WP Well Somebody thought it was a good package. They had a different agent than we did. The agents and Alex Hodges got that to- gether through his agency.
JW How did you get together with Alex Hodges? WP Well, he had been there at the booking agency forever which was Paragon. Sea Level did some shows with George Benson and of course they did a lot of headline shows on their own in smaller situations.
Sea Level
JW Describe the various incarnations of Sea Level. WP Well, Jaimoe, after a while, was having trouble with his back and he just got to the point where he didn't want to go out on the road anymore, so he left the band. Randall Bramblett, who had been a solo artist with some records on Polydor and had played with Gregg before joined the band. There were sev- eral incarnations of Sea Level. And then the Brothers were about to get back together and do another record on Capricorn. And of course Phil wanted Chuck, Lamar and Jaimoe to come back in. They weren't against it, but they wanted to do Sea Level. And if they had to put Sea Level aside to do the Brothers thing they just decided they didn't want to do it. So that explains the Tolers coming in for the Brothers. I can remember seeing the re- formed Allman Brothers playing at one of Capricorn's summer picnics up at Phil's lake place. It was really weird seeing that line up.
JW What major acts did Sea Level open for? WP We opened and did a lot of dates with Jefferson Starship.
JW How did you get hooked up with Jefferson Starship?
JW Have you heard that Jimmy Nalls has Parkinson's? WP I had heard that he is ill and he might have the beginning stages of that. I just re- cently heard that and was sorry to hear it. I haven't seen him in quite a while.
JW Where is Jimmy Nalls living now? WP I think he is living in Nashville. He's worked with several bands since Sea Level.
JW What year did you begin managing Gregg Allman as a solo act? WP In the fall of 1983, I got a call from Gregg and he wanted to know if I wanted to come back in and get involved. Alex Hodges was booking and managing him at the time. I said, let me come see you guys. I spoke to Alex and then drove down to Jacksonville, Florida. They were playing a club called Playground South. I walked in there and couldn't believe it that Gregg Allman was like playing a 500- seat club. The last time I had seen the Broth- ers play was in Philadelphia for 90,000 people. It was just amazing. He had no record deal and basically was just out there banging it on the club circuit. They were not working New York City or any major venues. Obvi- ously we were trying to get a record deal. I lis- tened to the demos and tapes and I thought it was great stuff. There was a lot of resistance then because southern influenced music was at its low point. It was like box office poison.
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