Gregg Allman's manager, Michael Lehman, and the late musician's youngest daughter, Layla, reveal how he confronted life and death at the end; "Master of None" music supervisor Zach Cowie may be new to the field, but his history in the record business, and as a DJ, prepped him well for the work.
Gregg Allman returned to Muscle Shoals for emotional final album, 'Southern Blood'
Gregg Allman passed away three months ago, in his Georgia home. But for the past two years, he'd been returning to Muscle Shoals, Alabama — where his career began — to record his final album.
The album's 10 songs include covers of Allman's favorite artists and influences, and one original track, titled "My Only True Friend." For longtime manager and close friend of Allman's, Michael Lehman, the track speaks to multiple things weighing heavy on Allman toward the end of his life:
"The song really talks about his brother, Duane, and also Gregg's life journey, where he was so close to the end, and the fact that he really did not want to be forgotten."
The singer's career spanned nearly 50 years and included 11 studio albums with The Allman Brothers, seven solo albums, a 1995 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys, and a best-selling memoir.
Throughout his tenure, according to Allman's youngest daughter, Layla, he kept pushing himself creatively — even at the end of his battle with liver cancer. "Everything he did as a musician was so sincere," she says. "He was truly a man of his craft, completely authentic. Everything that came out of him came out of his soul."
Behind each move Allman made in his career, both Lehman and Layla agree he carried the weight of his brother's sudden death in 1971. "Duane was everything to him," Layla says. "I think that influenced him as a songwriter for as long as he lived, up until this last record."
It was Layla who suggested naming the album "Southern Blood," to represent Allman's career of shedding literal and metaphorical blood on stage and through his music. Visual artist Vincent Castiglia was commissioned by the family to paint a portrait of the singer, using two vials of Allman's blood. The portrait is the focal piece of the album artwork.
We spoke with Michael Lehman and Layla Brooklyn Allman about Gregg's time in The Allman Brothers, his battle with liver cancer, and his post-mortem album.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:
On Gregg Allman's last studio album "Southern Blood":
LEHMAN: When Gregg sat down and decided that he was going to work on his "Southern Blood," we weren't actually sure it was going to be the last studio album at that time. He and his music director started sitting down and coming up with concepts. And they came up with [“My Only True Friend”], which is incredible. The song has many different meanings to different people, but knowing where Gregg was in his journey, the song really talks about — the way I interpret it — his brother Duane, Gregg's life journey and where he was so close to the end, and the fact that he wanted people to remember him long after he's gone. It's a very deep, personal song and a beautiful piece that we're leading off with on this record.
ALLMAN: Something he repeated to me often was that he called the stage "the place of no pain." And I really believe that this was his signing off and telling the world, This was my purpose, I fulfilled my life purpose. And all of his songs always have a romantic narrative to go along with it. So it's as if he's telling someone he loves what he wanted to leave behind.
On Layla Allman suggesting the title for the album "Southern Blood" to her father:
ALLMAN: He had bought this painting from a man named Vincent Castiglia in New York and he'd fallen in love with the painting before he even knew that this artist exclusively paints in human blood. I thought that would be such an incredible concept for a musician to use on a record ... When I started hearing these new sessions, I sort of had a gut instinct even though he didn't really want to share the severity of his illness with his children. I knew something was coming to an end. I thought the idea of him creating an art piece, leaving his body behind, on his last body of work, would be something kind of magical. So the idea of painting part of his album art in his blood then inspired the title.
And I think it takes on several meanings: the fact that it's literally blood on the page; the fact that he's surrendered his blood metaphorically to his fans for years; and the fact that the idea of being from the South and the music that comes from the South. That's why he always said Southern rock is redundant. "[It] should just be called rock rock," he said, because the forefathers of rock and roll were from the South and he truly is part of that.
On completing the album during his illness:
LEHMAN: Gregg was sick at the time that he recorded this record. His band, producers — no one really knew the extent of Gregg's illness. The songs that he picked reflected his life's journey from happiness to sorrow to illness to the pain and struggling that he had experienced during his life. ... Gregg at this time was really preserving his energy and he was able to put out about four or five hours a day in the studio. After he finished, he'd go back to the hotel, eat something and really not emerge again from his room for another 18 or 19 hours until he was ready to go back in the studio.
ALLMAN: He would focus on playing music, and when he wasn't he was very shy and withdrawn. He would basically go out on the road and max everything out, and then when it was time to come home, he'd be with his significant other and his dogs and he would rest. He pretty much had two speeds.
Why Allman wanted to record "Southern Blood" at the legendary Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama:
LEHMAN: Hour Glass, which was one of Gregg and Duane's early bands, had recorded some demos there. Duane had also recorded many sessions down there. It's a special studio that so many artists have been through over the years. The equipment there is all vintage, analog. The sound that comes out of that room is very, very warm. When [Gregg] decided to go in and make this record, there were two mandates that he gave me: one, that he wanted to record at Fame Studios and nowhere else; and two, that he was going to record this with [his] band and not studio musicians, as he had done in [his previous album] "Low Country Blues."
On recording the song, "Song for Adam," with Jackson Browne:
LEHMAN: Every time he came up to the end of the song, and I think he took three or four different takes, he just got choked up. The song really reminded him of his brother and and he couldn't get those last lines out. Gregg and Jackson actually spoke a couple days before Gregg passed, and they had two mixes of the song. Gregg listened to them both and picked the version that he wanted to go with.
ALLMAN: It definitely brought tears to my eyes. Even hearing it just now because he was someone who would never really show a whole lot of vulnerability. He always was very strong and always very composed and stoic. It's very special to hear such an authentic record of him, where he's kind of letting his guard down. What I really got from him — watching him record this record, watching him battle this illness — was that he did not want to leave his fans, his music, his career, and his family. And it's really a heavy moment on the record. He was truly a man of his craft ... Everything that came from him came out of his soul and that's why, when I suggested the title "Southern Blood" to him, I felt like it encompassed that it's completely [embedded] in his soul ... completely something that you could never take away from him, why he was put on this planet.
On Duane Allman's passing and how it affected Gregg:
ALLMAN: Duane was everything to him. He never stopped talking about him. And I really believe he carried it around with him for the rest of his life. His younger years were very much defined by tragedy, if you look at the story with his father [who was killed by a hitchhiker], with his brother. It was a lot of loss. A lot of his songs are about running away and I think he was haunted by what he experienced in his younger years.
LEHMAN: Everyday, Gregg would always say to me, "Michael, there's not a day that goes by where I don't think about my brother, [when] I don't talk to him, and I don't feel him." So it was a devastating and huge loss that impacted him significantly. The music that poured out of Gregg's soul certainly reflect on not only Gregg, but also Duane in a very deep way.
To hear the full interview with Michael Lehman and Layla Allman, click on the player above.
How 'Master of None's' music supervisor got one of the coolest jobs in the world
Among the new Emmy categories recognized by the Television Academy this year is music supervision — that’s the enviable job in which someone picks the songs that appear in a TV show or film.
But it’s not as glamorous as it might sound. Music supervisors also have to secure the rights to use those songs — and get 'em for a price that won’t blow out the show’s budget.
Music supervisor Zach Cowie is nominated this year for his work on the Netflix series, “Master of None.”
Cowie collaborates with show creators Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang to make sure that the music on “Master of None” hits all the right beats.
It's a job he comes to naturally. Cowie grew up hanging out in record stores and working for indie labels like SubPop and Rhino. He's a vinyl collector who also DJs on the side, which is quite common among supervisors.
When Cowie sat down with The Frame's host, John Horn, he described how he used to discover music as a kid, and how that seems to have changed a lot over the years.
Interview Highlights:
On how he discovered music as a teenager:
I am the product of a generation where music was just kind of given to you. I grew up working at record stores, and I was a young, eager, curious music lover. And that's the job of the person 15 years older than me, to look at what I'm buying and help with the next steps. I wouldn't trade that experience for the world. I think it's how I'm able to do my job today. The Internet has made that easier than ever. It's so funny to me that in an era when it's never been easier to discover, that people are just waiting around for Pandora to tell them what to do.
On the main job of a music supervisor:
My number one job is supporting a story. I'm working with producers, writers, directors, show-runners to hit these emotional marks that they've identified as needing some support. Something I like about supervision is you have to take your own ego out of it. My awesome mixtape is not going to make any sense for this particular show or movie, so my job becomes providing the information and being the quality filter.
On using the song "Computer Love" by Kraftwerk as an "on the nose" cue in season 2:
There is what I'd call a comedy cue. The on-the-noseness helps hit the joke. Let me just say that Kraftwerk is one of the most important groups ever. Anything that I can do to let some younger people know of their existence is really important to me. Aziz and Alan, we were all friends before the show started, and we have very similar taste. But they're all Kraftwerk fans, too, so that was a quick decision to get signed off on by all three of us.
On the importance of the TV Academy recognizing music supervision:
It's big and I'm new at this stuff. I had a whole other life in the record business and the first thing I did when [the nomination] came up was to thank all the people who have been doing this for a long time. I'm just indebted to all of these people. I think it's safe to say that with streaming and Showtime [and] HBO, some of the shows being made now are thought of more as films. It makes sense to me that you would take a harder look at the music in more of a film sense. A lot of the music in TV, up until this golden era, was kind of like comedy cues. But to use it as a real emotional tool is where we're at now, and it makes sense to me that it's getting the recognition.
On using the Skatman John song "Skatman" in season 2 of the series:
Oh boy. Well, let's just say to get me out of any trouble, that the whole thing was based on a real story. Like a lot of the stuff that Alan and Aziz write has happened to them in real life. We didn't want to use the artist that this actually happened with, and had to think of something that was just as funny as the real thing. That is where Alan and Aziz just shine. Anything that is hilarious musically in this is their idea. I did one really good joke in the whole season. It was in the first season, the Aphex Twin thing, "Come to Daddy" — that was me. But Skatman, Venga Boys, that's [Alan and Aziz], and those things are in the script before I even get them. I leave the comedy to the comedians.
How would you describe your relationship to vinyl?
It's my life, I would say. All the different jobs that I've done in music have been ways to be able to afford my record habit. I buy records every day, and at this point with the DJ stuff I do, I've been lucky enough to travel the world for years and years — just looking for records and meeting other collectors, learning from them. It's a little cheesy, but I have a whole wall of records at my house and I'll just sit there sometimes and look at the wall and recognize that most of the friends in my life, the places I've gone, the jobs that I've done, have all been because of these things. It means a lot to me.
On how he knows when he's doing his job well as a music supervisor:
The streaming world really puts you to the test. We work on this thing every day for a year and overnight everybody's going to see this thing that took us a year, and many of them will finish it in one to two days and have this grand opinion on it. That is so scary. There's nothing crazier than an iPhone during the weekend your Netflix show comes out. You hear from every single person you've ever known, sometimes in a bad way, sometimes in a good way. I was joking once: if you ever need to find your roommate [from] when you were 19, work on a Netflix show, because they're going to figure out a way to text you or email you or something. I kind of keep a tight friend group, it's really just the nod from a few of those people that makes me think that everything is going to be OK. And I was blown away this season by how this was received by some of the people that I really look up to.