That time Gregg Allman told me to always support the home team.
GA started telling me about his love for Jackson Browne, then evangelized about the need for friends to support one another, and ended up marveling at ZZ Top's babes. Check it out!
My favorite moments in interviews with Gregg Allman over decades of talking were always when we ventured far afield of whatever the topic at hand was supposed to be - a new album, a tour, an anniversary - and GA would get rolling about topics close to his heart. Below is a classic example. Enjoy - and remember to support the home team!
Gregg Allman and Jackson Browne were roommates for a brief time in Los Angeles. Gregg always credited Browne with inspiring him to become a real songwriter - as did Glenn Frey of the Eagles. This is quite legacy for Browne above and beyond his own music, but that’s another story for another day. I always enjoyed speaking about Browne with Gregg because his fondness for his old friend was so obvious and so clearly heartfelt - and at the time we discussed him, they had been long out of touch
Though Allman lost touch with Browne, he remained enamored of his old friend’s work. Allman recorded a fantastic version of Browne’s “These Days” on his 1973 solo album Laid Back. A year earlier, Browne had made his recorded debut with his self-titled debut, which was packaged in a brown paper bag with the words “Saturate Before Using” across the top. (Jackson Browne Saturate Before Using)
“I lost track of Jackson after my brother moved back down South,” says Allman. “I moved in with some broad and he went his own way and got some girlfriend. I didn’t know whatever happened to him; didn’t hear of him again until all of a sudden I was going by a record store in Macon one day and I saw his name on a paper bag in the window and I said, ‘Jackson! I’m a son of a bitch.’ I was so happy I went inside and bought one just as fast as I could. ‘Cause if your best friends won’t buy ‘em, who the hell will?”
“My mother told me that. She says that about tickets too — people call for tickets when we play up around North Carolina, because she’s from there. A lot of people call her and ask her to get them tickets and she tells ‘em all, ‘If their best friends won’t buy the damn tickets, who the hell will? The place be empty if y’all don’t buy tickets. If y’all buy tickets, we know somebody’ll be there. Does that make any sense to you? You’re supposed to support your family, not ask ‘What can you give me?’ My mother, she beats around the bush with no one!”
“Though she might be in her own rented limousine, from me or my brother, she’d go around front and buy a damn ticket and bring it around back and hand it to us and say, ‘I just wanted you to know I’m supporting the team.’ Or she’d order ‘em ahead of time.|
“I went and saw John Lee Hooker the other night, wanted to just buy a ticket and go in. I tried to buy a ticket. I wanted to support the team. I didn’t get out and jammed or anything. I just sat there and watched, but one of his people saw me waiting in line and grabbed me and brought me in. It really is nice to just be a fan sometimes. I saw ZZ Top and sat in the crowd. They’re one of my favorites. They did that Recycler tour. Wasn’t that fun? All them babes come out and sweep up. Look out! I went out and got my binoculars.”
Brothers and Sisters: the Allman Brothers Band and The Album That Defined The 70s was my third straight book to debut in the New York Times Non-Fiction Hardcover Bestsellers List, following Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan and One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band. My first book was Big in China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family, Playing the Blues and Becoming a Star in Beijing, about my experiences raising a family in Beijing and touring China with a popular original blues band. It was optioned for a movie by Ivan Reitman’s Montecito Productions. I am also a guitarist and singer who fronts two bands, Big in China and Friends of the Brothers, the premier celebration of the Allman Brothers Band.
Hahaha. The "ZZ Top babes" thing is hilarious. That might've been one occasion where Gregg should've called Gibbons in advance. When I was at Guitar World, Billy invited me to a show. When I got there, someone with the band escorted me back stage and basically locked me in a room with a dozen ZZ Top girls for close to 30 minutes until the show started. They were all beautiful and friendly, so it wasn't the worse time I've had at a concert! And, oh yeah, the Top were pretty good too!
Will never forget the late 60s summer days, when the'Brothers and other terrific groups played for free in a park in New Orleans. They would do this as a gesture of generosity, paying tribute to our short-lived Counterculture after a gig at The Warehouse, a venue that putatively rivaled the Fillmore East. A slight exaggeration, possibly, but nonetheless a great venue for a city that dwelled in jazz, electric rock, and R & B.