RIP Greg Allman, Co-Founder of The Allman Brothers

Gregg Allman, who co-founded one of the great southern rock bands of all time and one of the elder statesmen of the blues, has died at the age 69.

This death, while sad, was not unexpected. Gregg had been in poor health for some time. He was a hard drinker and used plenty of heroin and other drugs, leading to a diagnosis of hepatitis C in 1999, which led to a liver transplant in 2010. A round of concerts in 2016 were called off because of poor health but he did manage to perform a few more gigs. There was an attempt to tour again earlier this year, but he had to bail on those, too.  Around that time, rumours of a great decline in health began to circulate.

Allman finally passed away today (May 27) at his home in Savannah, Georgia. The cause was liver cancer, something that returned about five years ago.

His final shows were at his own Laid Back Festivals on September 25 in Denver and October 29 in Atlanta. Those who follow Allman say that his last-ever song was “One Way Out.”

You can tell that his death was anticipated for some time by the length of the obituary Billboard already had read.