always wondered why the bros didn't ask joe dan petty to fill the bass slot when berry died. he was still with the bros as a roadie. he played with dickey in the jokers and hadn't joined grinderswitch which i think was in 74.
Great question man! With Joe Dan, you certainly wouldn't think it could have been a personality deal considering the thousands of hours he spent with them. Grinderswitch was a good little band, I just don't think they ever had much support. Got to see Berry in June of '72 at old stadium downtown in Charlotte. Then saw Lamar twice. Lamar and Jaimoe were very cool together! Just like Oaks, Lamar gone way too soon.
according to Gregg's book, from what I remember, Gregg didn't know Petty played bass until he saw him in Grinderswitch
Different books have different recollections by different people about certain events
Joe Dan played part of a 1972 gig in Chicago after BO was unable to complete the set - that’s according to Scott Freeman’s book
Didn’t Joe Dan play the 1st part of their summer 1974 stadium gig in Atlanta too, when Lamar was being treated after being dosed....less sure about that tho
They auditioned some bass players in late 1972 but Jaimoe was all in for Lamar Williams and when they played a few with Lamar, Butch chimed in and said let's stop this and start rehearsing for our next shows and Gregg and Dickey didn't object so it was Lamar. And indeed Lamar was an excellent bass player. He and Jaimoe were good friends before Jaimoe was introduced to Duane Allman by Phil Walden. Joe Dan probably realised Jaimoe then Butch too were all in for Lamar getting the gig.
One thing that bothered me was when Butch Trucks said on a couple of occasions that Berry Oakley was in such bad shape over Duane no long being in the world, he was thinking of calling a band meeting to suggest they replace Oakley then suddenly he got killed. I hope the others would have not voted to do that. Not a good people move.
All I know is I just love me some Grinderswitch!
