Muscle Shoals Page #7

We gotta cross

a paved road."

I said, "The horse is shod."

He says, "What?"

"It's got shoes on, you know?"

And if he slips,

he'll bust both of yous' butts,

"so don't give him

any reigns."

And guess what happened?

And he hit right here.

He couldn't play.

And he wouldn't let me in

his house for about six weeks.

And, I mean, that was...

that was terrible

'cause, I mean, you know,

growin' up without a father,

he was somewhat

of a father figure to me

even though he was only

a year and 18 days older.

So it came his birthday,

November the 20th,

and I went out and bought

the first Taj Mahal record

and a bottle

of Coricidin pills.

He had this cold

and he had his arm in a sling,

he was pissed off at the world,

and I did what I could do.

I put it down

in front of his door,

I had it wrapped up

and everything.

And I knocked on the door

and ran.

I guess about two

and a half hours later

my phone rings and it's him.

He says, "Get over here,

baybrah, quick!"

And baybrah, he called me that,

"baby brother,"

endearing handle he had for me.

He said, "Man, check this out."

He had been listening

to Jesse Ed Davis

play Taj Mahal

and he's playing slide.

He said, "Man, I dumped out

all of them pills",

and I washed the label

off the bottle."

He said,

"Check this out."

And he's got his hand

still in the sling

and he's going,

"do-do-n-do", you know,

and he's just already

killin' it, you know?

I've still got that bottle,

by the way, somehow.

When Duane came here,

he was on the Wilson Pickett

session that we did.

There was always a slight

problem when we would go out

all of us white boys

with a black artist

that we would get looks, okay?

But there was nothin'

as bad as going out

with a long-haired hippie

with us white boys.

They couldn't

stand that, right?

And so both of them

stayed back.

So, they went on lunch break

and my brother went up

to Wilson and he said,

"Man, why don't you

cut 'Hey Jude, '

you know,

the Beatles song?"

And at that point I was

mostly trying to create

an original career

Wilson Pickett, right?

My songs.

Pickett and I,

in unison, both said,

"Look, are you crazy?

We're gonna cover

the Beatles?"

And of course Duane said,

"Exactly."

While we were gone,

Duane changed our whole session.

Just remember

to let her under your skin

When you get to the vamp,

it goes into just

an unbelievable groove.

Ow

Ah

Ahhh

Oh oh ooh

Hey Jude

Ahh

Duane Allman was playing

such great guitar fields

that somethin' happened

in that vamp.

Ahh hey

And all of a sudden,

there was southern rock.

Gonna be all right

That was the beginnings

of The Allman Brothers Band.

Jaimoe met my brother first.

The two of them got together.

When I met Duane,

he had a cabin he lived in

down on the river

in Muscle Shoals.

And it was like... well,

it was a nice place down there.

In his spare time,

he would do a lot of fishin'.

Muscle Shoals seemed to be

the place for him

to be at that time.

He would do sessions.

And I would sit over

with them at practice.

And when he would

get through the session,

he'd roll his amplifier

over there

and the two of us would play.

And then when

Berry Oakley came down,

boy, the three of us had never

played music like that.

But that was pretty much the

base of what turned out to be

The Allman Brothers Band.

Duane said, "Well, Rick,

this is the kind of music"

that's coming in,

this is gonna be big again.

"The kids are really

liking this stuff."

And I said, "Yeah, yeah,

don't breathe on me, Duane",

back off."

I never believed him

and I told Phil Walden,

"I don't understand this."

They're sleeping

in the studio all day

under quilts and things,

and I wake up Duane

and he says,

"Man, you know,

the stars and the moon

are not quite

lined up right."

I'm not into all that.

He said,

"Well, hang in there, man."

Turn on the machines

and let 'em run

"and eventually you're gonna

make a billion dollars."

I said, "Ah, I can't do that,

it's not me."

So I missed the boat

on that one.

Time, old time.

Things change it, you know.

I never will forget

when Jimi Hendrix

played behind me on Broadway.

He was playing the band

with King Curtis.

And I told King,

"I think I'm gonna steal

that guitar player

you got."

He said, "Percy Sledge,

that guy there"

is gonna be so big

in the next year or two,"

he said, "I can't keep him"

and you won't be able

to keep him either."

When Jimi came out

with his style of music,

well, our style of music

kind of slacked back.

Time always changes

organizations

and things that

you're doin' in life.

Things happened in our world

that changed everything.

We decided

to become entrepreneurs

and become studio owners.

So we had to tell Rick,

who was our mentor and friend

and who had gave us our chance.

We elected Roger

to go break the news to him.

I had gone to LA to try to make

a new deal with Capitol Records.

We made a great deal

and things were really exciting,

and I came back and had a

meeting with the Swampers.

We were supposed to come up

and sign the contract

and be exclusive to Rick.

Rick's office is upstairs

and we're just kind of

looking at each other like,

"Oh, my God,

we gotta go up those stairs."

Up the stairs we go,

knock on the door.

Everybody's quiet.

I began to tell them

of this great new deal

we've made with Capitol.

I'm lookin' at them like,

"Come on, guys, help me."

And they're just like...

One of the guys

stopped me and said,

"We've already made a deal

with Jerry Wexler"

and he is going to build us

a studio across town.

"We'll be leaving here,

going with him."

And when Roger dropped that bomb

in that office,

we were expecting

a huge explosion.

I felt like the whole bottom

of my life had fell out.

It's like we have thrown

sh*t on his dreams.

Do you remember what he said?

He said, "You're never

gonna make it."

It was war.

Total war.

Oh ooh oh, baby

There's gonna be judgment

in the morning

When we bought the studio,

we were very nervous

about whether or not

we would have any hits.

And you have to have to hits

to keep recording.

Jerry came to record at our

place, and he brought Cher in,

and that was our first client.

Nothin' happened,

it wasn't any good.

Six months went by,

seven months,

almost eight months.

I think we would have killed

for the hit record.

We always wanted to own

a studio and it was like,

"What the hell

have we done?"

And then all of a sudden

the English rock and roll guys

started wantin' to come

to Muscle Shoals.

When we went to record

in Muscle Shoals,

it was a really

lightning visit.

You know, we just

went in there, set up,

and, you know, played our stuff

for a couple of days.

The sound was in my head

before I even got there.

And then, of course,

when that actually

lives up to it and beyond,

you know, then you're in

rock and roll heaven, man.

You got to move

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