ing sax. We had been talking about the horns, and we went to London, me, him and Michael Lehman [Gregg’s manager]. I wanted to get some horns and I wanted him to hire Quiñones too. Because I was afraid and Derek [Trucks] and Susan [Tedeschi] or Warren [Haynes] were going to hire Quiñones into their solo bands. Quiñones, even though he’s just one person, is like having three other people in the band. He is totally incredible. Me and Gregg and Michael were standing in a room and somebody started talking about the horn section, and I just looked at Gregg and said “you need to have a horn sec- tion now and you need to hire Quiñones.“ He looked at Michael and said “call Quiñones.” We had stolen JJ Grey’s horn player, Dennis [Mar- ion]. Dennis played trumpet. But Dennis decided to go back to JJ Grey. It was either Jay or Art that brought Mark [Franklin] in, and when we heard Mark play, he is one hell of a horn player! All of them are really nice guys. With Gregg’s band, it was the same feeling we had in the ‘70s with the Allman Brothers, as far as the love, the brotherly love, camaraderie, good times, no problems, no arguing, that's what we had in this band.


Brennan Carley: Why didn't Gregg bring in any other guys from the Allman Broth- ers, like Oteil? Cha Middleton: Oteil was doing stuff with the Dead already. With Derek and Susan, Derek al- ready had in mind the band he’s got today. The Brothers had been talking and it was almost un- derstood the Brothers were going to break up about two years before they did. I was at the Bea- con and Derek told me what he was planning on doing. Warren Haynes had Gov’t Mule at that point. Then he put this soul band together. When they were doing “the talk” at the Beacon about 5 years ago, me and Gregg were in the dressing room and I told him “Bro, what do you think about Quiñones in your solo band?” and Gregg said “man, Quiñones ain’t gonna want to work for me.” I went upstairs to where Quiñones was and tell him “What do you think about working with Gregory?” and he said, “He don’t want me working with him.” So, the next two years, that’s what I harped on, “you need to hire


Quiñones.” Brennan Carley: What was Gregg trying to do with the band that he couldn't do with the Allman Brothers? Scott Sharrard: I'm just going to tell you what Gregg used to say to me. He felt like the Allman Brothers were his brother’s band. Every Allman Brothers gig was like carrying the flag for Duane. It wasn't Gregg ’s band. Gregg had creative dif- ferences with Butch and with some of the guys in the band in terms of how he heard music. They were still able to play amazing shows and make amazing music. It was not as harmonious off- stage as it was on stage for all of us in terms of the musical vision and that makes sense. With the Allman Brothers, in the end, you had a bunch of guys with no leader. Once Duane was gone Dickey [Betts] stepped in and Dickey and cocaine and alcohol combined with success was a powder keg. It threw them to the top of the sta- dium circuit, the top of the charts, but it de- stroyed them. I think they were always a band without a leader once Duane died. The Gregg Allman Band was his chance to do his own thing. But even though he was one of the greatest singer songwriters in history, he was not a band- leader. It takes a very special mix of ingredients. God knows I am not saying I know what the right mix is, it's a constant experiment and a de- velopment. But that’s the reason he always had a music director in his band. The great pianist Neil Larsen, who went on to be the MD for Leonard Cohen, of course, Neil had a long, great career in music and all these different areas. He had Neil, he had Danny Toler, he had Haynes, he had guys working with him, who stood by his side and made all the hard decisions; did the hiring and the firing and the arranging and the and the pampering and all the stuff that goes with it. When he asked me to take over as MD, he made it very clear to me, he said “I want to have the band that Duane and I originally talked about doing, which had horns, and it was about songs, before Duane got into all that English music!” Brennan Carley: You mean the English guys who picked up on the Chicago blues guys and brought it back? Scott Sharrard: Yeah, the psychedelic rock. Duane got into [Jimi] Hendrix and Cream and


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