According to a number of recent reports, including a story by ABC News, music legend Gregg Allman has passed away at the age of 69. An absolute pioneer in the southern rock genre, Allman was a founding member and singer of the popular Florida-based band The Allman Brothers, known for a plethora of bluesy hits like “Ramblin’ Man,” “Whipping Post,” and “Midnight Rider.”
On Saturday, Allmann died surrounded by loved ones at his Georgia home. “It’s a result of his reoccurrence of liver cancer that had come back five years ago,” Allman’s manager, Michael Lehman, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “He kept it very private because he wanted to continue to play music until he couldn’t.”
Having played his last concert in October of 2016, Allman cancelled several live shows for the remainder of last year and into the beginning of this year, citing “serious health issues” and a throat injury.
Recently, several fellow musicians have taken to social media to honor the fallen rocker, including Charlie Daniels and Allman’s third wife, Cher.
“Gregg Allman had a feeling for the blues very few ever have hard to believe that magnificent voice is stilled forever,” Daniels tweeted. While Cher had a much more brief, but telling message, writing “IVE TRIED.WORDS ARE IMPOSSIBLE.”
Gregg Allman had a feeling for the blues very few ever have
hard to believe that magnificent voice is stilled forever pic.twitter.com/EPfE56fqCf— Charlie Daniels (@CharlieDaniels) May 27, 2017
IVE TRIED…
WORDS ARE IMPOSSIBLE GUI GUI????
FOREVER,
CHOOCH????— Cher (@cher) May 27, 2017
In his 2012 memoir, My Cross to Bear, Allman admitted to spending far too many of his younger years dabbling in drugs and alcohol. After finally achieving sobriety in the mid-1990s at the age of 50, Allman said he felt “brand new.”
“I never believed in God until this,” Allman told The Associated Press in a 1998 interview. “I asked him to bring me out of this or let me die before all the innings have been played. Now I have started taking on some spiritualism.”
Gregg Allman will be laid to rest in Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia alongside his late brother, founding Allman Brothers Band guitarist, Duane, as per his personal wishes.
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