Duane Allman

The Allman Brothers Band got started in Jacksonville, Florida, in the late 1960s.

Brothers Duane and Gregg Allman had relocated from Nashville, Tennessee, where they had learned to play guitar as young kids.

In 1968, the two recorded a demo-length record in Miami with an outfit called the 31st of February, which included drummer Butch Trucks.

Duane became a sought-after session guitarist the following year, working with such artists as Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett.

He formed a band that included drummer Jaimoe Johanson and bassist Berry Oakley, and it was about this time that his vision of a different sort of ensemble developed, one that included two drummers and two lead guitarists.

In March 1969, Duane and Jaimoe invited Oakley and other friends to a series of jam sessions.

Oakley invited Dickey Betts, the leader of his previous band, and Betts became the group's second lead guitarist.

So the lineup now included Duane Allman and Betts on guitars, Betts on vocals, Gregg Allman on keyboards, Oakley on bass, and both Jaimoe and Butch Trucks on drums.

Is it...

Because that's, that's where the other best alternatives, I think, come from, is the UK, which birthed the likes of Eric Clapton with Derek and the Dominos, which was short-lived, and they didn't really do much touring, and Duane Allman was part of that.

But that is one of the great bands.

I mean, they could be thinking about Nickelback.

I mean, the Allman Brothers have been hugely influential, of course, have some of the top songs in rock and roll and blues history.

But they also consistently, with each lineup, had among them the best musicians of their craft.

Guys like, yeah, Gregg Allman and Duane Allman and Warren Haynes and Dickey Betts and Berry Oakley, and the list goes on and on for phenomenal musicians in the Allman Brothers Band.

And, um-

That detail's really important.

FM radio, uh, you know, as I wrote in my book, Play All Night: Duane Allman and the Journey to Fillmore East-

Mm

... just to remind everybody, but FM radio's vital to playing rock bands that don't have hit singles but their, their album tracks.

I saw, we saw the Airplane, and honestly couldn't really hear the individual voices.

Yeah.

Sounds like a bad Duane Allman era-

Anyway-

Then came a big surprise for the band.

Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band sat in.

Duane's slide guitar was the perfect counterpoint to Clapton's lead.

In the sessions, they became an intense studio jam.

In May of '71, the Dominos regrouped in London to record a second album, but drug addiction, paranoia, and conflict among the members tore the sessions apart completely, and the band split up without even finishing that album.

Clapton stepped back from music, nursing a heroin addiction, but the worst would come on October 29th, 1971.

[coughs] Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident, and it destroyed Eric Clapton.

But with the band gone, its reputation only grew from there.

I mean, I've never, I mean, this is really my first attempt at playing slide guitar.

So it's not, you know, it's not Duane Allman or anything, so don't get excited-

[laughs]

... too excited, folks.

I mean, you had Lynyrd Skynyrd, you had peak Allman Brothers, but then, you know, you had some tragedies.

You had Duane Allman died.

The airplane crashed-

I see.

[singing]

He goes into, like, a Duane Allman kind of solo.

He just-

Yeah

Jesus Christ.

With Duane- Jesus Christ, dude ... with Duane Allman.

Oh, my God.

That, that passing ba- uh, dude, how remarkable was that? Oh, my God.