Watching now-established artists entering the music scene was fairly easy in the ’60s. You could’ve just walked into a random Greenwich bar and heard Joan Baez singing, or if you preferred the sunlight, there were the West Coast’s shiny beaches welcoming you to see the Byrds live.
Things didn’t change much, at least musically, if you were to drive down to the South since rock music was as prominent as it had been back in the coastlines. Billy Gibbons, for instance, was trying his best to make it to the scene with ZZ Top, and although it was a challenge at first, they managed to score themselves gigs and started opening for other future rock icons.
The Allman Brothers were one of the bands the young Gibbons and Co. opened for. In fact, the frontman would later reveal to Rolling Stone how lucky he felt to have witnessed Duane and Gregg Allman enchant the audience with their music quite early on in the brothers’ careers.
So, when Rolling Stone picked the Allmans among their 100 Greatest Artists list in 2010, ranking them at 53, the mission to write an honorary induction for his fellow Southerners fell to Billy’s hands. While the frontman was at it, he also shared which track left him fascinated and became his ultimate goal in music.
The rocker started his words by fondly recalling seeing the brothers and the band take the stage while ZZ Top was supporting them. As he stood by the side of the stage, watching Duane jamming with Dickey Betts and fascinating the audience, it felt to Gibbons that he was watching music history take place right in front of his eyes.
Billy then remarked that he’d been an avid fan he’d been since the very moment someone uttered the band’s name to him. However, one particular track blew away Gibbons, and that was ‘Whipping Post.’ The rocker stressed that the extended version of the song quickly became the ‘all–time end–all‘ for him.
The singer’s words on the Allman Brothers Band stated:
“I first became aware of them when they were breaking out of Macon, Georgia. They had played Austin and made a tremendous noise down there. Word spread very quickly in those days. The next thing we knew, we were on the road with these guys, opening up for them and Quicksilver Messenger Service and witnessing music history.
We would linger by the stage after our set and listen to Duane and Dickey Betts play guitar together. It was like they were weaving a beautiful piece of cloth. Dickey was remarkable in his own right. Yet in the beginning, no one in that band — Duane, Dickey, Jaimoe Johanson, or Butch Trucks — outshined the others.
There are a couple of moments on ‘At Fillmore East’ that defy description — where the Allmans take the music to places it had never been. That extended version of ‘Whipping Post’ is the all-time end-all for me. The Allmans were the great Southern rock band, but they were that. They defined the best of every music from the American South in that time. They were the best of all of us.”
Gibbons felt like he was witnessing music history firsthand while the Allman Brothers played after them, always leaving the audience wanting more. For Billy, they were more than your typical Southern rock band; they were the icons who created timeless music and gave memorable shows.
