The pair played with a racially mixed band, the House Rockers, and worked their way through various combos before forming the Allman Joys, going on tour in 1965 after Gregg graduated from Seabreeze high school. In 1960 Gregg bought himself a cheap acoustic guitar from Sears, though it was Duane who proved the virtuoso of the family, with Gregg gravitating to keyboards (the Hammond B3 organ became his signature instrument). In 1959 she moved the family to Daytona Beach, Florida. She trained as an accountant and sent the brothers to Castle Heights military academy in Lebanon, Tennessee. In 1949, Geraldine found herself responsible for raising her sons when Willis was shot and killed during a robbery by a hitchhiker he had picked up. Son of Willis Allman, a US army captain, and his wife, Geraldine (nee Robins), Gregg was born in Nashville, Tennessee, about a year after Duane. The band were disgusted by what Allman had done, and the group disintegrated. The group were not happy with the record despite its success, and in 1976 tensions reached breaking point when Allman testified at the trial of the band’s security man, Scooter Herring, who was subsequently jailed for distributing cocaine. Win, Lose or Draw (1975) reached No 5 on the US album chart, but heavy drug use and internal frictions (not least over Allman’s LA lifestyle with Cher and his pursuit of a solo career) threatened the band’s stability. The band were playing arenas and stadiums, earning $100,000 per show and flying in a chartered Boeing 720. Gregg Allman playing the organ at a concert in Macon, Georgia, in 1978. The following year they topped the US chart with Brothers and Sisters, which gave them their biggest hit single with the country-flavoured Ramblin’ Man (it fell one short of the No 1 spot), and another durable calling-card with the instrumental Jessica, which became a radio favourite and later the theme tune to the television motoring show Top Gear. The band vowed to carry on, a decision vindicated by the success of Eat a Peach (1972), which sold a million copies in the US and reached No 4. However, this triumph was soured by Duane’s death in a motorcycle accident later that year. Statesboro Blues, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed and Gregg’s angstful composition Whipping Post became definitive pieces in the band’s repertoire. Their third album, At Fillmore East (1971), launched them into the mainstream, reaching 13 on the US album chart and showcasing the extraordinary power and musical scope of the band’s live performances.
Gregg and his guitar-playing older brother, Duane, had worked together from the early 60s as the Escorts, the Allman Joys and the Hour Glass before forming the Allman Brothers in 1969. The best work by the Allman Brothers Band is now regarded as some of the most influential of the 1970s, and the group’s 90s reformation, after splitting up for most of the 80s, brought their intricate fusion of blues, rock, soul and a hint of jazz to a new generation of listeners.
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