The Allman Brothers Band

The definitive Southern rock band, the Allman Brothers Band lived through numerous breakups, battles, and tragedies to remain one of America's best-loved bands for four and a half decades. Brothers Duane (guitar) and Gregg Allman (organ, vocals), both Nashville-born, began playing together in the mid-'60s, copping a British Invasion style in the Allman Joys. This evolved into Hourglass, who made two flopped albums of psychedelic R&B.

Following their breakup in 1968, Duane began doing session work, emerging as a slide-guitar prodigy on tracks with Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin. Teaming again with Gregg, they resolved to not compromise in the next band, which would have a freer fusion of rock, blues and jazz. The initial lineup was a conventional four-piece with bassist Berry Oakley and drummer Jai Johanny Johansen (Jaimoe), but the band found a more distinctive sound by adding a second lead guitarist, Dickey Betts and a second drummer, Butch Trucks. The layered interplay would become a key to their sound.

The band's first three albums (the last recorded live at the Fillmore East) caught on fast with the tracks "Whippin' Post" "Dreams" and "Statesboro Blues" emerging as signature tunes; Duane was also invited to share guitar with Eric Clapton on Derek & the Dominos' Layla. Yet tragedy struck for the first time when Duane was killed in a motorcycle accident on October 29, 1971. Though shaken the band carried on with its next album Eat a Peachadding pianist Chuck Leavell instead of a replacement guitarist.

A second motorcycle crash took Oakley's life in November 1972 and though the music suffered, the band's popularity continued to skyrocket. "Ramblin' Man," a country song written and sung by Betts, became their only Top Ten single in 1973. Yet there were many behind-the-scenes intrigues, including Gregg's heroin addiction, his brief marriage to Cher, and a drug bust where he testified against band employee Scooter Herring. After rallying to help Jimmy Carter's campaign, the band quietly broke up in 1976.

The first reunion lasted from 1979-82 and was largely a disappointment, with the fences not yet mended and a commercialized slant to their three new albums. The second reunion in 1989 was more promising from the start: Both drummers were back (Jaimoe left during the previous reunion) and Betts brought along Warren Haynes, the co-guitarist from his solo band, who restored the trademark double leads. The band maintained a successful run for the next two and a half decades, though it wasn't always smooth: in 2000 Betts, who'd become the main songwriter and co-frontman, was thrown out after playing weak shows and squabbling with Allman.

Haynes also left and then rejoined, ultimately teamed on guitar with Derek Trucks (nephew of Butch)-who like Haynes would become a star of the jam-band movement. The multi-show stand at New York's Beacon Theater became an annual tradition, and their final show happened there on October 28, 2014. The last song the band played, Muddy Waters' "Trouble No More," had also been the first song at their first rehearsal.

As Gregg Allman returned to the road in 2015, he began favorably mentioning the long-estranged Betts onstage, raising fans' hopes for a reunion. Unfortunately, two events in 2017-Butch Trucks' suicide on January 24 and Gregg Allman's death from liver cancer on May 27-formally ended the history of the Allman Brothers Band.