Gregg Allman

The Road Home

The man who knows more than anybody outside Gregg Allman’s family about his final years is his manager and close friend Michael Lehman. Pete met him in London to talk about the great musician’s final years…

Welcome to London, Michael. I never got to meet Gregg. I have spent time with Warren Haynes, Chuck Leavell, Devon Allman and others..but in his later years you were his close friend, guiding Gregg’s career…

Gregg passed away May 27th last year, Pete and speaking about him helps..a little

I have been talking about Gregg to Bernie Marsden, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Warren Haynes face to face since then and the respect is striking…can you remember when you fist saw The Allman Brothers playing live?

So I came to them a little later than I wish now I had. I probably heard them for the first time..late Seventies, I think. There was a point in time when I was seeing and experiencing a tremendous amount of music. Of course it was after Duane and Berry had passed.

Post Dickey Betts era?

Yes, exactly. And then I got to represent Gregg for the last fourteen years of his life.

Probably saw in excess of 250 Allman Brothers shows. Plus three or four hundred of Gregg’s solo shows, in his name.

Bernie showed me with great pride an Allmans’ Beacon Theater show poster, signed by various members. From when he sat in with them. It’s in his living room

I remember that very well…such a gentleman. Quite apart from his musicianship

He said “ These people, they give, give, give…”

Yep – now at the Beacon, the Brothers would typically play for three or three and a half hours..that would be the show. And most shows were different, if we would play say fifteen shows then,,,I know they hold the record for most shows at The Beacon, over the years ..almost every night it would be a different set. So if the March run was ten nights or fifteen nights y’know there would be very little duplication of songs.

Plus the style in which they played a particular song would undoubtedly be different from the last time it was included in the setlist.

One of the reasons I love Jefferson Starship, they always change things and take chances, so it can never get stale..and even more Zappa. He might not include your favourites, so to speak – but it was always so entertaining. What’s your musical background? Have you ever been a musician?

A really poor one. I just studied piano and guitar as a child and then picked it up again in my thirties. I have a way better ear than technical musical skills, I think.

Where are you from?

New Jersey.

Bruce, Southside Johnny…

Yes, exactly! And I actually got into music and one of my childhood friends was a kid called Ricky Kirshner, who’s father was Don Kirshner

Rock’n’Roll Hall Of Fame?

Precisely, that Mr Kirshner! With the Rock Concert and In Concert. So that was my introduction to the music scene, as it was in those days. I’m fourteen, fifteen and hearing a ton of music. Seeing tapings of shows..some incredible memorable shows. Seeing Journey, Kansas. Yes, The Who

Vanilla Fudge?

Of course! So many concerts..then I went to college and had a burning desire to somehow get into the business, so I was on the radio station, got on to the concert committee…and someone said at the end of my first year did I want to run the concert committee. No election or anything and I said I would love to. And I never gave it up, so that was really my education for three years – promoting about twenty shows a year. Plus the radio station, interning at MCA Records, part of Universal Music

So that gives you a fabulous seat in the hall, for Art Meeting Commerce, the eternal dilemma for creatives v. business.

Absolutely! I promoted U2 on their first tour Stateside..I have that original contract in my possession at home. So many others – The Pretenders, Pat Metheny…

What about the New York acts? Television, Blondie?

Blondie came through. The Grateful Dead, a bunch of jazz artists, The Kinks – so really a cross-section of what was happening at that time. My favourite bands were The Who, Stones and Zeppelin, that’s what I grew up on.

How exactly did you get to meet Gregg Allman?

Well I was doing work..actually with Roger Daltrey. And Roger, his business accounts in New York that were handling work for The Who and also the members’ solo careers, they also represented The Allman Brothers…

And maybe Leslie West…

I worked with Leslie for some years!

He’s on the ‘lost’ version of Who’s Next, done at The Record Plant..told me where to find it..

I didn’t know about that. He just celebrated his birthday and I spoke to him a week ago..

He’s SO New York

(Laughs) Leslie Weinstein! I got a call from the accountant saying Gregg was looking for a new manager. He’d interviewed four or five people, did I want maybe to speak with him? I said I would love to be in the mix. Within a week or two, Gregg came through New York and this was with his solo band at that time and we met and spent about two hours together and he said to come down to the gig that night. So of course I went along as I was planning to go anyway! And before the show even, he said ‘You know what? I really connected with you. Would you be interested in helping me guide my career? ‘ My deal is I never sign papers with anyone. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t we all go our separate ways.

He did need some steering…

He did need some steering, yes..and Gregg in his autobiography he says to me that he always thought the word ‘manager’ meant ‘thief’ and never realised that it could be someone who would help guide a career and be trusted ! Really, it was my pleasure, because in the past he had been misunderstood. He had a drug and alcohol issue for so many years and I suppose I got him at a really nice time, when he was in a place where he was very clean and not drinking and just like warm, kind person. This incredible musician with the soulful voice had been misunderstood and mistreated. All I needed to do in all honesty as take a little polishing cloth and polish what in reality was already there..

He had been for a while anyway, his own worst enemy, in some respects…and in some relationships. But as I know well, whatever heavy blows you receive from circumstance and other people, with luck you can still sing, play, create…no outside force or ex can take that off you…

A quick digression! When I got him, he was also in a very stable marriage with his sixth wife and then had a stable relationship with what/who became his seventh wife towards the end of his days. But you’re absolutely right what kept him anchored was his talent. And playing music for his fans. That also connected him to his brother throughout his life. There wasn’t a day he did not think about his late brother Duane. Whenever we were together, he would always talk about his brother.

Funny you say that…on his solo albums like Laid Back, you can kind of sense the presence of Duane, somehow. I was a big fan of Duane and I thought his best work was adding to other artists’ tracks – John Hammond (Southern Fried), Johnny Jenkins, Boz Scaggs…the greatest musicians can back others well.

He was so tasteful and Gregg spoke about his playing the way you do, full of admiration. It was never how many notes you could fit in, it was about leaving air and letting the song breathe. And never step on anyone. That’s why he was always off to the side of the stage. Gregg never felt he should try to own that stage when colleagues were with him. He just wanted to lay back and put the song over beautifully. For the last record Sothern Blood, Gregg went back to where it all began to Fame Studios down in Muscle Shoals. This was where Gregg and his brother recorded some demo tracks.

That must have brought back so many memories…

Oh, incredible! For Southern Blood, which would turn out to be his final record, Gregg said to me he had two specific things to attain with this project – one, I want to make this album at the studio where my brother and I first started our journey together and they have all the old analogue boards there…and secondly to use his solo band on the sessions. He had honed that crew to the exact place he wanted it to sound and respond to the material. Now his prior solo record Low Country Blues cut with T Bone Burnett producing in LA had turned out well and all

Sounded more ‘city’ to me

It did. And Gregg was upset, so he wanted to use his own band for the next one. So this one is truly 100% Gregg, his heart and soul are in it. And he knew where he was in his life’s journey. Only his best friend and I really knew just how close Gregg was getting to the end of his life..so he recorded this around March in 2016.

The Friends record with all the guests….you can tell that everyone has come along to contribute and not grab some glory out of the venture

When I planned that concert, I didn’t really know for sure whether Gregg would be alive or not, such was the medical diagnosis, at that point. He decided to refuse all treatment, He wanted to enjoy life. He was lucky he got five years more. About two years into it, we decided to do this show. Everyone signed on. The only one not available was Jackson Browne. He cancelled his vacation plans and came to Atlanta where we recorded that night. Those two went way back, as friends. At both rehearsals, the two had tears rolling down their eyes. Teenage pals..and they both knew what was happening. That was a great record.

Willing…Out Of Left Field..these were songs probably overdue for recording by Gregg, wouldn’t you say?

Definitely. These were songs that Gregg picked with Don Was. Overdue yes but also songs that were particularly poignant. Because they told Gregg’s life story. There’s two original tracks on it. there would be very little duplication of songs in one way or another. That’s the link. Song For Adam – well Gregg listened to and loved that song for years and years. Great song and very meaningful. We put Southern Blood down for a little bit and intended to come back to it after our Summer tour. Then Gregg became very sick and took his final turn. Late 2016 and early 2017 I was encouraging Gregg to listen back to the recordings. March of 2017 came and I knew Gregg was getting close to the end. So I flew out to LA and met Don Was. That was the first time Don really knew how sick Gregg was.

I met Don Was once and spoke to him at length. He can hear stuff going on in a record that others cannot. Then enhance or omit them.

Exactly. You’re so right. We put up those tracks on the board at Capitol Records and we listened for about two hours, via big speakers. Then smaller speakers. And we both wept when we walked out of there. And Don said “Everything is here. “

It does draw together all these threads

It does.

Like an aural tombstone

Yes it does. I agree with you. I didn’t quite realise it at the time.

Pete Sargeant