"We’re not a jam band, we’re a band that jams!"

(Gregg Allman)

The Gregg Allman Interview

One of my best moments, to interview such a legend. And the tape that came out was almost ruined by a stupid phone problem… Thanks more than ever to the fantastic Chris Marcum, who was able to put ev’thing down in a perfect way (not to talk about the Dixie Gregg accent...).

This is Gregg Allman.

Ah, couldn’t be better... except it’s raining like hell over here.

Wow man. I didn’t even realize you guys knew about us. I didn’t realize that our music was so appreciated in Italy.

Thirty-three years probably. That’s how long we’ve been together... ha-ha.

Well, I tell you, it might be happening in the next couple of years, if not next.

Because we signed with a record company who’s based out in the UK. They’re called Sanctuary and they are really good people. So, what they want to do is build up our European following because we play some pretty good music... we do.

I think we played in Germany. We played London and we played in Paris. We played Copenhagen and Berlin.

It was in ‘90, I think. Maybe it was ‘93. We went to Japan in ‘91. We reformed in ‘89. So I think it was ‘90.

I would really look forward to it. Of course the people are real freaky about flying now.

No, not at all. I’m hoping... I can’t wait until it’s all over (the war in Iraq).

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah? What I said was it’s the best record we’ve cut since my brother was gone, which is Eat a Peach, right. It has to do with getting the right personnel assembled. I mean, I never thought my brother would have to leave, but hey, you know it was either that or we woulda all gone and we'd broke up and it would’ve been nothing. So it was one of two choices, either he go or we all go and so... I wasn’t thru yet! Ha-ha. So we did it and so... the groove is so good... poignant. I mean. I was there for ten days cutting that record.

Ten days. They were there a little bit longer coz they mixed it, but we went in and just laid it down.

No, no Warren co-produced it with Michael Barbiero. Warren had produced a few other albums that sounded real good and then I guess you heard Tommy Dowd died?

So we really miss him too. We went with that, man, and I think it came out pretty good. I don’t usually stick around for the mix...

All the vibes were right, you know. It’s what we call ‘road tested’ the songs. What we did was we played them during last year’s summer tour... just here and there and here and there. Somehow when you play them in front of the people... my theory is that it scares you into doing it right but somehow, the song... if there’s something in there, if it doesn't need to be there, it will stick out like a sore thumb and you know to get rid of it and if it needs something, you’ll know it somehow more on stage than you will in rehearsals. I guess it's because everybody’s listening so close to everybody else and you want it to sound exactly like it did in rehearsal rooms or in the studio.

It was recorded in Frank Sinatra’s hometown, Hoboken, New Jersey.

You could look out the window and see the Statue of Liberty. You know how the point comes out there where the Statue of Liberty is... where the Twin Towers were.

...and then you’ve got that big piece of water there and it breaks off in to the East River. It’s right across from that is Jersey. A great view of the city.

Really, ha-ha.

We’ve been there before... I’ve been there before to jam on this other album and see it’s way down in the industrial part of town. I mean, somebody’s got to take you there the first time... or you ain’t gonna find it. So the good thing about that is nobody is gonna be there to bug ya. They don’t have a big sign outside saying ‘Such and Such Studios’, you know and on the marquee ‘This afternoon we have...’. You know a lot of them are like that, especially in Los Angeles.

Yes, we co-wrote...was there eleven of them?

Yes, all but Old Friend and Instrumental Illness, this one is co written by all the band together.

We tried to kind of make that our own song.

We had talked about the Stones and you know, I’ve always just dug the Stones and there ain’t nobody gonna play a song, you know, a Stones song, like the Stones but... so that was not one of my favorite ones but that makes you all the more want to try to revamp the thing and sure enough... well actually me and Warren got together and arranged that.

Thank you. I’ve been sober now for going on my seventh year.

...and I’ve stopped smoking.

Oh yes.

That’s the worst thing... smoking... smoking and alcohol, good God. You just don’t need it, man. Life is much better without it.

Why thank you. I wrote most of that one.

You see, a long time ago... not that long, but...I was gonna leave school. I went to military school for four years. I was going to be a dental surgeon and I had been accepted in school and I thought, well I’ll go out... I graduated from high school in ‘65... I’ll go out and I'll play the clubs and stuff and get it out of my system for a year and then go on back to med school. Then I started writing songs coz I got tired of playing other people’s songs. That’s when I wrote Melissa... it was like the first one of any substance that I wrote... and hell I didn’t show it to anybody for about a year, because the first hundred I wrote were just garbage. You're not born with that talent I don't think. You have to kind of develop writing. I had this song. Warren came down to my house. I lived down here in Savannah, Georgia, it's really beautiful... old oak trees, birds singing... you can’t hear any traffic or anything... it’s beautiful. He came down and we wrote Desdemona first and then I had on this other little notebook on my piano, I had Old Before My Time and I had the first verse. I woke up the next morning and he said, ‘Man, check out what I’ve got here.’ And so he had all of it, I guess, but the bridge done and so we sat there and wrote the damn bridge and then bing-bang. I mean, he was only here four days and we wrote most of the stuff that’s on there.

Usually acoustic piano or acoustic guitar. I’ve only written one on a Hammond organ.

That ís kind of like, you know, the cookie. You know you have the blues first and then you play everything else. That’s like the base, that’s the chicken stock. Which it is. Blues is the basis of rock and roll. I mean that from blues came rock and roll and reggae came... aah, a whole lot of... that and bluegrass is two kinds of music that is America’s claim to fame... and country music.

Well I just had thoughts when I was, I don’t know, nine years old. A guy across the street from where my grandmother lived, we would visit in the summer... this guy was kind of retarded. He was outside painting his car with paint and a house paintbrush and I went over there. He had this old Sears and Roebuck guitar, called a Belltone, sitting up on the swing that was on the porch. I said, ‘What’cha got there?’ He said, ‘That there is my gee-tar.’ I said, ‘Well, how’s it work? What do you do with it?’ Then he put the paint down and came over and he said, ‘Well let me show ya.’ And he picked up the guitar and played She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain. And I thought, ‘Man, if this poor son-of-a-bitch can do this, possibly... possibly, I can’. So then he showed me three chords and I got Coming Around the Mountain before I left there, man. Ha-ha! And I was just enthralled. So the minute I got home, I got me a paper route and worked long enough to buy me a $21.95 Silvertone guitar, which took about...about eight weeks.

So my brother had a motorcycle, a small Honda and he brought it home in a sack one day. It just gave out... it just fell apart in the street. So he felt kinda bad and was looking at me. He said "Hmmm, what have you got there?" I said, "No man, go in there and put your motorcycle together. Get along." So the bike didn't look as good as the guitar so mama had to get him one. She got him one; she had to get me one. So that's how I got my first electric. Ha-ha.

That’s a great story.

He quit school and passed me like I was standing still. So I had to start singing or get out of the band and that’s about it, in a nutshell.

Oh, usually in rehearsal and playing live. You have certain... we’re not a jam band, we’re a band that jams. Ha-ha!

We have song arrangements, but from that we branch out. You go it solo and then there’s these kind of landmarks in songs that one person does and shows that he’s finished and then the next guy does. Kind of like the good jazz.

Ahh, it’s actually better.

The good thing about it is both guys are so open-minded. They aren’t closed minded at all. I mean when you come up with something in rehearsals and you got an idea and somebody says "Nah, man, that won't work." Well bullshit! Well, you know, let's try it first and see. That was one of the reasons Betts was not ok with us anymore. These guys are just the opposite, man, like me. They're open-minded. They'll try anything once.

That's great. Having Warren... Warren is so busy with so many other projects. Will it be a problem having Warren with you for the next tours? How will you deal with this?

He's pretty much took some of those irons out of the fire. He's still got the Gov't Mule and I think his main... where he puts most of his energies in and where he has more success is Gov’t Mule. I think he has great love for them and great love for all the people and the music that he plays. We play his music and we didn't tell him anything like "Hey you gotta play something written by Allman." Or you know... that's bullshit. Betts didn't want to play anything that wasn't written by somebody in the band... and that's crap. Ha-ha.

...keeps you from being boring?

It's the music first and the camaraderie and the audience and... that we never play the music the same way twice. We only have a basic you know, shape. Most of the songs are jammable and...I don't know. We just finished a stint in New York and it was our best one yet, man. All thirteen nights we were jamming. It was so good, man. It was such a good feeling. Now we're...hell, we're way up in the damn charts with this record, I mean you never know what's gonna happen. Everything can change in a New York minute, right? Ha-ha.

Look, it was good talkin' to you, brother, man.

Ok

...and I hope we make it over there real soon.

Thank you, sir.