No love lost between Allman Brothers, Love Valley

“We played the Love Valley Festival up in North Carolina, and I’m not sure we ever got paid. Love Valley was the idea of this old man named Andy Barker….

“The local sheriff tried to put my brother in jail, because Duane got a ticket for speeding on his way in there…. Barker told him, ‘As soon as you’re done playing, boy, you have to go into that jail.’ …

“We just started playing. We were playing good too…. and somebody threw mud up on my brother’s guitar. Big mistake, because that was it. He finished the set, walked off the stage, got in his car, and left.”

– From “My Cross to Bear” by Gregg Allman (2012)

Scholars of rock star autobiographies won’t be surprised to learn that this one contains at least 171 f-bombs (according to Amazon) and that the above passage is heavily expurgated.

Allman also notes that his mother, Geraldine (“Gerry”) was from Rocky Mount and that she was working in Raleigh during World War II when she met his father, who on was home on leave from the Army.  

[Gregg Allman died Saturday. This Miscellany post originally appeared in 2012.]

 

4 thoughts on “No love lost between Allman Brothers, Love Valley”

  1. I was there and while I don’t remember the names of the bands (to much smoke and too many years), except the headliners, the Allman Brothers, I do remember that the music was wonderful and could be heard through out the venue including the forrest on the bluff above the main seating/standing/lying down/falling down/ area. And according the those who were close enough to the stage, there was nudity (mimicking Jim Morrison I suppose), and plenty of instrument smashing and shoving and pushing.

    It was certainly the most memorable weekend on my college days in North Carolina. The experience was peaceful, colorful, musical, magical. And what went on under the blankets stayed under the blankets.– though there was the occasional round of applause.

    The nice thing about Love Valley 1970, is no one who was there for the full two days, had to make up stories about attending the Big Show/Woodstock. The Love Valley festival was much smaller and a year later. It was not nearly as hectic, toxic, or well covered by the media, but it was real. And if you were there, you never forgot it!

    East Coast, West Coast, New York, Carolina, or Atlanta, For many of us, 1966 to 1972 were our formative years filled with unforgettable music, wild love making (? maybe), drugs (?maybe), war, disenfrancishment, wardrobe mayhem, political disenchantment, campus and urban violence, wacko art, and much more. And for those fortunate enough to have actually attended one or more remarkable outdoor festivals during those years, Peace, Love and Rock and Roll will reign forever.

  2. I was there and stayed after to clean up. AB practiced all the time at the rodeo stage, maybe redundantly and why never listened to them afterwards. Arguments between members and roadie’s did happen but so did much drinking, pot and boredom. Duane gone most of the time and no order to keep that way. Ma & Pa Barker feed us and stocked beer on weekends, Little Joe (sheriff passed out joints to us stay behind cleaners). More fun after festival.

  3. I was there.What a blast.Saw the A B through binoculars from up on the hill .I Rember the naked bodies.It was a great time for music festivals and good mexican pot.

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