First car bought
Allman had such a hankering to drive, that he bought his first car at age 14 -- a 1934 Chevy 5-window coupe with a 1955 Oldsmobile engine and a plywood floor board.
"It was a little deuce coupe, it was primer grey," Allman recalls wistfully. "You didn't want it to rust because you lived by the ocean so you had to put some kind of paint on it. You couldn't afford a good paint job, you just put primer on it and that's cool. Nice wheels and primer and a nice interior. Hey, you could get by just fine."
He fixed up the old coupe, including putting in seats. "I had to do a lot of work on it just to get the maiden voyage ride - on which my mother came around the corner and caught me and I had to get rid of the damn thing," Allman explains. "It broke my heart, it did. You couldn't drive unless you had a licensed driver with you. You got your learner's permit when you were 14."
A year and a half later Allman got another car, one that his mom let him keep. "I got a 1957 Christine model Plymouth that was primer grey," he laughs. "It had that push button transmission to it."
Allman went to military school and made a friend who taught him more about cars. "He came down to see me in the summer and that's when I first learned about a 283 and bore it to 301. He had a '55 Chevy that was really, really nice - American mags on it and Mickey Thompson wheels. It was great."
The two would go down to Daytona Beach, he says, "riding down the beach and that's where I learned to drive a Hurst in it. They charge you now, five dollars a day. I already had the bug anyway. I rode motorcycles - it was probably more about motorcycles when I was young."
Allman Brothers Band and his first new car
It was 1969 and Allman was 21, the Allman Brothers Band got their first record deal with their self-titled album. "When you sign a record contract, they give you a certain amount of money," Allman says. "I went and paid off my mother's house, bought me a set of snake skin boots."
Allman also bought a new 1969 Volkswagen bus. "It was brand new, but that sucker, it wouldn't get out of it's own way, let me tell you," he says. "But it was on sale, it was that time of year when they were trying to get rid of them and the guy just kind of gave it to me."
In 1972 the Allman Brothers released their most successful album "Fillmore East" which went gold. Allman could afford his first Vette, the one his ex-wife ruined.
"My brother died in '71, it came out in 1972," Allman says, referring to his brother Duane. "God, it was a very strange time. I just went to Jamaica and stayed there for quite a while and when I got back that's when I got the '72 Vette. The one she blew up."
...
>>next page