BOOKS MIDNIGHT RIDER


AN INTERVIEW WITH THE FIRST AUTHOR TO WRITE A BOOK ON THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND, SCOTT FREEMAN


by Max Arrigo Christmas 1995, a friend, a lone trav-


eler from the southern hemisphere returning from New York to Italy brought home with her a copy of Midnight Riders, the official bi- ography of the Allman Brothers Band, a book that in the pre-Amazon era was really hard to find in Italy. After 25 years, thanks to social media, during an untiring promotion of my new album, I came across the Facebook pro- file of the writer. "Excuse me, but are you that Scott Freeman?” “Yes.” From there arose an epistolary relationship with exchanges of videos and stories. "What about doin' an in- terview with me ? " “All right!”


Mr. Freeman, I've had the chance to see your videos and I know that you are an excellent guitarist. My first question is, do you see yourself first and fore- most as a musician or as a journalist and writer? I mean, was your child- hood dream be a musician or a writer? Thank you, Max. I’ll accept any compliments on my guitar playing. I’m definitely first and foremost a journalist and writer. I dreamed of being a professional musician as a kid, then found my higher calling as a writer. Playing guitar, though, is my soul soother and pas- sion. I’ve spent the past two years intensely studying Duane Allman. I’ve just bought a


Scott Freeman (Photo by Ariel Wise)


jazz box and started to learn the basics of jazz guitar. That’s been fun, and a challenge. One of the cool things about being a


writer is that I’ve been able to interview and get to know many of my musical heroes, from the Allman Brothers Band to Colonel Bruce Hampton and Tinsley Ellis to Ray Charles, Woody Herman and Donald “Duck” Dunn. It’s always cool when I’m able to merge those two worlds. I remember something a musi- cian told me once: I was one of the few jour-


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