basically the same room and with the excep- tion of the mixing board. It is set up very sim- ilar to what it was thirty years ago.
JW Now, both you and Scooter Herring worked out of Capricorn's corporate offices? WP Yeah. I maintained an office at the Capri- corn Corporate offices on Cotton Ave until the band rented separate offices. I also worked over there with Bunky Odom. When the band was off the road I would do my phone calls and office work there. For a while Phil Waldens' booking agency was also located there. Eventually they bought the building next door, and after it was restored, moved in.
JW Now, the H & H is just down the street right? WP Yeah. I believe the original H & H was in an old filling station that's since been torn down. The current H & H is the only one I've ever known. It's been there since 1970. Now when the Allman Brothers first got to town in 1969 they went to the original H & H located across the street from the present location. The famous picture of the band taken at the counter eating was taken at the original H & H, I believe.
JW As I understand it, Phil Walden bought Duane's contract from Jerry Wexler at Atlantic which ultimately be- came the contract for the Allman Brothers Band. How were record con- tracts negotiated back then? Did Phil Walden pretty much have autonomy on the execution of contracts at Capri- corn? WP Well, those contracts were negotiated be- fore I came on board. Record contracts back then were pretty much standardized. The roy- alty rates were lower than they are today. Ba- sically you negotiated a deal and an attorney drew up the contract and then the band would sign it. Again, going back and looking
at the original band contracts, they were pretty much standard as to what was consis- tent with the industry in those days. The brothers renegotiated after Duane's death. There have been some misconceptions about the renegotiated contract. Again like I said before, I don't have any beef with Phil Walden. I guess that if some of the band members still do it's just an unfortunate situ- ation. Reasonable people can disagree about the same thing and I guess that's just what's going on there. To me it's just tragic that the band is not on good terms with Phil because I know he still cares about them. Their greatest success was under his management, but at any rate maybe the well has been poisoned.
JW Describe the road crew you worked with from 1970 to 1976. WP When I first came to work there was Red Dog, Kim Payne, and Mike Callahan. Very soon thereafter, Joe Dan Petty was hired in the summer of 1970. Red Dog was responsi- ble for the drums, Joe Dan did Dickeys gui- tars, Kim Payne worked closely with Gregg, and Mike Callahan did the sound.
JW Who was responsible for Duane's guitars? WP I guess Joe Dan, and Kim Payne and of course Red Dog. At first everybody kind of jointly was responsible for taking care of Duane's guitars. I never did any technical stuff on the stage. But originally everybody was driving and doing stage work for the shows and as it evolved later people did end up with more specific jobs as far as I can re- call.
JW What was it like being on the road for the really extended tours? Also can you tell us what the key ingredient was to pulling things together and making it happen under what had to be at times trying conditions in terms of
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