came to Macon they would use Red Dog's partial disability check he got from serving in Vietnam. He got blown up pretty good over there. It was definitely a communal thing when they were first getting together here in Macon. He would use his government check for the band. Also, Phil Walden was advanc- ing them living and touring expenses. There were some small money gigs back then and fi- nancially things were lean. Duane said we couldn't do a gig without a road crew. So the road crew was always taken care of first and if there was anything left over then the band got paid. Butch had been semi taking care of business since Twiggs had left, and basically I just got boxes of receipts and contracts and it took me the better part of a few months to re- construct things and try to figure out where the band was financially, which was basically nowhere. The band didn't have anything and we were in debt to Phil Walden. But it was starting to build then and based on my ac- counting and banking background we were able to put together somewhat of a business plan and try to make the thing work.
JW And the rest is history. WP Yeah.
JW So when did you start moving into a positive cash flow direction? WP Oh, I would guess toward the end of 1970. By then I had checking accounts set up and ran the financial end of it as a business. I would guess by the first part of 1971 things were starting to come together financially.
JW What was it like working for Phil Walden? What were the day to day ac- tivities like working out of the corpo- rate offices at Capricorn when you were not on the road? WP Well, actually, I wasn't working for Phil. I was working for the band and with him. Con- trary to a lot of things that have been said, I don't have any beef with Phil Walden. I never
knew him to take or misappropriate a nickel from the band. He was a tough businessman. He had tough contracts but they were as gen- erous as any other contracts in the music business at that time.
Phil Walden, Charlie Daniels and Jimmy Carter.
JW So you have to gauge it off of what was standard fare in those days? WP Yeah. I mean, he fought for top dollar. The Allman Brothers always got top dollar. From the time frame of the Fillmore album and on he got those guys top dollar. They were the best-paid band in the business. Even bands with bigger names and higher profiles back then didn't make as much as the Allman Brothers. And of course the Allman Brothers never paid a nickel for studio time down at Capricorn studios. Sometimes I don't think they remember that, because the place was basically open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred sixty-five days a year. They could use the studio literally any time they wanted to, and that was part of their contract with Capricorn. They used liter- ally hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of studio time back then and were never charged for it.
JW Now, was the band recording at what today is called Phoenix Studios in Downtown Macon? WP Yeah. It is located on Broadway. It's now called Phoenix Sound Recording and was back then the original Capricorn studios. It's
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