BACK TO WHERE IT ALL BEGINS Sidney Smith’s Photographic Journey with the Allman Brothers Band
by Michael Buffalo Smith
Rolling Stone, Creem, Circus, Hit Parader and more. Through all of his success, his rela- tionships with the members of the Allman Brothers band remained very special. KUDZOO caught up with the artist for an exclusive interview.
I want to just start off with telling you, I think I emailed this too, but I got to tell you honestly how much your book means to me. I appreciate that.
Sidney Smith and Chuck Leavell. One of the special events that occurred
during my book signing event at Capricorn Studios in December was meeting Sidney Smith and learning about his legacy as one of the first photographers to be allowed full ac- cess into the “inner circle” of the Allman Brothers band, way back during their very be- ginnings. Smith was a mere cub when he started his photography career, but he man- aged to document many of the original band’s most iconic photographic images. Many of those images are at long last available for the first time in his beautiful, self-published cof- fee table book. (See review, this issue.) Smith would go on to photograph
iconic artists such as Paul and Linda McCart- ney, Rod Stewart, ZZ Top, the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and more. His photos were featured in magazines that included
The Allman Brothers were my favorite band since 1971, I’m not a photogra- pher, but I’m a photo nut. Yeah. I have way too many pictures, just boxes and boxes. I’m working on doing a Southern Rock Hall of Fame and Mu- seum and meeting with some people from Macon and all about that, and I’ve got just a load of memorabilia and now I got those pictures that I got from you, and I had those professionally framed and they are beautiful. But your book, I keep going back and looking at it over and over again. I get in these chat groups online and tell people they need to order it. Yeah, I appreciate that.
Many of those photos I didn’t know ex- isted and I am 62 years old. That’s because I’ve been sitting on them for 50 years. (Laughs)
Wow, crazy. Well, first off Tell us
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