Inside The Tragic Death Of Duane Allman

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

On October 29, Duane stopped by the band's "Big House" in Macon, Georgia to wish Linda Oakley, wife of bassist Berry Oakley, a happy birthday. Around 5:45 p.m., he left on his motorcycle. Shortly thereafter he swerved to avoid a truck. His motorcycle turned over and pinned him underneath as it skidded about 50 feet. Allman's girlfriend, Dixie Meadows, and Berry Oakley's sister, Candy, were following at a distance. When they caught up to him they called an ambulance. Allman stopped breathing twice on the way to the hospital. Despite three hours of surgery, he died of his massive internal injuries.

Over 300 people attended his funeral, at which the remaining members of the Allman Brothers Band played music, beginning with what Rolling Stone called "the familiar pattern of an introduction to a slow blues" while Gregg Allman sang, "The sky is crying, look at the tears roll down my cheeks." Eat a Peach went on to be the biggest hit of the Allman Brothers' career at that point, reaching number 4 on Billboard; it was the last album to feature Duane.

In 2011, Rolling Stone named Duane Allman the ninth best guitar player of all time. Robert Randall wrote: "Duane died young, and it's just one of those things. You could tell he was going to get 50 times better. But God works it out like that, and that's the legacy he left behind."

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