Guitar Tricks Insider April/May Digital Edition | Page 34

LISTEN HEAR

“ANYBODY IN
THIS ROOM
AIN’T GONNA
PLAY IN MY
BAND IS GONNA
HAVE TO FIGHT
YOUR WAY
OUTTA HERE.”
- DUANE
ALLMAN

intense and jam all afternoon. And after about
three weeks of that there was one afternoon
that Berry Oakley and Dickey Betts were in the
same band. A group called the Second Coming.
And they had a house in town and they had the
equipment setup there. Jaimoe had come down
with Duane. There was one afternoon Jaimoe
and myself, Barry, Dickey, Duane, and a guy
named Reece Wynans – keyboard player. Gregg
wasn’t there yet.
How do you spell his name?
Butch: Wynans? W-i-n-a-n, I think. [It’s
Wynans.] Jerry Jeff Walker. He is superb but he
couldn’t sing. He’s scare the shit out of you. We
all happened to be there, two sets of drums, all
the equipment. So we just started playing. We
started off on a shuffle. About three hours later
we quit. And that was the first time I ever felt
that chill bumps just gettin’ religious about it. It
just blew me away and I think everybody else.
First time for them, too. You know, we’d all been
in bands where we’d get a half-assed record deal
and the producer would say, “Here, record these
songs. We’ll put them out and six weeks you’ll be
farting through silk.” We’d all tried that and hated
34

DIGITAL EDITION

it. So we finished that jam and I remember I
looked over at Jaimoe and said, “Did you get off
on that?” And he has a grin from here to here
and said, “Are you kidding?” And then Duane
walked to the door and said, “Anybody in this
room ain’t gonna play in my band is gonna have
to fight your way outta here.” And that was it.
Up till then it was gonna be Duane Allman and
whoever. Duane comes to get himself a backup
band. And after that day he done realized we
done found something.
Were there any songs that came out of that
jam?
Butch: No. The next day we decided on a
band but we needed a singer; so Duane called
Gregg and said, “Come on get over here I’ve
got something happening.” And so the next day
we got to my house in Jacksonville and worked
up “Trouble no More,” the first song we learned.
And then we’re working on “Don’t Want You
No More.” We spent a couple of days on those
two. Then Gregg showed up, he came in, we
played those two for him, and I’ll never forget
his first reaction. We played those songs and we
were waiting to hear from Gregg – get another
APR/MAY

APR/MAY

DIGITAL EDITION

35