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Gregg Allman, the legendary frontman of the Allman Brothers Band, fought a decades-long battle with personal demons that nearly destroyed him.
The new documentary “Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul,” which features rare interviews with Allman, explores the highs and lows of the late Southern rock icon’s life.
During an interview with Fox News Digital, director James Keach explained that the film chronicles how Allman’s father’s murder, the death of his brother Duane and years of addiction left lasting scars that ultimately led to a hard-won redemption.
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“He revealed why he sang the blues,” Keach said.
Gregg Allman was haunted by father’s murder, brother’s death before finding redemption, according to a new documentary. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
“He revealed why he struggled with addiction and his triumphs over that addiction,” he continued. “It’s Gregg telling the story of a kid’s early childhood trauma, his dad being murdered, his losing his brother — and then you could just see the loss that this guy had in his life and the effect that the trauma had.”
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“And then you go back into his life, and you see how it affected his music,” Keach added. “It affected his playing. It affected his dysfunction with marriage. It affected his dysfunction with drugs and ultimately his ability to redeem himself — to go through the gauntlet.”
“Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul” will be released in theaters for one night only on June 17.
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The Georgia native was the son of U.S. Army Captain Willis Turner Allman and Geraldine Allman, who also shared son Duane. The day after Christmas in 1949, Willis was fatally shot in Norfolk, Virginia during an attempted robbery after giving a ride to a hitchhiker named Michael Robert “Buddy” Green, who he had befriended earlier in the day.
At the time, Allman was only two-years-old while Duane was 3. Following Willis’ murder, Geraldine raised Allman and Duane as a single mother and never remarried.
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At a young age, Allman and Duane were sent to Castle Heights Military Academy after Geraldine, who was struggling to support her sons, enrolled in college to become a certified public accountant (CPA).
Keach told Fox News Digital that Willis’ death left a void in Allman’s life that was eventually filled by Duane.
“He didn’t remember his father,” Keach said of Allman. “But the thing he did remember is the lack of having one.”
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“Because all his friends, they had dads in their life, and he didn’t have anybody to go out and play catch with him,” Keach continued. “He didn’t have any of that. He had just his mom.”
“And then when his mom went off to accounting school and sent him into military school, his brother became his de facto dad,” Keach added. “And when his brother passed, it was like he lost his father again.”
Director James Keach and Allman’s longtime manager Michael Lehman said the rocker never recovered from the loss of his brother Duane. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Keach explained that Allman idolized Duane, eventually joining a series of bands with him when the brothers were in their teens. In 1969, Allman and Duane co-founded the Allman Brothers Band, launching one of the most influential groups in Southern rock history. Duane was the band’s lead guitarist while Allman was the lead singer, keyboardist and primary songwriter.
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Based in Macon, Georgia, the group’s original lineup also featured co-lead guitarist and songwriter Dickey Betts, drummers Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson and Butch Trucks and bassist Berry Oakley.
The Allman Brothers Band’s self-titled debut album was released in 1969, but it was their seminal live album “At Fillmore East” in 1971 that catapulted the band to stardom.
Allman and Duane formed The Allman Brothers Band in 1969. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
While Duane quickly rose to become one of rock’s most acclaimed guitarists, tragedy struck. He was killed in a motorcycle accident at the age of 24 in October 1971, months after recording the Fillmore shows. Another motorcycle accident the following year claimed Oakley’s life.
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Keach told Fox News Digital that pain of once again losing his father figure had a deep impact on Allman’s music and also fueled his years of addiction.
“That trauma I think informed his music and a lot of the problems that he had in his life because he was trying to numb the feelings that he had, that loss, that abandoned feeling and that feeling of being adrift and not knowing where to turn,” Keach said.
“And a lot of people turn to drugs and alcohol thinking that this is a solution, and it’s a temporary solution to a permanent problem,” he continued. “You’re just adding another problem to the problem. But I think as Gregg got older, he started digging down into that soul, but his music revealed that pain.”
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“You can hear it in his voice, the ache in his voice,” Keach added. “So that was his way of getting it out. And I think his ultimate drug addiction was the music.”
“And that’s not a bad addiction. That’s a good one.”
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After Duane’s death, Gregg continued performing with various incarnations of the Allman Brothers Band while also launching a successful solo career that included hits like “I’m No Angel.”
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Michael Lehman, who managed Allman’s career for years and remained one of the musician’s closest confidants, co-produced “Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul” with Keach and Alex Komisaruk.
Lehman, who joined Keach for his interview with Fox News Digital, explained that the pain of Duane’s death haunted Allman for decades.
“Anytime I would see him, he would always talk about his brother, always,” Lehman said. “There wasn’t a day that went by where he wouldn’t. Where we would look at pictures together, where we’d look at a note, where we just felt his presence.”
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Allman struggled with alcohol and drug addiction for decades. (Sidney Smith)
Lehman told Fox News Digital that fans will see a more personal side of Allman in the documentary.
“Most part, people would see him maybe getting in and out of a car or walking in and out of the venue, maybe at an airport, but they never really got to, for the most part, except a very small closed circle, got to see who he was, which I got to experience,” Lehman said.
“That’s a shy, quiet, very, very smart, wounded, sensitive, special person,” he continued. “And I wanted to share that story with the world, not just the incredible singer and person that wrote so many beautiful songs, but also the inner Gregg.”
“Because I know that as the world gets to see that now, they are gonna embrace him in a whole different way,” Lehman added. “They’re going to love him differently. They’re gonna really know who he was.”
Keach and Lehman explained that for them, understanding Allman means understanding the profound impact Duane’s death had on him.
“I think Gregg loved his brother. It was pure love. He loved his brother more than he loved anybody, perhaps in his life,” Keach said.
“I think that’s really what defined who Gregg was,” Lehman said. “And obviously Duane is considered, one of the most amazing guitarists of all time and revered, but that’s who defined Gregg.”
The grief never fully left Allman and neither did the struggles that followed. According to Keach, it took one of the biggest honors of his career for the musician to finally confront the man he had become.
Allman is pictured performing at The Allman Brothers Band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
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In January 1995, the Allman Brothers Band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Allman was severely intoxicated during the ceremony. In his 2012 memoir “My Cross to Bear,” Allman shared that he later looked back on the moment as an all-time low and used the humiliation as motivation to finally embrace lasting sobriety.
“The irony of the highest point of his recognition, he’s standing on the stage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame getting inducted in the Hall of Fame, and he is at his lowest point as a man,” Keach said. “And he looks at it, and he goes, ‘That is not who I want to be. I don’t want to be that man.’ The man standing up there with a Hall of Fame trophy looks at himself and says, ‘I failed. I failed as a man and I have to stop it.'”
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In 1995, Allman permanently overcame his longstanding alcohol and drug addictions and remained sober for the rest of his life. The rocker died in 2017 at age 69 from complications of liver cancer following years of health struggles.
Allman was a father of five by the time he reached his personal turning point in 1995 and Keach said the musician’s children ultimately gave him the motivation to confront his addictions and change his life.
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“He stopped it for his kids,” Keach said. “So it’s a fantastic story of redemption.”