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The Allman Brothers Band entertained millions
with their unique mix of blues, Southern rock,

and good old-fashioned rock star drama.

Between numerous deaths, drugs galore, massive
infighting, and celebrity marriages, the story

of the Allman Brothers is so much more than
their records.

The Allman Brothers certainly weren't the
only band to do drugs and live the rock star

life to excess.

But they took their drugs-and-money lifestyle
to a level few bands can even dream of, and

if you pitched their real-life issues to a
Hollywood studio, they'd probably reject you

for being cartoonishly unrealistic.

As Gregg Allman recounted in his memoir, My
Cross to Bear, as the Allman Brothers got

more successful, they increasingly devoted
themselves full time to drugs, rock 'n' roll

craziness, and more drugs.

Cocaine in particular was huge among the group,
and they spent almost literal truckloads of

money on the white stuff.

As Allman recounted, one time they played
a 41-day tour that paid $80,000 per show.

You don't need to be a mathematician to know
that equals a whole lot of money — well

over $3 million — and yet by the time the
tour was through, the band had managed to

hold on to a meager $100,000.

That's what happens when you live a life so
excessive that, as Allman himself said, quote,

"Our roadies had roadies."

And then there was the jet they bought, because
of course they did.

The story gets even better: allegedly, when
they arrived for their first flight the crew

had spelled out "Welcome Allman Brothers"
on the bar using cocaine.

When Rolling Stone asked him just how much
he spent on his drug habit, he had this to

say:

"I spent quite a bit.

Dealers that like musicians, they'll come
and just lay anything on you.

[...] Just like the little rhyme goes: 'The
first one's free and the second one's on me.'

And the third one, you pay for."

Don't expect anyone in the Allman Brothers
Band to give a lecture on fiscal responsibility.

Few bands have dealt with more death and tragedy
than the Allman Brothers starting on October

29, 1971, when Duane Allman, Gregg's brother
and the young group's heart and soul, lost

his life at the age of 24.

Even by rock 'n' roll standards, Duane Allman
died way too young.

As reported by Rolling Stone, Allman was riding
his motorcycle down a Georgia road when he

attempted to swerve past a truck.

He lost control of the motorcycle and was
pinned beneath it, skidding at least 50 feet.

Despite several hours of surgery, Allman died
in the hospital.

He left behind a grieving brother and bandmates,
along with millions of saddened fans.

There's no telling what he would have contributed
to music had he survived, but considering

how, despite his short life, he still gave
us "Midnight Rider," it's safe to say he had

a ton of great music — and life — left
in him.

Of all the people affected by Duane Allman's
all-too-early death, nobody was more devastated

than the band's bassist, Berry Oakley.

Then, on November 11, 1972, just slightly
over a year after Allman's death, something

heartbreakingly eerie happened.

Oakley was riding his motorcycle in Macon,
Georgia.

Coincidentally or intentionally, he was only
a few blocks away from where Allman had his

fatal accident.

Like Allman, Oakley lost control of his motorcycle
and collided with another vehicle.

Later that day, after initially refusing medical
treatment, he passed away from a fractured

skull and cerebral swelling.

He, like Allman, was just 24 when he died.

As drummer Butch Trucks recalled in his blog,

"I don't think Berry really knew how to exist
in a world without Duane.

The sparkle that was Berry was simply gone."

By all accounts, it seems the only thing Berry
truly cared about since Duane's death was

being with Duane again.

Berry Oakley was buried next to him in Macon.

As the Allman Brothers grew more successful,
certain members became bona-fide celebrities

as well as musicians.

Gregg Allman took that status to its logical
extreme, entering into a high-profile celebrity

marriage that was doomed from the start and
made nobody happy.

In 1975, pop superstar Cher finalized her
incredibly messy divorce from Sonny Bono.

At the same time, she kicked off a fling with
Allman, who wrote in his memoir:

"She smelled like I would imagine a mermaid
would smell — I've never smelled it since,

and I'll never forget it."

Just a few days after Cher's divorce was finalized,
they headed off to Vegas to tie the knot.

But just nine days later, Cher filed papers
to end the marriage.

The reason?

According to Cher, she was unable to deal
with Gregg Allman's abundant drug and alcohol

use.

They got back together a month later, and
even had a child together, but Cher and Allman

simply weren't a good match for each other.

Cher reuniting with Bono for a new TV show
didn't help matters, and the two were separated

in 1977 and divorced in 1979.

Allman later admitted:

"There was no future for us because she has
that constant paranoia of [my] going back

to alcohol."

Plenty of rock acts deal with the occasional
drug bust — it comes with the territory,

after all.

But in 1976, the Allman Brothers dealt with
a bust so bad, it stopped the band dead in

its tracks for years and linked them to organized
crime.

It started with Scooter Herring, who was Gregg
Allman's personal road manager.

Part of his job description was to hook the
band up with their drugs, and unfortunately

for them, Herring was said to have gotten
his drugs as part of a drug ring run by a

notorious mobster named J.C. Hawkins.

Cocaine is always a bad idea, and getting
it through the mob is an even worse one.

The FBI didn't like it very much either, and
Herring was targeted as a drug-running middle-man.

Allman initially tried to snuff the investigation
by refusing to talk, but the feds told him

he'd go to prison for perjury.

They offered him immunity in exchange for
his testimony, and Herring apparently persuaded

Allman to take it.

Allman wasn't keen on doing it, though, telling
Rolling Stone,

"It was terrible.

I was up against the wall, I was in the corner,
backed in the corner."

The jury convicted Herring and the judge gave
him 75 years in prison, although his conviction

was overturned on appeal in 1978.

To some of the Allman Brothers Band, the testimony
was unforgivable and akin to snitching.

The band splintered briefly, and as for Allman,
he found himself under police protection after

receiving death threats.

It's a sad and often tragic fact of life:
everyone with an addiction issue eventually

faces rock bottom.

"Serious drinking.

I would have to drink…

I mean, I would drink about a quart of vodka
every day of my life.”

For Gregg Allman, that came in 1995, spread
out over an agonizing, embarrassing five days.

As Allman recounted in My Cross To Bear, the
week the Allman Brothers were inducted into

the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was a terrible
one for him.

He later described the major impact it had
on him, writing,

"... it should have been the greatest week
of my life, but instead I hit an all-time

low.

… I was out of it - mentally, emotionally
and spiritually."

He celebrated the honor by getting stone-cold
drunk for the entire week.

The band made two late-night TV appearances,
one for Conan O'Brien and the other for David

Letterman.

With the latter, he recalls looking especially
bad, and it was a miracle he even made it

through the set.

He knew it, too, later saying of the Letterman
gig, quote, "I don't even recognize the guy

singing 'Midnight Rider.'"

He didn't even make it to the rehearsal for
their Hall of Fame performance, and come the

actual induction, Allman was there physically,
but that was about it.

Still drunk as ever, he completely blanked
on his planned speech and spoke for just 14

seconds about his brother before wandering
away.

Allman was so embarrassed by his appearances
that he vowed to get his life together, and

started rehab not long afterward.

"I kicked heroin, cocaine, alcohol, cigarettes…
and that's about enough.”

It takes a lot to get fired from a hard-partying
band for partying too hard, but that appears

to be at least one reason founding member
Dickey Betts hasn't been in the Allman Brothers

since 2000.

To hear Betts tell it during a 2017 Rolling
Stone interview, he was ousted from the band

because he dared to demand an audit of the
band's money from their manager, Bert Holman.

But to hear band members like Jaimoe Johanson
tell it, they gave Betts an ultimatum because

he had simply become impossible to deal with
and continued drinking and partying as much

as he ever had, in spite of his insistence
that lifestyle was going to end.

Johanson told Rolling Stone,

"He would say, 'I need to go get myself straight,'
and that's what he would do.

This time he didn't do it.

He didn't get fired.

He quit."

That, coupled with what the band perceived
as his unbearable, bossy, take-charge attitude,

meant everything finally came to a head and
ended when Betts says he "retired".

In the past decade, the Allman Brothers have
been dealing more and more with death, for

various reasons.

The years 2011 and 2013 saw the respective
passings of drummer David "Frankie" Toler

and his brother, guitarist Dan Toler, at the
too-young ages of 59 and 65.

The Tolers weren't founding members, joining
the band during their first reunion in 1980.

The band broke up two years later, but the
Tolers remained at Gregg Allman's side, touring

with his solo act, the Gregg Allman Band.

Sadly, by 2009 Frankie's health was giving
out, and he underwent surgery to receive a

liver transplant.

On June 4, 2011, he passed away from his illness
while in hospice care.

That same year, Dan was diagnosed with ALS,
or Lou Gehrig's disease.

He succumbed to his illness in February 2013.

Even though they officially said farewell
three years earlier, 2017 was truly the end

for some tragic reasons.

The first death that year was Claude "Butch"
Trucks, a founding member, one of the band's

two original drummers, and one of the few
band members to stick around from beginning

to end.

In January of that year, according to the
Miami Herald, the 69-year-old Trucks took

his own life.

His wife, Melinda, immediately dialed 911,
telling the dispatcher she had just seen her

husband shoot himself.

Paramedics arrived, but Trucks died at the
scene shortly after.

Gregg Allman, reacted in a statement with:

"I'm heartbroken.

I've lost another brother and it hurts beyond
words.

… He was a great man and a great drummer
and I'm going to miss him forever.

Rest In Peace Brother Butch."

It wasn't long before they met again.

In 2017, more than four decades after Duane
Allman's untimely death, the 69-year-old Gregg

joined him once again.

Allman had lived a hard-partying life for
decades, and starting in 2007 his lifestyle

began to take its toll.

That year he contracted Hepatitis C, something
he blamed on a dirty tattoo needle.

He ended up needing a liver transplant, and
around the same time he also started experiencing

an irregular heartbeat that forced him to
go both vegan and gluten-free.

In 2016, he started postponing, then outright
canceling, shows and cited various reasons

for doing so.

"I just, over a period of about three years,
I realized it was just a chore to get up and

move.”

Most likely, the unspecified health problems
that were taking a toll on him was the liver

cancer that would eventually take his life.

In May of 2017, he succumbed to that cancer,
dying in his Savannah, Georgia home.

Even though his life was crazed, turbulent,
and often tragic, Allman repeatedly insisted

that he had no regrets.

Like he said in My Cross To Bear,

"When it's all said and done, I'll go to my
grave and my brother will greet me saying,

'Nice work, little brother - you did all right.'

I must have said this a million times, but
if I died today, I've had me a blast.

I wouldn't trade [my life] for nobody's, but
I don't know if I'd do it again.

If somebody offered me a second round, I think
I'd have to pass on it."

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal
thoughts, please call the National Suicide

Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).