When he walked up to the Big House in 1970, new ABB road manager Willie Perkins found the Allman Brothers at precipice that would carry the band from a broke Macon crew to a force that reshaped American music. "When I approached the walkway of the old grand Tudor house at 2321 Vineville Ave. on a hot summer morning back in 1970 for my first day of work with a fledgling rock and roll group called the Allman Brothers Band, I had no idea that I would be reflecting on their huge success years later or that I would have authored books about it.⁠ I had heard about the newly formed group in the spring of 1969 from friends in Macon and soon saw them perform live at a free concert in Atlanta’s Piedmont Park. I immediately felt that the music they played was something new and magic and I had to be a part of it. Through a strange twist of fate I would leave my job as a banker with the Trust Company of Georgia and become their tour manager just over a year later.⁠ In those early times, we were so broke that all we exchanged at Christmas were glances, but soon the band was at the pinnacle of financial and creative success. Then came the tragic and untimely deaths of the brilliant, charismatic founder, Duane Allman, and one year later bassist Berry Oakley, followed by the destructiveness of drug and alcohol abuse and a temporary loss of their creative juices. Nothing, however, could stop the band for long. They have set box office and attendance records, recorded recognized album classics and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Best of all, they are still performing live concerts that leave their audiences breathless. Truly, may the road go on forever!" 📷️Jud McCrainie⁠