My Cross to Bear
Gregg Allman
Language: English
Pages: 400
ISBN: 0062112058
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
For the first time, rock music icon Gregg Allman, one of the founding members of The Allman Brothers Band, tells the full story of his life and career in My Cross to Bear. No subject is taboo, as one of the true giants of rock ’n’ roll opens up about his Georgia youth, his long struggle with substance abuse, his string of bad marriages (including his brief union with superstar Cher), the tragic death of brother Duane Allman, and life on the road in one of rock’s most legendary bands.
I lived during this time. The Allman Brothers never felt like we fit in musically in San Francisco, but I have a lot of real close friends out there, so it seemed like a good spot for a bit. I liked living out there; it’s just that there were too damn many people. You got a freeway with six lanes on each side. If I wanted to ride my bike, I had to load it up on a trailer. Everything’s either uphill or down. I had to load that heavy piece of iron up on the trailer and back it down a long
probably still am, the least accomplished musician in the band. By accomplished, I mean as far as theory goes, and scoring and reading music—I do none of those. The other guys in the band know more than I do about that stuff, but most of them don’t know shit about singing. They’re better on their instruments than I am on the Hammond, but only if you don’t count my voice as an instrument. Although I worshipped Jimmy Smith, God rest him, the way I play organ is much closer to Booker T. His style
surgeon. My brother also tried to get something out of it. He read a lot, and I should have followed his example. When he died, he was reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the fifth time. He was crazy about J. R. R. Tolkien. He also was a big Kurt Vonnegut fan. That came later on in his life, but his love of reading started at Castle Heights, because it took you away from what was going on around you. My biggest cross to bear, my biggest worry, during the first part of my life was school,
were staying right across the street from the hospital where Duane and I were born. We had a day off, and my brother was out looking to score some doojee. He didn’t find any, but he did find a guy who had some Tuinals and he took one. Then here comes a dude, and he’s got a ball of opium with him that’s about the size of a baseball. Tuinals and a narcotic do not mix; that’s what killed Allen Woody and many, many others. It almost got me a couple of times, until I got wise to it. As soon as the
has to be. But we weren’t out there to sell southern rock, we were out there because we had the best goddamn band in the land. The Allman Brothers Band has had its bad nights, but we are some Super Bowl motherfuckers compared to all them other bands. In the summer of ’72, we started rehearsals for what would become Brothers and Sisters. Early on in those sessions, I brought in a song I had written the beginnings of called “Queen of Hearts.” It took me a year and a half to finish it, and it’s one