take a break every afternoon and at least two or three times a week, I’d pack up an acoustic guitar, go over to Rosehill Cemetery -- where Duane Allman and Berry Oakley are buried, and where Dickey wrote “In Memory of Eliza- beth Reed.” I’d sit in the stillness and calm, often near their gravesites. I’d play guitar, clear my head and plot out the next few pages of the book. That kept me centered and fo- cused and in the spirit of things.
If I'm not mistaken, your first contact with the band members was in the early 1980s, a period in which synthe- sizers and dance music dominated. What did the Allmans imagine in their future? Did they think they had reached a dead end or did they hope for a new life for the band and a return to the international scene? From what they told me, at that point few of the original members thought the band had a future. By the time they broke up in 1982, they were drained of energy to keep the band going. Dickey wanted to break into the coun- try music market, Gregg was still the road warrior with his solo band and forever on the brink of landing a record deal, Butch was building a recording studio and Jaimoe was playing with local bands in Macon. There was hope that someday the musical winds might shift again and an audience for the Allman Brothers might re-emerge, but things had not ended on good terms. Jaimoe had been fired before the last break-up, and Butch was openly disdainful of Gregg. And though Dickey and Gregg lived within 20 miles of one another, they hadn’t seen each other since the break-up. No one said, “Never again,” but no one seemed optimistic they would ever play together again in a working band.
What was the most rewarding moment during the information gathering and
storytelling process? On a personal level, one moment was when I interviewed Dickey in 1984. By and by, he let me play Duane’s Dobro and then he brought out his 1957 Gibson Les Paul and not only let me play it, but very patiently taught me the intros to “Blue Sky” and “In Memory of Eliza- beth Reed.” That was one of the most breath- taking moments of my life. Another great moment was at my first
book signing. It was at a book shop in Macon and I had nightmares that no one would show up. I pulled up, saw some cars in the parking lot and hoped there might be some people in- side. I walked in and there was a line of 300 people that snaked through the entire store. And at the head of the line was Mama Louise, who co-owned the H&H Restaurant in Macon. Mama Louise had legendary status with the band; she’d fed them for free when they first came to Macon and were broke. And they later often took huge vats of her food with them when they went on the road. That was a sweet, sweet moment.
Many people believe that your biogra- phy has contributed to increasing the legend of the Allmans and to spreading "the word." Do you identify with this role? It’s easy now to forget that the band’s legacy was severely tarnished at the time of the 1989 reunion. The Allman Brothers Band was once considered the greatest band in American, and after the mid-seventies, they were not even in the conversation when it came to talk- ing about the greatest rock bands in history. Gregg had married Cher, drug abuse came into the picture and the break-ups came. After all the controversy and excess and tabloid headlines, people forgot how magical that band was at its peak when Duane Allman was alive. My intent with Midnight Riders was to tell the band’s amazing story, and also
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