(Greg Allman and Richard Betts, the two “front men ” of the Allman Brothers Band, came off separate solo tours recently. Meanwhile, despite countless rumors, the ABB rolls on. Richard Betts declined to speak with us while he was out on the road, but Bill Douglas caught up with Gregg in Dallas, and found the singer-organist more than cordial.)

You mentioned somewhere that the next time you cut a solo album in the studio, you were going to avoid some different pitfalls that just come with that project •.. what were the problems?

Well, trying to do too much at once. When I cut the Laid Back album, I cut the whole damned thing twice ... mastered it... and threw it in the garbage can. See, I tried to engineer it and cut it. You see, I tried to produce, play, and engineer it. I did it just out of... not for money reasons or anything like that... I did it just out of interest. But it’s hard if you’re playing on the album, and writing it, and arranging it, and producing it ... it’s hard to engineer it, too. And it just got all wound up in me and, actually, I had a nervous breakdown and I was in the hospital for two weeks. I did two 60hour sessions. And, like when you’re recording . . . after you do about eight hours, that’s enough. Anything you do past then isn’t helping you at all. You keep trying to get a certain passage, a certain part, you know . . . you aren’t going to get it if you haven’t got it by then.

Weil, you played guitar before you s'witched to keyboards . •.

I played guitar for fourteen years.

Why did you switch to keyboard?

I had to or I wouldn’t have had a job. In the early days... well, when I joined the Allman Brothers, they said you gotta play ... well, he (Duane) called me and said, “Come to play.” I was in L.A. But he said, “There’s one drawback here . . . you gotta play organ.” And I said, “What?” And he said, “Yeah, man, we’re gonna buy you a big Hammond B-3”... which I had never sat behind one of them but one time. And that on6 time I sat behind it... and that one time I wrote this number, “A Cross To Bear” and I wrote “Dreams.” Well, two times I sat behind it... one on one night and one another night. And he (Duane) says, “We’ll buy you an organ” ,. , and all I ever wanted was a Hammond B-3. So, I had to do it, you know.

I’m really glad I did it.

You were out in L.A. then, after Hourglass broke up?

Yeah, I had to. I had to stay or they would have hit everybody with a lawsuit. We were $40,000 in debt. And they said, “O.K., we’ll let you all go without lawsuits, if he’ll (Gregg) stay and do some albums.” So, we lip-synched a bunch of T.V. bullshit with a 26-piece band that was about a efficient as a onelegged Indian in an ass-kicking contest. And I cut two sides... two singles after that. It was really just garbage. It was two tunes that they wanted cut. But I stayed out there for eleven months to keep the cats from getting sued. And, just as I was about to put the old gun to my head, the phone rings, man (Duane’s call). As a matter-of-fact, it was the same day in March that he called me as the day my first solo tour started.

Is there some reason that you and Richard (Betts) are going out on solo tours? Is it to find your own identities within the Allman Brothers* family?

No ... it has nothing to do with that, brother. It’s to spread out... to get a variety, you know . . . just because we’re young. Richard is going out because he saw what peace of mind and vivaciousness that variety did for me. Hell, they’re all for it. Richard saw me when I got off my first tour.. . and saw what it did for me, man, and he went out on his own.

And I’ll tell you something else ... I would not go out on a solo tour without Chuck. I’ve said that about Jaimoe. I wouldn’t go out on a tour... I wouldn’t play without Jaimoe. But, he had a bad accident. He had an automobile wreck and he hurt his shoulder. And then, of all things, man ... his dog was barking outside, or screaming, and Jaimoe thought his dog was caught in the fence. He ran out the back door ... he’s got these dogs, man, and he’s crazy about them . . . and he missed the damned step. And there was a tree that had fallen over right past the steps and he hit his mouth on the tree when he fell. So, now Jaimoe’s tooth is halfway off. his lips and face are swollen, and he

We were $40,000in debt...

So we lip-synched a bunch of TV bullshit with a

26-piece band that teas about as efficient as a one-legged Indian in an ass-kicking contest. ‡‡

knocked his bad shoulder out again. Man, I heard that.. . it’s really hurting me because he’s not here, but he’ll meet up with us soon.

There have been a lot of labels attached to the Allman Brothers* music. Have you ever labeled it?

I n'ever labeled the Allman Brothers’ music except as just Allman Brothers’ music. I don’t know... we’re doing a little country, a lot of R and B, blues . . . some stoned blues... we’ve got a different rendition of “It’s Not My Cross To Bear” that was on the Allman Brothers’ first album. That is as blues as you can get, man. And then, we do some gospel. One thing I hate is categories, man.

I couldn’t categorize the Allman Brothers’ music.

What about the future? Tastes change from time-to-time . . .

will you adapt to those changes or hold your present line?

We’re already changing and have N been for quite awhile. Richard’s writing and singing have changed us but we were changing before “Ramblin’ Man.”

We’re always in a process of change.

Could you think of any part of the country that you are better received in?

Well, I could name New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and so on. But, I think we are received very well everywhere we go. And the European crowds were great. It took awhile to get them going, they like to boogie, but once they warmed up to us,, they got off on the music.

Why did you choose the mushroom as your symbol?

The mushroom became a symbol because of a big bag of psilocybin that some cats laid on us a while back when we were really hungry. We were really grateful for those mushrooms . . . that bag lasted a couple of months ... so we decided to use it for our symbol. (The band, roadies, and business managers all have a tattoo of a mushroom on the outside of their right leg, near the knee.

Gregg pulled his pantleg up to show me the tattoo) . . . the remarkable thing is that we had them done at different times of the day (the same man did them all) . . . and we can all stand together, no matter what our heights are . . . and every tattoo is exactly in line.

You can take a tape measure and line them up. They are exactly the same.

And the guy that did them didn’t measure them.

Were you ever in the service?

No. I was drafted eight times... never went. I shot a .22 caliber bullet through

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my left foot to get out of it because I was getting ready to cut an album. It healed up and they got my ass again. I finally got out of it as the sole surviving son.

Thanks for taking time to talk to me ... it seems like a lot of people in this business get so lofty that they won't take time to talk to anybody.

A lot of people come on you like . .. yeah, man, well a, we’re going to give you a little break here ... and they’ll put you down . . . have a bunch of other people in the room so they’ll see what kind of cool line they can lay on you to make the person they are interviewing look like an asshole. You know, just trying to hurt people, man. A lot of interviewers will come on you like ... all right, I’m ready for your ass. I believe in doing anything you want to as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody. If you want to hurt yourself, do it. If you want to do things that could hurt yourself, do it. But, just don’t hurt anyone else.