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Gregg Allman Biography & Facts

Gregory LeNoir Allman (December 8, 1947 – May 27, 2017) was an American musician, singer and songwriter. He was known for performing in the Allman Brothers Band. Allman grew up with an interest in rhythm and blues music, and the Allman Brothers Band fused it with rock music, jazz, and country at times. He wrote several of the band's most popular songs, including "Whipping Post", "Melissa", and "Midnight Rider". Allman also had a successful solo career, releasing seven studio albums. He was born and spent much of his childhood in Nashville, Tennessee, before relocating to Daytona Beach, Florida and then Macon, Georgia. He and his brother Duane Allman formed the Allman Brothers Band in 1969, which reached mainstream success with their 1971 live album At Fillmore East, but shortly thereafter, Duane was killed in a motorcycle crash. The band continued, and released Brothers and Sisters, which became their most successful album, in 1973. Allman began a solo career with Laid Back the same year. He gained some additional fame for his 1975 to 1978 marriage to pop star Cher. He had an unexpected late-career hit with his cover of the song "I'm No Angel" in 1987, and his seventh solo album, Low Country Blues (2011), saw the highest chart positions of his career. Throughout his life, Allman struggled with alcohol and substance use, which formed the basis of his memoir My Cross to Bear (2012). His final album, Southern Blood, was released posthumously on September 8, 2017. Allman performed with a Hammond organ and guitar, and was recognized for his soulful voice. For his work in music, Allman was referred to as a Southern rock pioneer and received numerous awards, including one Grammy Award; he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. His distinctive voice placed him 70th in the Rolling Stone list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". Early life Gregory LeNoir Allman was born on December 8, 1947, at Saint Thomas Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee to Geraldine Robbins Allman (1917–2015) and Willis Turner Allman (1918–1949). The couple had met during World War II in Raleigh, North Carolina when Allman was on leave from the U.S. Army, and were later married. Their first child, Duane Allman, was born in Nashville in 1946. On December 26, 1949, Willis offered a ride home to a hitchhiker, who shot and killed him in Norfolk, Virginia. Geraldine moved to Nashville with her two sons and never remarried. Lacking money to support her children, she enrolled in college to become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA)—state laws at the time, according to her son, required students to live on-campus. As a result, Gregg and his older brother were sent to Castle Heights Military Academy in nearby Lebanon. A young Gregg interpreted these actions as evidence of his mother's dislike for him, though he later came to understand the reality: "She was actually sacrificing everything she possibly could—she was working around the clock, getting by just by a hair, so as to not send us to an orphanage, which would have been a living hell." While his brother adapted to his surroundings with a defiant attitude, Allman felt largely depressed at the school. With little to do, he studied often and developed an interest in medicine—had he not gone into music, he hoped to become a dentist. He was rarely hazed at Castle Heights as his brother protected him, but often suffered beatings from instructors when he received poor grades. The brothers returned to Nashville upon their mother's graduation, and moved to Daytona Beach, Florida in 1959. Allman would later recall two separate events in his life that led to his interest in music. In 1960, the two brothers attended a concert in Nashville with Jackie Wilson headlining alongside Otis Redding, B.B. King, and Patti LaBelle. Allman was also exposed to music through Jimmy Banes, an intellectually disabled neighbor of his grandmother in Nashville, who introduced him to the guitar. Gregg worked as a paper boy to afford a Silvertone guitar, which he purchased at a Sears when he saved up enough funds. Like his brother, he was left-handed, but played the guitar right-handed. He and his brother often fought to play the instrument, though there was "no question that music brought" the two together. In Daytona, they joined a YMCA group called the Y Teens, their first experience performing music with others. He and Duane returned to Castle Heights in their teen years, where they formed a band, the Misfits. Despite this, he still felt "lonesome and out of place", and quit the academy. He returned to Daytona Beach and pursued music further, and the duo formed another band, the Shufflers, in 1963. He attended high school at Seabreeze High School, where he graduated in 1965. However, he grew undisciplined in his studies as his interests diverged: "Between the women and the music, school wasn't a priority anymore." Musical beginnings First bands (1960–1968) The two Allman brothers began meeting various musicians in the Daytona Beach area. They met a man named Floyd Miles, and they began to jam with his band, the Houserockers. "I would just sit there and study Floyd ... I studied how he phrased his songs, how he got the words out, and how the other guys sang along with him", Gregg would later recall. They later formed their first "real" band, the Escorts, which performed a mix of top 40 and R&B music at clubs around town. Duane, who took the lead vocal role on early demos, encouraged his younger brother to sing instead. He and Duane often spent all of their money on records, as they attempted to learn songs from them. The group performed constantly as music became their entire focus; Gregg missed his high school graduation because he was performing that evening. In his autobiography, Gregg recalls listening to Nashville R&B station WLAC at night and discovering artists such as Muddy Waters, who later became central to his musical evolution. He avoided being drafted into the Vietnam War by intentionally shooting himself in the foot. The Escorts evolved into the Allman Joys, the brothers' first successful band. After a successful summer run locally, they hit the road in fall 1965 for a series of performances throughout the Southeast; their first show outside Daytona was at the Stork Club in Mobile, Alabama, where they were booked for 22 weeks straight. Afterwards, they were booked at the Sahara Club in nearby Pensacola, Florida, for several weeks. Allman later regarded Pensacola as "a real turning point in my life", as it was where he learned how to capture audiences and about stage presence. He also received his first Vox keyboard there, and learned how to play it over the ensuing tour. By the following summer, they were able to book time at a studio in Nashville, where they recorded several songs, aided by a plethora of drugs. These recordings were later released as Early Allman in 1973, to Allman's dismay. He soon grew .... Discover the Gregg Allman popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Gregg Allman books.