Gregg Allman - Early Years

Early Years

Gregg is the younger son of Willis Turner Allman and Geraldine Alice (née Robbins). He was born in Nashville Tennessee in 1947, thirteen months after his brother Duane. His father was in the army and in 1949 the family relocated to Fort Story, Norfolk, Virginia. Shortly after, his father was murdered by a casual acquaintance whom he had offered a ride home from a bar and Geraldine 'Mama A' Allman was left to raise the boys. In order to retrain as an accountant, she sent her sons to Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon, Tennessee, which they both loathed. Eventually, in 1957, when his mother had finished her degree, the family settled in Daytona Beach, Florida, and the boys attended Seabreeze High School.

Both Gregg Allman and his brother Duane became captivated by music at a young age; Gregg Allman has revealed that he and Duane went to see Jackie Wilson, Otis Redding, Patti Labelle and B.B. King perform and that he was particularly struck by B.B.’s Hammond organ player. Gregg took an interest in the guitar before Duane did, learning the very basics from his grandmother’s neighbour in Nashville. However Duane would soon become the superior guitarist, giving up school in tenth grade to focus on it while Gregg practiced his vocals and keyboards, remained at school and finally graduated in 1965. Although he planned to become a dental surgeon, Gregg fell in with his brother’s plans that they should become musicians, intending to go to dental school after a short while; it didn’t happen.