Was the Spring of 1973. At my good friends house. His older brother had AFE on the stereo (RIP Michael). I had never heard anything like it. Instantly I knew I had to have more of this. No sure why I hadn't heard them before. I listened to the "underground" FM station WMMR out of Philly all of the time. Been along for the ride ever since. Saw them numerous times as ABB and the side bands. Went to Macon on a pilgrimage back in 1980. H&H, Rosehill, College Ave.

I love a lot of music. Mostly jazz and blues. But nothing works for me like the Allman Brothers Band. Being a drummer, the loss of Butch hit hard. This is worse. But now that I have had a day to reflect I just thank all members of the ABB for sharing that "sound" with all of us.

No one left to run with anymore...

...Long live the Allman Brothers Band.

eap,
Steve

[Edited on 5/28/2017 by steved]

I can remember precisely: it was a Sunday evening in early 1970. I was sitting at the dining table in the family home doing school homework and listening to a BBC Radio 1 new release album show.

They played DWYNM/ INMCTB from the debut album which really grabbed my attention and I thought it was great. Still being in school, I couldn't afford to buy the album at the time but made a mental note of the band's name.

Fast forward to a Saturday evening in October 1971. A number of buddies and I were having a drinking session at a friend's house while his parents were away! It was a "sleepover" and I must have been pretty drunk when I turned in and tuned the radio to Radio Luxembourg.

I was shocked to hear David "Kid" Jensen talking about how Duane Allman had died and he played the whole of AFE in tribute. I was blown away by the music and - since I had a job by that time - I started buying the albums, beginning with AFE.

I missed the 1974 Knebworth show as I was working abroad at the time but was at one of the 1980 Rainbow shows and again at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1991. I was in New York in 1986 to run the marathon and was lucky enough to catch the Crack Down show at MSG with CSN and Santana.

There was a time when I fell out of love with the music - from 1976 until the Dreams box-set in 1989 I lost interest but got back on board with Seven Turns.

Like steved, I also made a "pilgrimage" to Macon around 1995.

As the ABB never returned to Europe after 1991, the only solution was to go to Beacon shows and I made trips in 2000, 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2009.

I hope that we will now see some more archive releases while enough of us are still around to enjoy their great music.

[Edited on 5/28/2017 by Shavian]

1971 at some picnic with a local band, I asked the drummer what song it was that they were playing, and whose song it was, (it was You Don't Love Me), he told me I should check out the Allman Brothers. I did and was never the same after that.

I love these stories about how people get turned on to certain bands. Particularly ABB

I became fully aware of who they were when Ramblin Man and Jessica came out. I started to follow them because a couple of my friends said to check out the earlier material with Duane and they told me the peach truck story we all now know is not true, but at the time it was the story going around. Anyway I bought Beginnings and when I heard Black Hearted Woman and Midnight Rider I knew I had heard them before but didn't connect who it was with the band name. This was app 1975- 1976

After that I bought everything and dived in head first....Yesterday was the first day it really hit me that Gregg was gone....I didn't let myself come to terms with it all but with all the coverage of the funeral it really hit me yesterday.

What a great band and what a great catalog of music they left us...RIP Gregg

The start for me was the performance on Don KIrshners "Rock Concert" as I recall late Friday night on ABC TV, this was just before Barry's accident since the broadcast made a mention of Barry's passing, I liked a few bands but had no number one band till I saw this broadcast, this changed everything and there was no doubt about the direction my musical tastes would go, it was ALL ABB, and of course soon after Marshall Tucker, Wet Willie, Charlie Daniels and anyone having any connection to the Allmans sound.

It's been one week and I am only beginning to wrap my brain around the fact that Gregg has passed. Medicine for my soul is all the music from Gregg we have right now and the fantastic news we have much more coming, Southern Blood, Fillmore West! Oh my!

I grew up hearing them as a kid since my mom was a fan and had their first album on record, and I heard their music on the radio. My mom took me to my first Allmans show since I was a young teenager and could not drive and wanted to go see the concert.

When I was in highschool and starting to go to concerts like phish I met friends who were into the Allmans and went to lots of ABB shows with them through the decades.

[Edited on 6/5/2017 by The_Newt]

It was the summer of '71, I was 15. My 2 older sisters lived together in a big old house. I loved hanging out with them and listening to all the great records they had on my sister's fabulous stereo with huge speakers. There was 1 record, however, that stood out amongst the rest. ABB at Fillmore East was such a breath of fresh air, so original, like nothing I'd ever heard before. It was total ear candy!! I couldn't stop playing that record and In Memory of Elizabeth Reed was (and still is) my favorite tune of all. I saw them in concert in August of that year. The show was just as pleasing to the ear and they played every song I wanted to hear. I've been a diehard fan ever since.

The later lineups of the ABB have been good, but for my ears, there was nothing like that original 6!

I was 10 in 1979 with the ABB reunited. My older brothers indoctrinated me into some great music: Skynyrd, ARS and lots of great classic rock. The ABB reunion of 1979-1982 wasn't as big of a deal in our house as Rossington Collins Band forming and some other stuff.

Fast forward a couple years later and the ABB were broken up for my entire HS years. Skynyrd reuniting in 1987 was a big deal to me & my friends. I enjoyed Gregg's new tunes in 1987 & 1988 on the radio and I would call myself no more than a "greatest hits" Allman Bros fan who only listened to the "Legendary Hits" compilation on cassette in my buddy's car a good bit, despite being a musical fanatic.

I missed the 1989 reunion tour, but totally dug Good Clean Fun and Seven Turns when they hit 96Rock in Atlanta in June 1990. Some college buddies & I lucked into a great table for the ABB at Chastain Park July 5, 1990. I walked out a fanatic and I've never heard music the same since. It was in that no-mans land period when CDs were taking over, but I only had a turntable. One of my roommates got Seven Turns, Eat a Peach and Wipe the Windows and I gobbled it all up.

The ABB appeared on MTV Unplugged in Nov 1990 and we were glued to the TV. Shades came out the next year we loved End of the Line, Come on In My Kitchen, Nobody Knows, Get on With Your Life and Kind of Bird. This was some of the best music of a strong musical era. And then we saw them at Lakewood that next summer and began a tradition there. The two performances at the Tonight Show were a big deal, too. I grabbed every magazine that featured the brothers and bought First Set & wore it out. No One To Run With hit the airwaves in 1994 and the ABB seemed on top of the world.

I loved the albums & live recordings of the original band & the Chuck years, but the Warren-Woody lineup was "my Allman Brothers band," not some old band, but the then best rock band in the world. They were the elder statesman of the roots rockers that included Black Crowes, Panic, Allgood Music Company and a whole host of others.

65 Allman Brothers shows and 75+ total Gregg performances later, I am sad it's all over. I saw the Warren-Derek-Oteil lineup the most with all my trips to the Beacon & Wanee counted. I was also lucky to see Jack and Jimmy with the band. I was blessed to see Chuck with the ABB to do Jessica, Mountain Jam and a host of others. I saw lots of lineups of Gregg & Friends from 1995 until last year.

I last saw Gregg at Wanee 2016. He put on a strong show and it's hard to believe I won't see him perform again.

[Edited on 6/5/2017 by hotlantatim]

Heading into my high school years (77-81) I was sick of AM pop radio, I was into my classic rock albums, 8 tracks, and the album heavy FM radio. Southern Rock was emerging and when Skynyrd's plane crashed it went viral. I was initially enamored with the Allman's, The Outlaws, The Marshall Tucker Band, and Charlie Daniels Band. I laugh now remembering breaking down the bands mentioned in "The South's Gonna Do It Again".

I live in northern New Jersey and remember getting tix for the Round Up in Philadelphia's JFK Stadium in 1981. A Southern Rock Round Up that is. .38 Special, Molly Hatchet, Allman Brothers, Outlaws, & Marshall Tucker. A special day of heat, drizzling sun showers, and great F'n RnR. I remember Dickey singing Blue Sky and the clouds parted and the sun shone! The heat was brutal at times on the field. They had wooden horse sprinkler structures off to the left of the stage. We had a nice group of people around us sharing different "spices of life", Passing this and that amongst each other of the solid, liquid, and gaseous varieties. We were extended family for the day.

That show was the first of many involving the Gents. I've seen most tours solo, together, and mixed. Many joyous memories, Too many to quantify, but special memories I'll hold in my heart forever. I've always said how we've lived parallel lives that intersected at various points in time at various venues in various states.

Among the special moments were Toy Caldwell coming out @MSG 9/24/90 joining the Allman's for a couple tunes, In March of '86 at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ Gregg solo opened, followed, by Dickey solo, then both together before they took off while The Band had not yet arrived only a couple weeks after Richard Manuel's passing. I remember a nice Need Your Love So Bad with my wife to be in my arms. If it wasn't the last song it was one of them. I remember being close for them Beacon shows before they became a thing. getting within the first 5 rows was easy and didn't cost an arm and a leg. Those acoustic sets were of special times among the finest displays by any musician in any era. I remember/ I will always remember, and cherish the moments our paths have crossed these past four decades or so.

I've enjoyed all line-ups with the music being the core, but my favorite eras involved Dickey. I do appreciate each grouping and what they brought to that musical core. On the day of Gregg's passing I had a Jim Weider/Jackie Green and friends Tribute Show to Chuck Berry at the City Winery.

Tho I was going to that show I had Gregg in mind, I had that sinking realization that my long hoped for dream of a Dickey/Gregg reunion in any format unplugged or otherwise had officially passed with Gregg. I looked through my Allman piles and went to my favorite era. Those early Dickey/Warren years were so special. I'm laughing out loud remembering a great show @the Meadowlands Summerfest that had Jeff Healey opening. Warren was a couple songs late. I was 3rd Row. Healey played so loud he blew a speaker on the right side of the stage. For the first time in my concert going life I seeked out a napkin/anything to use for an ear plug. I remember Dickey standing over Jeff's right shoulder and tapping him for his lead queues. Southbound which was always a guest jammer. (That's what Toy joined with too for the above mentioned).

So anyway...... On that Chuck Berry Tribute night which happened on "That" day I had my camera and tripod for taping the City Winery show so I got goofily sentimental and jammed an ABB CD for a NYC last go around with Gregg. The CD was 50 min's long, with the top down I cranked it and drove around for it's entirety taking him past the Garden, around Manhattan in general, closing the last song just before midnight in Times Square. It was silly I'll admit, but those that heard and knew some giving thumbs up, some waving, some nodding with a somber smirk and smile.

The wind is into the camera in certain directions, but with the Mustangs top down it happens, luckily I had the CD cranked in tribute, You can hardly hear my wife singing? Heh heh.

Anyway.... This was the ABB Tribute disc ( http://abbdiscography.duaneallman.info/blsweetmelissa.htm ) and here's the city listening to it (

). This is what I will cherish.