Allman Brothers Band’s “Peach” Bittersweet Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts Discuss Death Of Duane Allman & Eat A Peach
Dallas, TX January 18, 2017 - North American syndicated Rock radio show and website InTheStudio: The Stories Behind History’s Greatest Rock Bands remembers The Allman Brothers Band’s first million seller album, Eat a Peach, on its 45th anniversary, a triumph marred by tragedy. The Allman Brothers Band were arguably the most influential American band in the first half of the Seventies, ushering in a generation of great Southern rock music, but not without suffering a massive personal and professional loss during the recording of 1972‘s Eat A Peach album.
Older namesake sibling Duane Allman was already a veteran studio player on hit sessions at Muscle Shoals Studio. Duane was the American slide guitarist who traded lick for lick with the great Eric Clapton as Derek & the Dominoes on the legendary Layla album. Again, it was Duane Allman who formed and led the Allman Brothers Band and behind them an entire new Southern Rock movement. But midway through the recording of what would become Eat a Peach, Duane died riding his beloved motorcycle.
Yet with almost superhuman resolve, singer / songwriter / organist Gregg Allman and the rest of the original group would not only continue, but reach even greater heights, eventually inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In this interview marking the forty-fifth anniversary of this bittersweet album, Gregg Allman and ex-guitarist Dickey Betts reveal how the music sustained the brotherhood.
“The music was always kickass from the very start. That was a real constant thing in our lives. Without the music, if the music hadn’t been the way it was, then the brotherhood wouldn’t have been the way it was, and the whole thing would have collapsed a long time ago.” - Gregg Allman
“People really appreciated watching you do a lot of improv and watching you put yourself out on a limb...and put the music back together right there on stage... We enjoyed it as much as anyone did.” - Dickey Betts
The Allman Brothers Band Eat a Peach @ 45/ InTheStudio interview program is available now to STREAM at:
