimes touring when the Allman Brothers Band is off the road. Generally, these solo efforts - first with the Gregg Allman Band, and later with Gregg Allman & Friends - eschew lengthy guitar solos and cast Allman more in the mode of his favorite soul singers. The bands often include a horn section and are more groove-oriented, mixing original songs with reworked Allman Brothers songs and covers of blues, R&B, and soul songs.
Allman's second chart single came in 1987 with the #49 peaking "I'm No Angel", from the album of the same name. The album went on to be certified Gold for 500,000 copies sold and led to a renewed interest in Allman and to a reformation of the Allman Brothers Band less than three years later.
His solo album, Low Country Blues, was produced by T-Bone Burnett and issued in early 2011. It is a collection of eleven blues standards and one new song written by him. The album was nominated as the Best Blues Album for the 2011 Grammy Awards.
He has also made guest appearances on albums and concert videos by a wide variety of other artists, including a concert DVD celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of The Radiators, playing Midnight Rider with that band.
In addition to his musical career, Allman took acting roles in the films Rush Week (1989) and Rush (1991), and in episodes of the TV series Superboy. He also had a brief speaking cameo in the Family Guy episode "Let's Go to the Hop".
Personal life
Allman has struggled with drugs from the 1970s and through much of his musical career. These were both illegal and legal, primarily cocaine, heroin, and alcohol. He has been sober as of the mid-1990s.
During the mid 1970’s, there was a prominent court case involving Allman and John ‘Scooter’ Herring, Allman’s road manager.
He was diagnosed with Hepatitis C in late 2007 which he attributes to infection from a dirty tattoo needle and on June 23, 2010, he underwent surgery for a liver transplant. The operation was successful and he has recovered well. Despite this blow to his health, Allman has resumed touring.
Marriages, relationships & children
Allman has been married six times; his wives have been:
Shelley Kay Winters (later Jefts), later divorced. The marriage produced a son, Devon Allman, on August 10, 1972. Devon is a musician, leads the band Honeytribe, and has appeared with the Allman Brothers Band on a few occasions.Janice Blair, a singer and the sister of Ron Blair, the bassist of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.[1] They married in 1973 and divorced in 1975.Cher, the singer, whom Allman married in 1975 and divorced in 1979. They had one child together, a son, Elijah Blue Allman, who later formed his own band, Deadsy. The couple tried a musical collaboration, releasing an album Two the Hard Way (billed as Allman and Woman) in 1977. It was universally panned, and it has long since been out of print. The Hard Way Tour did not achieve success either. In an interview on NPR's On Point in March 2011, Allman expressed that he and Cher split due largely to his desire to no longer live in Los Angeles, and his growing discomfort with his wife's celebrity lifestyle.Julie Bindas, whom Allman married in 1979 and divorced in 1981. They had a daughter, Delilah Island Allman, November 5, 1980.Danielle J P Galiana, married in 1989, divorced in 1994 Stacey Fountain, married 2001 and later divorced.By Mary Lynn Green, a waitress, he has a son, Michael Sean Allman (born July 1966), who is a vocalist.
By Shelby Blackburn, a radio journalist, Allman has a daughter, Layla Brooklyn Allman, born March 31, 1993, who fronts the band Picture Me Broken.
On May 25, 2012 the AP reported that Allman was engaged to Shannon Williams. The AP story reported that little is known about Williams other than she is believed to be 24. Allman's publicist and manager confirmed the news prior to the AP releasing the story.
Allman currently lives in Richmond Hill, Georgia.
