“here and a “Win, Lose or Draw” there, and I’m No Angel which he wrote with Tony Colton and Phil Palmer.
[Win, Lose or Draw was written about Chank]
Scott Sharrard: If you look at Playin' Up a Storm I love like half that record. Russ Teitelman has told some stories about that record and about how Gregg just wasn't there, because he was strung out. Playing Up a Stormis an LA record. After Laid Back, every other record became an LA record. Playing Up a Stormhas great produc- tion and has a few amazing tracks. I love Russ Teitelman. I love everything he does, and the band is incredible. When he got into the 80s my favorite version of the Gregg Allman Band was when he had the Toler brothers, Danny and Frankie Toler and the great bass player David Goldflies, and Johnny Neel.
Brennan Carley: Those guys played in the Brothers as well. Scott Sharrard: Right, and that band was phe- nomenal. But he was chasing hits again, he didn't get a chance to really dig deep like he did on Laid Back. Southern Blood was his first chance to dig deep again, because he knew he was going to die. He’d received a terminal cancer diagnosis, where he was only supposed to live for perhaps several months or a year. He ended up living three more years, the borrowed last three years of his life is when we conceived and recorded this record. It took us two and a half years to write My Only True Friend. With the co-writing credits that we share, that song is the only Gregg Allman compo- sition credit on the whole Southern Blood record. Literally up to the day it was recorded with a fin- ished vocal that you hear on the record, right after he approved my final lyric change to the third verse. There's a story you can read and you're welcome to link this if you want to our in- terview [
https://bittersoutherner.com/from-the- southern-perspective/brothers-the-blues-and-the -decisive-moment-a-decade-with-gregg-allman- and-the-writing-of-a-grammy-nominated-song].
The song had two verses, and I added a third verse at the suggestion of Marc Quiñones. Q said
“Man, you try to write us a third verse.” He had scrawled some ideas out on a piece of paper, and I went back to my room, and then I started from scratch. That's the third verse that's on the record, written the night before the session where the final take was cut. It was that kind of an expe- rience, and also just the back and forth with Don Was. Before we made the record, we spent about three or four months where Gregg was working with cover songs off of some discs.
Brennan Carley: How did Gregg pick the songs? Scott Sharrard: I can actually run you through the whole thing. “My Only True Friend” was the big project Gregg and I had going for years as the first track.
The second track is “Once I Was.” I kept hearing Gregg warm up with it, and I asked him if he would record it. He was kind of not sure about recording it, but I really fought him to record that song. I'm not sure why he was so reticent about it, but once we got that tape down it was like “that's my favorite song on the record.” That's my favorite cut on the record. He was a huge fan of Tim Buckley. That track really lets the fans in to what a deep appreciator of song he was. That's really what this whole record is about. You listen to every song now as an expression of his per- sonal mortality and his love letter to the world. But there's also a big appreciation of song craft, and Gregg was a meticulous writer. That's why he wasn't as prolific later in life.
“Going, Going, Gone” is fromPlanet Waves, which has become my favorite Bob Dylan record. It was one I didn't know as well. Don Was brought that one to the table. I thought that that was a brilliant suggestion on many levels.
“Black Muddy River, “of course, came from Don Was because Gregg, as much as he was good friends with the Grateful Dead and really appreci- ated them, I don't think he was running to record any of their songs. That was just Gregg, but that song has a beautiful lyric. Robert Hunter is just an absolutely incredible lyricist. The lyrics to that song speak volumes to Gregg’s personal struggle
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
