Gregg Allman was a movie buff. Several times I went to his bus or hotel room to interview him, only to find him absorbed in a film or TV show and we'd end up watching together until it ended, or until there was a natural break to start the interview.
The two such times I remember best were once on his bus when he was watching The X Files as we spoke about the new additions of Jack Pearson and Oteil Burbridge. Jack was sitting across from us, as we began the interview while he continued to watch the show, speaking haltingly until commercial breaks when he turned his full attention toward out conversation. Finally. he proclaimed, “I wish they would just do it already!” (I recently found that interview and will run it in full up here soon.)
The other memorable time was when I interviewed Gregg late at night in a Chicago hotel room, which was one of the deepest, most intimate conversations we ever had. When I got to the room, he was on his bed, wife Stacey sleeping next to him, dog curled up on his lap, watching Steven Spielberg’s 1974 feature film debut The Sugarland Express. That was he first collaboration between Spielberg and composer John Williams, who has scored almost all of Spielberg’s films. Williams has been a huge part of Spielberg’s filmography, something which Gregg understood very well.
“Listen to that score!” he exclaimed. “It makes the damn movie, which has so little dialogue.”
Stacey thrashed around a little, which made the situation a tad uncomfortable and probably nudged Gregg to finally get up, turn the volume down and move with me to the other side of the room, where an alcove, with large windows overlooking downtown Chicago held two chairs and we got down tot he interview. Before we started in earnest, we had the following conversation about film soundtracks.
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