I have so many great memories of the Allman Brothers early days. It was an incredible time.
I've written some songs that are pretty scary, but 'Jessica,' 'Ramblin' Man,' and 'Blue Sky' are happy songs. That's the way I wrote them: have-fun tunes to make you feel good.
Everything comes to an end.
I'm influenced by Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelly, Roland Kirk, John Coltrane, B.B. King, and then by bluegrass. But when I was 16, bluegrass wasn't cool. We was rock n' rollers then: Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis.
I like to play acoustic slide. I like that. I just... I can do it, you know. But it ain't my cup of tea.
I've learned to climb a tree pretty fast.
My daddy had been a fiddler, and I heard a lot of fiddle music as a child. I had a ukulele and had played along with him.
When I was a kid, my dad was in construction and used to move the family back and forth between central Florida's east and west coasts.
Human nature is you work shoulder to shoulder in a real emotional kind of setting, and there are jealousies that come up. There's resentment, and resentment turns to just outright bad things.
I don't have to do Gregg Allman songs.
In 1969, I was playing guitar in several rock bands that toured central Florida.
Some people take me as being a rowdy, honky-tonk hero type. Some people see me as a quiet person. I guess I can be either one, you know, at any moment.
I kind of question whether to say this or not, but it's almost like the Allman Brothers turned into an Allman Brothers tribute band.
Ramblin' was in my blood.
I grew up in South Florida, and my family was pretty poor. We weren't your upper-class whites by any means.
Our main thing we'd have to entertain us: All my uncles would come over, and we'd sit around the living room on a weekend night, and we'd play. That was a big event for me, getting to play. We never did have any percussion.
I had a ukulele when I was about seven. Then I started playing around with the mandolin and the banjo.
'Seven Turns' was a tough album because we knew that the critics would use it to determine whether or not we should have remained broken up.
Anytime I'm playing music or getting ready to record, Duane Allman will enter my thoughts, and so will Berry Oakley. It's part of my musical makeup and mental process when it comes to music. We learned to play together and taught each other a lot.
It's hard for people to understand that when five or six guys are together working intensely, they can really get into some duels.
