Gregg Allman had a way with words
Quotes on fame, addiction, living a colorful life
Almost every quote was memorable when delivered in Gregg Allman’s Southern-inflected halfchuckle. The best lines from his interviews with USA TODAY:
ON THE ALLMAN BROTHERS’ WORST MOMENTS ON STAGE “We opened for a diving horse once at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City. You paid one admission at the front of the pier and you could see all the attractions. The Partridge Family was in one of the theaters. The very last one was us, the hippie freaks. All these farmers came by in John Deere hats, saying, ‘Lookit them boys, Ma!’ ” (1989)
ON FIGHTING BACK FROM SUBSTANCE ABUSE “One thing I learned is no matter how many times I tried to make it work, I couldn’t perform under the influence of any substance. My roughest one was alcohol. It’s such a trap. I don’t know how many times I fell back.” (1989)
ON SURVIVING FRICTION, FREQUENT BREAKUPS AND THE LOSS OF DUANE ALLMAN AND BERRY OAKLEY “It was a big blow, one right after the other. I’m amazed we all pulled out of it, and that we went on. The music and the brotherhood was all we had, so we went on just to keep from going crazy.” (1989)
ON UNDERGOING A LIVER TRANSPLANT AFTER A BATTLE WITH HEPATITIS C “It’s the roughest thing I’ve ever been through. I’ve been in military school, through six divorces (laughs). This is worse than all that.” (2011)
ON WORKING WITH T BONE BURNETT ON SOLO ALBUM ‘LOW COUNTRY BLUES’ “I swear to God, I had never heard of him. Has it ever struck you that the East Coast (Allman lives in Georgia) and West Coast (Burnett is based in L.A.) are shamefully divided?” (2011)
ON HOW RECOVERING FROM A TRANSPLANT IS LIKE KICKING ADDICTION “Not as time-consuming, but as rough. I just kept saying and praying, ‘This, too, will pass.’ ” (2011)
ON LAYING IT ALL OUT IN HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY, ‘MY CROSS TO BEAR’ “I threw down. My life don’t need no coloring up.” (2012)
ON THEIR EPIC CONCERTS, CAPTURED ON 1971 LIVE ALBUM ‘AT FILLMORE EAST’ “We’d play for six hours sometimes, start late and end with someone opening the doors and the morning sun shooting into your eyes. Uncle Bill (Graham, the late promoter and owner of the Fillmore East and West) would just say, ‘Hey, go for it, guys.’ And we did.”