Gregg Allman’s GRAMMY Noms Could Provide Career First
Gregg Allman may in death do something he didn’t in life — win a GRAMMY Award.
The Allman Brothers Band co-founder, who died on May 27 of complications from liver cancer, is up for two GRAMMYs, Best Americana Album for his posthumous release Southern Blood and Best Americana Roots Song for “My Only True Friend.”
Producer Don Was tells us it was no secret during the “Southern Blood” sessions that the album would be Allman’s last, but he dealt with his impending mortality by focusing on the music:
“We had looks…We just didn’t talk about it, but we made a record about it…He was wakened. We worked with him maybe four, five hours a day and cut two songs a day and he sang live and everybody played live. If he didn’t get the vocal because he was trying to play the right chords on the organ or something like that, we’d go back immediately afterwards and he’d sing it again. That’s what you hear on the record.”
Allman has never won a GRAMMY as a solo artist, though the Allman Brothers won one for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1996 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. The GRAMMYs will be presented January 28 in New York City and broadcast live on CBS.
Gary Graff is an award-winning music journalist who not only covers music but has written books on Bob Seger, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.
