Keyboardist, singer, and songwriter Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band died a few days ago, from complications from liver cancer. He was sixty-nine.
Gregg and his older brother Duane had played in a handful of bands before forming their first successful band, the Allman Joys, in the mid-1960s. They were renamed the Hour Glass, then became the Allman Brothers Band, and their debut album appeared in 1969. Duane died in a motorcycle crash in 1971, but Gregg and the rest of the band decided to keep the band together.
Gregg was involved in several marriages and relationships in his life -- one of his wives was Cher, to whom he was married from 1975-1978 -- and had five children by five different women.
Gregg was plagued with drug and alcohol problems throughout much of his life. In 1995, when being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Gregg was drunk when he delivered his acceptance speech. Reportedly, upon seeing his speech on a later television broadcast, Gregg was so disgusted with himself that he was inspired to his final, successful attempt to swear off drugs and alcohol.
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