When it comes to sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, few men alive know more than Gregory Lenoir Allman – and this tell-all read will have fans turning the pages with alacrity as he spills the beans. More crucially, perhaps, he analyses the complex three-way relationship between himself, brother Duane (who perished in a motorbike accident in 1971 when The Allman Brothers were on the cusp of fame) and Duane’s fellow six-stringer Dickey Betts, who attempted to take control thereafter.
Junior sibling Gregg, who seems at times to have survived behind his Hammond organ on the strength of his name – there couldn’t be an Allman Brothers without an Allman, could there? – eventually summoned the strength to eject Betts. The power struggle takes up the tail-end of this book, while a chapter is dedicated to his six (count ’em) marriages, including the union with Cher which, disappointingly, harbours fewer revelations than might have been hoped for.
Allman’s recent Grammy-nominated blues covers album shot him back into the spotlight after a liver transplant, so he’s unlikely to be relying on the royalties. Even so, and despite the presence of a named co-writer, Alan Light, this book has an authentic Southern feel running through it and can be unreservedly recommended.
