I used a '57 Les Paul on one track, 'These Walls', which features Alam Khan on sarod. I tuned it way down because the sarode is naturally in C but I tuned the guitar down to D and he came up to D. It was all a pretty simple setup.
It's funny, sometimes life just comes down to bringing a little bit of light to somebody when you can.
I have only a couple of Super 6s now, but I do have quite a few black-face Fenders around the studio. They all have slightly different character and tone, so I keep collecting them.
We got our old Neve recording console, it was owned by The Kinks for a long time.
George Alessandro in New Jersey builds these great amplifiers. He was working on my Super Reverbs for years and he's kind of a vintage Marshall specialist. He built this amp and it's kind of a cross between a Dumble and a Super Reverb but a little juiced up with a little more power.
We all notice that the nights that are the most magical are the ones where everybody is taking a deep breath and kind of relaxing into it and relying on the people around you.
A lot people hit the road trying to make some cash. We are out here trying to do something that we really believe in. That's what all of our musical heroes always did.
I remember recording with Johnny Sandlin at his place right outside Muscle Shoals and he turned me on to a lot of those musicians at an early age, like Roger Hawkins and David Hood and just a ton of great players.
The Allman Brothers Band has a long, storied history and I wouldn't count them out. It's just not in the cards for me.
But I don't pretend I earned a Lifetime Achievement Award.
When you think about your heroes, it absolutely shapes how you play and who you are.
I think the first time I was at Red Rocks was my first gig as a member of the Allman Brothers Band, June of 1999.
You hear it in the great musicians, whether it's a drummer or a horn player or a guitar player - you hear them take those breaths. You can feel that there's something they're trying to tell you.
A lot of the gear came out of some of the old studios here in New York City. We picked up a lot of old microphones, reverb tanks, tape machines, so yeah, we try to record the old way, which takes more time and energy, but it certainly feels better when you're getting to the end of the process of making a record.
I was nine when I bought my first guitar at a garage sale.
He was very sweet, but just his persona was intimidating. He was Gregg Allman. I think a lot of people had that feeling when they met him.
You can't have the Allman Brothers without Butch Trucks and Gregg Allman. Those are just irreplaceable spirits.
And you can't have an Allman Brothers gig without an Allman brother. I've heard people try to argue that you can, but I'm not buying it.
People have a tendency - you let your ego get in the way of the big moments.
But the Allman Brothers made some great studio records.
