Gregg Allman – 1947-2017

Gregg Allman performed at Gulf Place in Santa Rosa Beach in 2014 and appeared on our cover.

Musicians, music journalists and music lovers reflect on the passing of the southern rock pioneer.

Lefty Collins: RIP Gregg Allman. Thank you for being a part of the group that changed my life.

Shelly Swanger: Damn. There aren’t enough words to describe how influential the Allman Brothers were and still are today. Another icon gone. I’m gonna crank up “Whipping Post” a little bit louder than usual today and run a little faster.

Andy Durand: No words can express the feelings of this day. Thank you for the kindness and inspiration you showed. It was an honor to have known you as I did, brother. You were and will always be timeless in the hearts of true blue Americans as Genuine Music Royalty—a trendsetter in all ways… Thank you for that and the few short visits we shared.

Gregg Phillippi: I was part of the original punk scene in New York City, but I still dug the original Allman Brothers.

Bob Cushing: As if playing my final gig (for now) in CIncy wasn’t going to be emotional enough, I find out right before the gig that one of my all-time musical heroes has died.

Will Pleasants: As usual, we played a party Friday night. It was my mother’s 50th high school reunion. The year was 1967. The same year, a scout from L.A. discovered a young band named the Allman Joys.

That band would later become the Allman Brothers Band.

We were asked to play acoustic music for their “meet and greet” Friday night and DJ the party Saturday night because they “wanted to hear our music for the big party.”

As it turns out, their music is our music.

It was amazing to me how much our elders influenced our taste in music. Their parents didn’t listen to their music. Hell, they didn’t even approve of it. But the Baby Boomer generation taught their kids what pure, unadulterated fun was all about. Especially where music was concerned.

Thank you, Brother Gregg Allman, for creating the music and thank you Class of ’67 for sharing it with us.

It’s because of you that I have the pleasure of making an honest living sharing your joy with others. For that I will be forever grateful.

Michael Davis: Your music shaped my life and times as a teenager, and later, college student playing in a southern rock band. We studied and played Allman Brothers music every single night.

I spent hours and hours under headphones listening to Live at Fillmore East, listening to every nuance.

I am indebted to you forever for teaching me to play the Hammond B3. Most of all, thank you for your part steering me toward a life in music.

And I’m still at it. Thanks, Gregg.