Here’s the second most asked question: Why didn’t the ABB play Georgia during the 40th anniversary tour?

Wow, we took a lot of heat for that. The truth is that our booking agent made that decision and we didn’t even realize it right away. We toured with Widespread Panic last summer and apparently we were offered two nights in Charlotte, so we ended up doing that instead of Georgia. Sometimes that’s how these things go and it wasn’t until we were into the tour that we realized, “What happened to Georgia?” So one thing we said to Bert, our manager, is that even though we’re not going to do as many dates as we did in the past few years, we have to play Georgia. So that’s what we’re going to do next month.

A number of people also asked a variation of this one: “The Allman Brothers have said they will scale back on touring this year? Is this scale back permanent or just for the year? Do you plan to tour at all this summer?”

The summer details are all being worked out. What happened is that last year for the 40th anniversary we ended up being quite busy and so we promised Warren and Derek that this year we would scale things back quite a bit. Derek has a young family and a new band he’s putting together with Susan, that’s also going to feature Oteil and Kofi. They’ve been writing new material in Florida, getting all that ready.

So while I expect that next year we’ll ramp it up again, this year we won’t be doing that much. Maybe in August or September we’ll go out for a couple weeks at a time but all that’s still being determined.

“Butch, In the late 70’s, you had a band called Trucks that featured Jim Graves. It was a fantastic combo and I only missed one set from one night of your many performances in Atlanta. The music was fresh and energetic. I thought it was better than what Sea Level was doing at the time. Will we ever see any music made available to the hardcore fans from Trucks, either commercially as an archival release or as a download on the bit torrent sites?” Neil B.

Wow. Now that was a good band. I haven’t thought about that for a while. I do remember that we went into the studio at one point but I’m not quite sure what happened to that. I’ll have to get back to you.

What about BHLT [An early 80’s group that also included Dickey Betts, Jimmy Hall and Chuck Leavell, the B,H and L]?

We called that the sandwich band. We had everything except a good name. Yeah, that was a fine group as well. I know we did a television show that is out there and circulates but beyond that I’m really not sure.

Dickey Betts was in that band so clearly whatever issues you have with him today, you can separate those from the music you made together. So I guess it’s fair to say that any rancor doesn’t color your memories of the music you made together, particularly early on?

So much happened during that during those first two and a half years. I’m still amazed when I look back at that period how short it all was. It felt so much longer at the time and looking back even more so. That era was incredibly special and always will be special to me.

What happened later is we all had some problems and there were some clashes and after a while we all said enough is enough. Dickey had just become this dark storm on the stage. And frankly sometimes there are people you just don’t get along with and as for Dickey Betts, I’ve heard he’s retired and I wish him the best, I really do, but what’s done is done, the past is the past.

I’m just ecstatic about what we’re doing now, though. Last night the first set was supposed to last about an hour but once we were out there and everything was flowing and firing, it ended up being an hour and a half. And that’s about all that needs to be said. It’s a real good sign about everyone’s energy and commitment.

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