Rounder RecordsThe late Gregg Allman has the chance to win two awards at this Sunday’s Grammy ceremony. Allman, who died in May at age 69, is nominated for Best Americana Album for the posthumous Southern Blood, and for Best American Roots Song for the record’s lead track, “My Only True Friend.”
Southern Blood‘s producer, Don Was, tells ABC Radio that Allman had heard most of the finished record before he died was very happy with how it was turning out.
“[Our] last interaction, he told me it was everything that he’d hoped for and then some,” Was recalls. “And he said, ‘You got it. You know how to finish this.'”
Was reveals that he discovered Allman was terminally ill around the time he learned that Gregg wanted him to produce Southern Blood. He notes that as they were choosing songs for the project, he realized that goal of the album would be “to give Gregg the opportunity to tie up all the loose ends in his life.”
Southern Blood is made up mainly of cover tunes with themes that echo aspects of Allman’s life or reflect on mortality. The one track Allman helped write was “My Only True Friend,” which Was says is a “very powerful opening statement.”
He explains, “It’s ostensibly sung to a lover, and he’s basically saying, ‘I know you want me to stick around…but the road is my only true friend and I got to keep playing.’…I think it was about more than just a relationship. I think it was really a way of explaining his life to his fans.”
Was tells ABC Radio that working on Southern Blood “was deeply touching on so many levels,” adding, “I’m just gratified…that [Gregg] felt it was the statement he wanted to make going out.”
Copyright © 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
