neral? WP It's another one of those things where you remember being there and everything that happened, but then again you think, “did that really happen?” Was I really there? It was al- most dreamlike. I can remember one of my jobs was to help people who needed to see Duane before the burial. There was an open casket for the family members. After I had done that several times it was just starting to get crazed. But there was never any doubt that the band would go on. And of course that music during the funeral was just amazing to the people who were there. The eulogy and everything was just incredible. It was like everything else about the band. It was just larger that life.


JW It's been said that Duane's death was like an amputation. That the band members had identified with Duane so strongly as their leader and then after his tragic death that all changed. Then, after Duane was gone the band became more family focused with a communal spirit in order to cope with the loss and go on. Hence the name for their subse- quent Album Brothers and Sisters. What is your opinion on this? WP Again, without being really trite about this family thing. It was like, hey, there has been a death in the family but the family will go on. There was never really that much doubt about whether the band was going to continue playing. I can remember the first gig they played without Duane. It was at a college in Greenvale, New York on Long Island, I be- lieve. I'm not sure if it was CW Post? Man, just to see them go out on that stage without Duane there was just really strange. None of us really got over Duane dying. Berry and Gregg in particular probably took it the hard- est. Dickey took it pretty hard as well, but did- n't show it as much.


34 Berry Oakley.


JW You see pictures that were taken of Berry from the period after Duane's death and he just looks like he is in a fog. WP Yeah . Berry just figuratively died then too. He just walked around for another year. It took a lot out of him.


JW Where were you when Berry died and how did you hear about it? WP When Berry died, I was in my house in Macon. I was listening to a football game be- tween Georgia Tech and Duke University. It seems like when amazing events happen in your life you can usually remember where you were or what you were doing. I remember getting a call from Kim Payne that Berry had the accident. I drove down to the hospital and hadn't really been told how serious it was. When I walked in I was kind of smiling and jocular and said, “gee what's Berry done now.” I can remember Kim Payne said to me "hey man, this is really bad he may not gonna be making it" And then, sure enough, there was that same thing we had already been


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