Chattanooga Times Free Press music reporter Casey Phillips spoke with Gregg Allman, guitarist/keyboardist and founding member of The Allman Brothers Band, about his love of motorcycles, the origins of "Whipping Post" and his next album.
CP: I read recently that you are a bit of a motorcycle junkie, particularly red Harley Davidson's. What about them appeals to you and how long have you been a fan of them?
GA: Oh God, since I was about 14. I had one of those things before I was supposed to have one. (Laughs.) I've loved motorcycles ... God, I've dug on them probably as long as I have been playing music, which would be since I was 10 years old. They held a real mystique for me, like guitars and keyboards. That particular thing I couldn't act on until, you know ... well ... they cost a lot of money.
I had my first one when me and my brother were doing the club circuits as The Allman Joy. I bought an old, used Triumph, an old TR6, the one with one carburetor. It was the middle of the winter when I bought it, man, and I'd put on everything I owned when I went out riding. (Laughs.) We were in Nashville of all places, where I was born.
As it goes now, I've got a (Harley-Davidson) Fat Boy and a new Street Glide that I've had big jugs and cams and everything put on it. I've got it up to 113 inches.
Then, I have an Arlen Ness, which is probably my favorite bike. That's an incredible machine there. It's 125 cubic inches and has 333 millimeter tire on the back. It'll just scald, man. It's so loud. (Laughs.) I love it so much.
CP: When did you get the Ness?
GA: I got it in '08. It's like a $51,000 chopper. (Arlen) has got some incredible stuff, and he's a hell of a guy, too. He's out in Dublin, Calif., about 32 miles northeast of San Francisco out in the desert.
I went out there and had a bunch of pictures after a tour, and the tour ended out on the West Coast, so I thought, "Well, hell, instead of going home. I'll take a train to go see him and see if he'll build me one." I went in there and saw all his wares, and God, they were beautiful.
He had all his painters and fabricators and welders there - the guys who make all the stuff. I met them and talked to them and showed them the pictures (of what I wanted).
Then, he took me upstairs. It was one of the big bays where they work on them and build them, and the one I bought was just sitting there. It was just gorgeous. It's white with red on it and with a bunch of copper showing through. He'll do a pinstripe, but it'll be clear, so you've got a pinstripe that's actually made of copper. It's really beautiful the way they did it.
I saw that thing, and I just went, "Whoo," because there was plenty of summer left. I said, "Well, hold off a minute, hold off on the other thing." I said, "Please tell me you're not building it for anybody." The tank was sitting beside it; they'd built it, but they hadn't assembled it yet. He said, "Nah, that one's going on the showroom floor," and I said, "No it's not. It's going home with me." (Laughs.)
We did the deal right there, and he gave it to me for $44,000. It's a lot of money to pay for a chopper, but when you think of a chopper, you think of something that's going to break down and leave you walking. It might get you to your destination, but you're not going to get back. That's the way choppers are, but I mean this thing is so well-made, as well made as a brand new Harley.
CP: You had some issues with hepatitis back in 2008. What kind of an impact did that have on you?
GA: I did the Interferon thing, and that was a bitch, man. That was six months where you get a shot on Monday, and it would just make you feel lifeless, no energy, like when your car runs out of gas. It was bad. Just getting up to go to the bathroom was a major chore.
Then, my hair started falling out, and that really got me then. (Laughs.) I had just enough to hold up a hair tie. But it didn't all fall out, and it came back really thick and healthy. You'd start feeling good about Friday night, Saturday night you'd feel almost human and then Sunday, you might go out for a walk or something like that. But then, Monday morning, here comes that damn needle again, right in the butt. (Laughs.) That went on for 25 weeks from November to May - half a year.
After it was over, they watched it and everything, and sure enough, it came back in three months. I still have it, but not near as strong.
CP: Did that have any impact on your continuing to tour?
GA: No, not really. When it comes to touring, I get this bolt of energy that comes from somewhere, I guess from the gods. I'm really doing really good right about now. We're kind of pacing ourselves this year.
Everybody (in the Allman Brothers) is going out with their respective solo bands. (Warren) Haynes has got one. I've got one. Derek (Trucks) has got his band. Jaimoe (Jai Johanny Johnson) has got a little jazz band. Oteil (Burbridge) plays with Derek.
We've kind of allotted this summer for everyone to concentrate on their respective bands.
CP: Speaking of your solo band, you're closing in on almost 40 years in your solo career. What sets your solo shows apart from those with the Allman Brothers? Do you have more freedom?
GA: You do have more freedom. There's only one head chef in the kitchen. As far as the material goes, it's just no-holds-barred. You can run anything you want to.
That's the main thing, just the freedom. Also, you've got one person running the show. That works out real good. Everybody really looks forward to playing with the Allman Brothers, and they also look forward to playing with their own solo bands.
CP: When you're fronting your own band, is there material you can play that you can't with the Allman Brothers?
GA: No, it's more like there are certain songs you have to play with the Brothers. I mean, there are a couple I have to play. There are a couple or maybe three songs I wrote for the Brothers that I have to play. With this band, I play a few Allman Brothers songs, but they're arranged different. Usually, they're arranged like I first wrote them, and that works out pretty good. Plus, I get to play a bit of guitar on this show - quite a bit of guitar, actually.
CP: One of those songs you wrote, obviously, is "Whipping Post." That's such an incredibly powerful song. How did you write a song like that? Is that one you'll perform during the solo show?
GA: Yeah, it is, actually. It's done altogether differently. I play electric guitar on that one. I don't know. There are as many ways to write songs as there are songs.
I had just come from L.A. to Jacksonville to join up with the group that became The Allman Brothers. After I got here, I was staying in this creaky old house, an old Victorian house. My brother was staying there with this girl. She had a baby, and the baby was asleep. I was way up on the top floor, and he told me, "Man, do not wake up that baby or there'll be big trouble."
So I woke up in the middle of the night, and "Whipping Post" hit me, hit me like a ton of bricks, all of it. I could see it right there, but I couldn't find a pencil. So I found an ironing board and a box of kitchen matches. I would strike one for light and strike another one and blow it out and the carbon would be my pencil. I wrote it on this ironing board cover, and boy, she gave me hell, let me tell you.
There's no telling where it is today, probably on the junk pile somewhere. In the morning, when the sun came up, I found a pencil and recopied it. I showed it to the band that afternoon, and we learned it, and it's still the same with The Brothers.
CP: You said this band gives you an opportunity to perform these songs closer to your original arrangement. Is that the case with "Whipping Post" as well?
GA: It is.
CP: How much did it change between the original version and the one the Allman Brothers play?
GA: It's got a different intro and outro and the chorus is a little different. It doesn't have the walk up of half notes. You'll see. I can't really tell you, but I can show you. (Laughs.)
CP: It's been 13 years since your last solo album, "Searching for Simplicity." Are you working on a follow up?
GA: I've got a record in the can now, and it'll be out in January. That's a very good time to release a record. This will be on disc and on all of it. A lot of people have gone back to the old turntable, and it's a much richer sound, it really is. Even I have a turntable. My mother gave it to me for Christmas, and man, it's a nice one, let me tell you.
CP: What's the album called?
GA: "Low Country Blues." I live in Savannah, Ga., and that's called the low country. They have this thing called a low country boil they do there all the time. Savannah is like a New Orleansy type of place, and they cook this thing in a huge pot. They put shrimp in there and red potatoes and short ears of corn and andouille sausage like they use in gumbo. They cook it all together for three or four hours, and then they dump it all on a big newspaper on top of a picnic table. Everybody grabs their plate and a big hunk of bread, and you just pile this stuff on your plate. Oh, it's so good, man. Whoa. (Laughs.)
CP: Is the name a reference to the styles being mixed together or that the album has been simmering a low boil in your head? Where'd it come from?
GA: Well, it's produced by T-Bone Burnett, who just did the Jakob Dylan thing. (The songs) are old, old, old - Billie Holiday old - blues songs. We just brought them up to the 21st century. Me and Warren (Haynes) wrote a couple of them. There are old Magic Sam songs on there and bunch of just old, old guys. Some of the tunes date back as far as Robert Johnson. There's no electric bass on it - it's all upright bass - so it sounds really different.
We got 15 cuts in 11 days. I've never did so many first takes in my life. The first takes scare me to death because I always think, "Could we have got that better?" Oh well.