{"id":668529,"date":"2026-05-27T18:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T18:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/668529\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T18:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T18:11:10","slug":"9-years-ago-today-we-said-goodbye-to-the-southern-rock-pioneer-behind-some-of-the-most-iconic-hits-of-the-1970s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/668529\/","title":{"rendered":"9 Years Ago Today, We Said Goodbye to the Southern Rock Pioneer Behind Some of the Most Iconic Hits of the 1970s"},"content":{"rendered":"

On this day (May 27) in 2017, Gregg Allman died in his sleep due to complications from liver cancer at the age of 69. He famously founded the Allman Brothers Band<\/a> with his older brother, Duane Allman. Through years of hard times and tragedy, they became one of the most influential rock bands in the world. Later, Allman embarked on a solo career, carrying on what they started all those years ago.<\/p>\n

Allman\u2019s life was marked by tragedy. He was only two years old when his father was murdered. Struggling to make ends meet, his mother sent him and Duane to Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon, Tennessee. He was 12 years old when the family relocated to Florida. Soon, he found his passion for music.<\/p>\n

The Allman brothers traveled to Nashville in 1960, where they watched Jackie Wilson, Otis Redding, B.B. King, and Patti LaBelle perform. Later, his grandmother\u2019s neighbor introduced him to the guitar. He soon saved up to buy a guitar and learned how to play. This led to both brothers playing in several local bands. One of these bands, the Allman Joys, led Gregg to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: The Allman Brothers Band Classic That Came to Life After Breaking Into a Studio at Night]<\/a><\/p>\n

There Could Be No Allman Brothers Band Without Gregg<\/p>\n

While Gregg Allman was in Los Angeles, Duane was putting together a band in Florida. However, he refused to move forward without his brother. He told his bandmates that his younger brother was \u201cthe blues-singingest white boy in the world,\u201d according to Allman Brothers Band biographer Scott Freeman<\/a>. He would accept no substitutions.<\/p>\n

Allman recalled his time in Los Angeles as one of the lowest points in his life. When he returned to Florida, reunited with his brother, and saw the band he had assembled, he felt as though he had been reborn. It was the beginning of something truly special.<\/p>\n

The band released their self-titled debut album in 1969. The next year, they followed it with Idlewild South. Neither album sold particularly well. However, they were drawing large crowds on the road, adding to their following with every show. This inspired them to release their first live album, At Fillmore East, in 1971. It was a hit, peaking at No. 13 on the Billboard albums chart and quickly earning Gold certification from the RIAA.<\/p>\n

Tragedy and Success<\/p>\n

In October 1971, just months after releasing their breakthrough album, Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident. The band voted to continue, though. Then, in November 1972, bassist Berry Oakley died in a motorcycle accident. They pushed through the back-to-back tragedy to drop a series of classic albums and songs.<\/p>\n

The Allman Brothers Band produced some of the most successful material in the time after their tragic losses. Eat a Peach reached No. 4 in 1972. The next year, Brothers and Sisters topped the albums chart. Win, Lose or Draw, the final album released before their split, reached No. 5.<\/p>\n

The cracks were starting to show, though. Tensions were rising in the band when Gregg Allman started working on his debut solo album, Laid Back, which dropped around the same time as Brothers and Sisters. At the same time, the band\u2019s de facto leader, Dickey Betts, started working on solo material.<\/p>\n

The End of the Allman Brothers Band<\/p>\n

By the middle of the 1970s, the members of the Allman Brothers Band, including Gregg, had serious substance abuse issues. Then, Allman married Cher in 1974. This catapulted him into a different level of fame. At the same time, it largely separated him from the band. According to AllMusic<\/a>, he didn\u2019t attend recording sessions for Win, Lose or Draw. Instead, he recorded his vocals in a California studio after everyone else had recorded their parts.<\/p>\n

The straw that broke the camel\u2019s back came in 1976. That year, Gregg Allman testified against Scooter Herring, who worked security for the band, in a federal drug case. Herring was sentenced to 75 years for distribution charges. The rest of the band branded Allman a \u201csnitch\u201d and refused to work with him. In fact, most refused to speak to him. As a result, the band split, giving birth to Sea Level, Great Southern, and the Gregg Allman Band.<\/p>\n

Gregg Allman\u2019s Solo Career<\/p>\n

Gregg Allman released six studio albums and two live albums in his lifetime. His final studio album, Southern Blood, was released posthumously in September 2017. Additionally, three live albums have been released since his passing.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying music is my whole life,\u201d he told Scott Freeman. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s my peace of mind. It\u2019s like the fuse in my whole life. It\u2019s probably the best escape for really having the blues there is. Almost any given night, you can just get up and pour it out. It\u2019s the best medicine anybody\u2019s ever made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Featured Image by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On this day (May 27) in 2017, Gregg Allman died in his sleep due to complications from liver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[2616,2617,88,96939,216,37861],"class_list":["post-668529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1970s","tag-classic-rock","tag-entertainment","tag-gregg-allman","tag-music","tag-the-allman-brothers-band"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}