Gregg Allman, Southern Rock Legend, Dies At 69

SAVANNAH, GA — Gregg Allman, a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band and pioneer of Southern Rock, has died. He was 69. A statement posted to Allman's website confirmed the famed singer's death. Allman passed away peacefully at his home in Savannah, Georgia.

Specifics regarding Allman's death were not available, however, the singer was diagnosed with Hepatitis C in 1999 and underwent a liver transplant in 2010, according to Billboard.

Allman founded the Allman Brothers along with his older brother Duane, who played guitar for the band. After Duane passed away in 1971 in a motorcycle crash, Gregg remained the sole namesake on the band. The two brothers became absorbed in their music from an early age, and signed as the Allman Brothers with a Georgia-based record company in 1969.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Allman was the son of an Army captain who was shot to death. The two brothers, along with their mother, then relocated to Florida.

Immediately, tributes began pouring in for the man who helped create the genre of Southern Rock.

The Allman Brothers Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. Fans loved them for their lengthy, improvisational concerts. “Ramblin’ Man” was band's only Top 10 single, but many of the band's songs are considered classics, including "Midnight Rider," "Melissa," and "Whipping Post."

The band's Hall of Fame bio notes how early success was followed by tragedy:

The group’s first two studio albums - The Allman Brothers Band (1969) and Idlewild South (1970) - contained classic songs like “Dreams,” “Whipping Post,” “Midnight Rider” and “Revival.” Both were hard-hitting announcements of the Southern-rock sound. However, it was in concert that the band burned brightest. Led by Duane Allman’s searing guitar, the Allman Brothers Band’s live shows left devoted fans in their wake. The March 1971 concerts recorded for At Fillmore East in New York caught them at their peak. Sadly, the Allman Brothers Band was dealt a catastrophic blow when Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle crash in Macon, Georgia, on October 29, 1971. A year later, on November 11, 1972, bassist Berry Oakley died under eerily similar circumstances only a few blocks from where Duane’s accident had occurred.

Photo by Carl Lender via Flickr Creative Commons