As I’ve said before, I love that I have become the receiver of so many of your Allman Brothers Band stories. Here’s another guest post. It’s by Anthony Geraci, a keyboardist who was a founding member of Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters and who has played with a host of blues greats, including Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Otis Rush, Chuck Berry, and Big Mama Thornton. When he was just 16, he had a memorable encounter with Duane Allman and Berry Oakley backstage at an Allman Brothers Band concert in New Haven, CT, and that’s the story we share today. Thanks for reaching out Tony!
An interesting note. I tried to look up the exact date of the described ABB concert at the University of New Haven, but it is not listed in any databases. This does not mean it didn’t happen but rather points to the incomplete nature of all such lists for the era in question. If you’re still doubting, you can read Jon Tiven’s interview with Berry and Duane discussed below right here!
By Anthony Geraci - The Allman Brothers Band have been one of my favorite bands since I first heard their 1969 Atco debut, The Allman Brothers Band. There was always something special about their sound, something hard to describe-but it was there. Their unique sound was enhanced by the recording/production of Adrian Barber and later by Tom Dowd. It was a sound that was quite different then what many of us were hearing at that time. They were a long haired “blues” band playing Muddy Waters and Sonny Boy Williamson tunes and composing originals with unabashed abandonment that literally took my breath away.
I was just getting into blues, listening to what we all did at the beginning of our blues journey-Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, B.B. King, Little Walter, and especially for me, a young piano player, Otis Spann, the great keyboardist from the classic Waters band. The Allman Brothers Band were proof that the idea of a young white guy like me throwing myself into this music with an original vision was not completely insane
The first time I saw the Brothers live was at the University of New Haven (CT) the week that Idlewild South (Atco) came out, around September 1970. They just came out, no introduction, no fan fare and by the time the first song was over the crowd was speechless, stunned and excited all at the same time. Duane Allman and Dickey Betts playing their signature “twin leads” with a pair of Marshall half stacks each, Gregg Allman playing Hammond B-3 with a pair of Leslies, Berry Oakley on bass, and the dueling drumming of Butch Trucks and Jai Johnny Johnson (soon to be know as Jaimoe. who I did a record with many years ago.)
The New Haven area always had a very good track record for bands playing in the city, and I saw most of them-Cream, Blind Faith, The Doors, Traffic, Jethro Tull, Hound Dog Taylor in a Yale University dorm room and many more. But we had never heard anything like the power that was coming from the stage that night!
Jon Tiven, a friend of mine from high school, had a little underground rock magazine and somehow finagled a way to get us back stage to interview the band. I think I drove so I got to tag along.
After the concert we went backstage, up a flight of stairs to essentially a college teaching room, kind of sterile and reeking of highbrow escapades. We all sat down waiting to see who would show up. Those were the days when you could smoke a cigarette anywhere, so after a few minutes, I lit up a Kool. Just as I took a drag, in walked Duane Allman and Berry Oakley. They were both were kind of lopping along being a bit goofy-as most musicians are in these somewhat awkward, uncomfortable situations.
Duane walked right over and sat next to me. He saw I was smoking a cigarette and asked if he could have a drag. I noticed he was holding a can of Schlitz, so I said, “Sure, I’ll trade for a pull off your beer.” Done deal! We traded vices a few times and Duane kept the Kool until it burned right down to the filter, I squeezed the last drop from that old can of warm Schlitz.
People were starting to ask questions . Duane did most of the talking. After about 10 minutes I asked Duane, “How come you have two drummers in the band?” He paused a minute, looked at me with those Allman eyes and said, “It’s better then one cat flogging his ass off.” That was the last question he took. Then he patted me on the back and they were both gone in a flash like phantoms in the night.
With all the grief the Allman Brothers have gone through, they always remained true to their original blues roots throughout their 45-year career and to put on shows that people will always remember. I was fortunate to open quite a few shows for the Allman Brothers on tour when I was playing piano and organ with Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters around 1999. The band and their whole crew were wonderful to us. Gregg even let me use his Hammond B-3 and his organ tech showed me the key to Gregg’s sound. That’ll cost you though! I even got Gregg to take some echinacea because he was fighting a cold!
If anyone wants to talk with me after a gig-leave the Kools home, because I quit smoking long ago. But I’d gladly share a Schlitz if they still make it!
Brothers and Sisters: the Allman Brothers Band and The Album That Defined The 70s was my third straight book to debut in the New York Times Non-Fiction Hardcover Bestsellers List, following Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan and One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band. My first book was Big in China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family, Playing the Blues and Becoming a Star in Beijing, about my experiences raising a family in Beijing and touring China with a popular original blues band. It was optioned for a movie by Ivan Reitman’s Montecito Productions. I am also a guitarist and singer who fronts two bands, Big in China and Friends of the Brothers, the premier celebration of the Allman Brothers Band.
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