Famous last-named guitarist puts his own spin on the family’s musical legacy
By Gary Graff
November 18, 2016
When your name is Allman and you play guitar…Well, let’s just say there are certain expectations, whether you court them or not.
And when you’re Gregg Allman’s son, you can add songwriting and singing prowess to that mix. But since he began recording more than a dozen years ago, Devon Allman has handled the “family business” with grace and grit, forging his own path via bands (Honeytribe, Ocean Six, Royal Southern Brotherhood) and, since 2013, under his own name. During this time Allman — who was born in Texas and raised in Tennessee and St. Louis, where he now lives — has established himself as nothing less than a hard-working and hard touring musician with plenty of chops and a dynamic performing style, and rest assured that Allman certainly held his own alongside all-stars such as Cyril Neville and Mike Zito in Royal Southern.
His latest release, Ride Or Die, came out in September and shows an even broader stylistic range than before, with Allman playing even more lead guitar than he has prior. He’s the kind of artist who tends to take a step forward each time he does something new, and as far as Allman’s concerned there are still a lot of steps waiting for him to take.
FGPO: Music is in your DNA, of course. How did you get started?
Allman: I started playing guitar at 13. I went to a buddy’s house, and I’ll never forget it. I was living in Cleveland, his name was Jason, and it was typical eighth grader bullshit being at school, hanging out. I saw a guitar in the corner, this black Explorer copy, a piece of shit. “Jason, I didn’t know you played guitar, man. Play me something.” He played the most horrifying version of Def Leppard’s “Photograph,” but it was an epiphany moment. That was the first time I ever saw somebody play, like fingers on the strings, four feet away from me. I’d seen people on stage, but not like this. I thought: “Man if this schmuck can do this…” So I went home and asked my mom for a guitar. She went into a closet and pulled one out that she had for years: “There you go…” So that was the day.”
FGPO: Were you a shredder right off the bat, or…?
Allman: It wasn’t until 20 years later, strangely enough, at age 33 that I started to play lead. I always played rhythm. It was just a vehicle to write songs. I was frightened of lead. I didn’t want to get compared to Duane, right? [laughs] I was scared of anything past the seventh fret. I just really wanted to write songs, and guitar was the vehicle to write songs.
FGPO: It’s not like playing good rhythm guitar is easy, either.
Allman: That’s right. I loved rhythm guitar — I really, really loved it. And I’m glad I put in those 20 years on rhythm. Once I switched over to lead I had rhythm down and had my own idea of how lead fit over that. I have no regrets at all about the way I did it.
FGPO: So what made you switch to lead?
Allman: I had a guitar player quit my touring band, Honeytribe. So I challenged myself to not hire another one. At that point in the show I was playing, I think, two solos and they were pretty crappy, but I was making my way through them. I gave myself six months, and I said: “At the end of six months if I’m not cutting it, I’ll hire somebody. If I am, then cool.” I think about two months in I had a breakthrough night where everything I tried worked — not to mention that for two-and-a-half months I played six, eight hours a day, woodshedded my balls off. I went and played to Santana, Robert Randolph, Dickey Betts, Mick Taylor. I studied nuance. I gave myself a crash course in the art of playing lead, and now we’re here, 11 years later. It’s kinda funny.
FGPO: Was there a mental or emotional hurdle to get over being that you are, after all, an Allman?
Allman: I think that was in there somewhere when it came to lead guitar. I’d hear: “Hey, play the slide! Play ‘Whipping Post!’” How many times can you fucking hear that? I was my own human being, y’know? But what happens, I think, is if you put your nose down and you grind out the work and you look back at a decade of hardcore work around the world and have nine records out, I feel like I’ve proven myself, so let’s have some fun here. I don’t see “Son of Gregg Allman” under my name anymore; I see “Of the Allman Family,” which is more of an extension, and that makes me happy. But, like anything I had to go out and prove myself.
FGPO: Since you brought it up, we have to ask — HAVE you ever played “Whipping Post?”
Allman: Good God, man…([aughs] Years ago I was in a between band that I joined for a month, a Grateful Dead cover band called Schwag in St. Louis. They were actually very good. And for shits and grins we did do “Whipping Post” a handful of times. It was fun. It was good.
FGPO: A Grateful Dead cover band kind of fits in the Allmans lineage, too, in a way.
Allman: Man, I fuckin’ hate the Grateful Dead. [laughs] I do. But [Schwag]’s been a real mainstay in St. Louis for, like, 25, 30 years. They called me up and said: “Hey, we know you don’t have a gig right now. Would you come and play the Dead stuff?” I just figured that I wanted to play, and it will be a challenge. So I went over and they handed me a bong and a song list — this was back when I smoked. I learned, like, 54 Dead songs the first day and they said, “Hey man, come back at three tomorrow,” so I did and learned another 40 [songs] and then we went on tour. I had to know, like, up to 90 songs. I didn’t do it ‘cause of some deep love affair with that music; I did it ’cause: “This’ll be tough. You could probably use a little tough in your diet now and stretch out.” That’s why I did it.
FGPO: Who are the main sources for your playing?
Allman: Man, I think I wear my influences on my sleeve pretty proudly. There’s definitely some Dickey Betts in me, some Santana in there, maybe a little [David] Gilmour, some Hendrix. I think if you blend little tiny bits of those things in there, you’d get close to what I do. I still don’t think I’m very good. You’ve got to remember that most 44 year olds have been playing lead guitar for 30, 33 years. I’ve been playing for 10, so I’ve still got a lot to learn. But I would rather play five notes and know it’s me than play a million notes and drop your jaw. I don’t give a shit about that.
FGPO: Do you consider blues the cornerstone of yourself, musically?
Allman: Of course, I think it was Hendrix that said the blues are easy to play but really hard to feel. I think that’s very true. It’s way more about the feeling of the notes than speed or being a virtuosic player. If I want to hear virtuosic playing I’ll listen to Steve Vai and Ry Cooder, and I dig that. But I’ll hear a record like that and I’m done for awhile. If I want to listen to some amazing playing, I’ll put on Pink Floyd’s Animals; Gilmour’s solos are so vocal and lyrical and conversational. That’s what I’m after.
FGPO: Talk, then, about how you approached Ride Or Die. It’s a very different kind of album for you.
Allman: For the last 10 years, I think I wanted to fit into the blues-rock category. I wanted to make records that would sell to fans of the Stones and Gov’t Mule. I had kind of a target of what I was going for. So on one hand I grew up on the Stones and B.B. King and Hendrix and all that, but on the other hand I did grow up on the Clash and the Cure and the Smiths and R.E.M. So I think this time I was like: “Y’know what? You have your fan base. You’ve earned your stripes. You don’t need to squash any influences. Why don’t you, in fact, bring them together and allow them to see the light of day?” For 10 years I wasn’t letting those influences in. Now I am. I think as artists we are just the amalgam of what we’ve put into the well, anyway. So I really wrote a record for ME for the first time, not worrying about what category it would fit into, and I think it’s really interesting to listen to a record and hear a little R.E.M. and hear a little Curtis Mayfield and Al Green.
FGPO: Another hat you wear is being on the board of the National Blues Museum in St. Louis. Are you happy with the way it’s turned out?
Allman: Oh, man, I’m jazzed as hell. Different cities for years have been trying to put together a blues museum, but nothing ever materialized. Here the stars aligned, the money came in and we got it open. It’s beautiful. We’re still in our first year, but it’s amazing. More than anything it’s about connectivity. It’s connecting the dots — “Oh, man, this is connected to this, this is connected to that…” They did a good job of laying it out on the timeline, the birth of the blues and how it spread, how it became electric, how it became what it is today. It’s pretty humbling to go back and look at that history and then know how it factors into what you do today as a musician. It’s really sweet.
FGPO: So what’s on the horizon?
Allman: I’m just going to tour for Ride or Die through the end of this year and the beginning of next. I’ve got some really big things that’ll be announced at the beginning of the year. I can’t talk about them now; I don’t mean to be ambiguous, we just haven’t done the press releases or anything, so I’m trying to be respectful. But I’ve got some things on the horizon I’m really excited for, big things in my career that will be cool and really fun.
