Guest Book

I check in here occasionally just to see what's going on. Mr. Campbell seems to have little else to do these days but spend his time posting here and I am a little tired of what should be the ABB web site becoming his personal sounding board. Far too much of what he posts and everyone just accepts as gospel is simply not true. After a few rounds of he said/she said crap I swore I would never post here again but Mr. Campbell has crossed the line and I will respond. First: yes I did build and lose a major recording studio in Tallahassee. Let me start by saying at least I did something other than sit on my ass waiting for things to happen. What was left out of that story is how it happened. I was approached by the dean of the School of Music at Florida State University and asked to build that studio. He told me that he was losing some of his best faculty and students to places like The University of Miami because FSU was unable to record them and many had recording contracts. Since the brothers were not playing and I had nothing else going on I decided to take this project on. I was promised by everyone all the way to the president of FSU that I would get a minimum of revenue from FSU once the studio was built. I worked my ass off for over five years raising the funds through a combination of private (limited partnership), public (a community development block grant) and borrowed (through the SBA, with my home as collateral). I did get that studio up and it remains one of the best studios ever built. I still am proud of that accomplishment which I guarantee none of my brothers could have pulled off. Big problem was that FSU had given me "letters of intent" not contracts for their usage. When I opened the doors it was 1986, the last time the economy tanked. So here I was with everything I owned on the line and dead in the water. The State of Florida cut all funding for any new programs. Without the income from FSU there was no way I could make it. I tried for over two years knowing it was futile. Finally in 1989 we reformed the ABB. I paid off all of the personal debts I owed and walked away from my house and declared personal bankruptcy against the SBA. That studio is now owned by FSU. They wound up buying it for about $.25 on a dollar for what I put into it and it is the pride of their film school (it was built with film scoring capabilities). That business failed. That's life. I had the bad luck of depending on people that didn't come through and opening the business at bad time. BUT AT LEAST I DID IT!! And I am damned proud of it. It is very easy for people that do little or nothing to sit back and criticize those that try and fail. Try doing something big yourself and then maybe you can earn the right. BTW. Moogis is doing just fine we are into our next stage and plan to have Moogis 2.0 up and going very soon. This project has always been one I am doing for the good of the music community not for the money. If and when it goes big I plan to set up a foundation to fund scholarships for deserving students. Moogis was and never will be about making me rich. Now for the reason I am posting this. Mr. Campbell says that Duane felt I wouldn't become a "part of the program." First off what does that mean? Secondly maybe he doesn't remember but Duane and I use to buy a couple of Zebco 404's and go fishing together every time we hit a place with a lake near by. We did quite a lot of talking during those fishing trips about pretty much everything. Life, books, philosophy (Daune was a very intelligent and well read man). The comment that "I wasn't part of the program" is a lie. There is no way Duane would have ever said that about me. Mr. Campbell puts himself up here as the "expert" on all things ABB. Well he was never a part of the conversations between myself and Duane Allman. We were friends on many levels and this I know beyond any doubt. One of the last conversations I had with Duane dealt with a subject that could really cause a real stink here but I wouldn't even think about betraying Duane's trust by talking about it. Red Dog, you sir, are a lying sack of *****. I would never in a million years say something like that for any other reason. But Duane is the most important person in my life and I know beyond any doubt what our relationship was. You seem have an agenda here to run me down. Why? I have no idea. I fought for you when everyone else in the band was trying to fire you. Your good bud, Dickey, went after you five years before you were laid off. Even Jaimoe tried for about two years but I stood up for you. I got you raises that Dickey tried to stop. I got you a major bonus that was unheard of in the ABB. Finally your attitude caused so much morale problems with the rest of the crew that it was either you leave or most of the crew was going to quit. Now, for some strange reason I'm the bad guy. So be it. If you need someone to blame for your problems go for it. DO NOT EVER AGAIN QUESTION THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DUANE ALLMAN AND MYSELF. No matter how much you put yourself up on this site as "being there" that is one place you never were.