No, you're right, he was 69. The odds of making it to 89 having lived Gregg Allman's lifestyle are beyond astronomical; the only reason he wasn't the poster boy of rock star drug excess in the 1970's is because Keith Richards was around to perpetually claim the title.
D'you mean he lived that differently from Bob Hope, George Burns, and Kirk Douglas, all of whom reached 100? Here at the Sir Michael Jagger Institute, we fully expect 'our guy' to reach that level. (He will be 75 next year.)
Mick is actually pretty healthy. He started a healthy lifestyle before the Stones's 1981 tour, the band rehearsed out in Western Massachusetts, and the townsfolk saw him running almost every day. Gregg Allman got sober in the 1990's, but his liver must have looked like an old catcher's mitt by that point, and he had a transplant. He also has assorted other health problems, most likely linked to his drug & alcohol abuse. I actually felt bad for him; he lost his older brother Duane (an absolute guitar legend who he idolized) and the ABB bassist Berry Oakley within about a year of each other, both from motorcycle accidents in Macon, GA. I don't think he ever recovered from that double shock.
I believe that he died of liver cancer which he'd been battling for some time and I'm told that alcoholic liver damage increases one's risk of getting liver cancer. So it might all be tied together.
Or not. Mr. Allman had a liver transplant in 2010. His first liver had developed tumours and he also suffered from hepatitis C, which he attributed to a dirty tattoo needle. Around five years after the transplant, his liver cancer returned. I put out my last cigarette 40 years ago and had my last drink around 12 years ago. But I still admire Keith Richards - he ain't afraid of nuthin'! Keith and I are about the same age and it turns out we lived 18 miles apart as kids. I've been playing guitar nearly as long as he has, but not like him! Oh no -- I can't play like him -- not even close! Next to Lightnin' Hopkins, he's my hero! J.
I should make that: "Up there with Lightnin' Hopkins, Freddie King, Robert Junior Lockwood, Honeyboy Edwards, Hubert Sumlin, Mike Bloomfield, Joe Willie Wilkins and a long list of other guitar greats, Keith is one of my heroes." J.
And now he and I are old...and still kicking. Perhaps inhaling stinky postwar London air was actually good for kids. Maybe the "smoke and horsesh*t pong" as Keith phrased (and I remember) it, inoculated some English youngsters against poisons ingested in adult life. Stranger things have happened... J.
As a Canuck, I'm surprised that you didn't include Bruce Cockburn, your fellow Kingston resident and national treasure, in the eyes of many, in the mix.
I've heard him since he was 15 years old, Steve - and he's great, but not my preferred genre. For Canadian guitar players, I'll take Ed Bickert, Robbie Robertson, the late Lenny Breau and a personal friend, the late Jack Washington - who was, in the eyes of many fans, one of the true greats of swing-era rhythm guitar. A very interesting man - and a great friend. Jack died at 90, in 2009. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Washington Many other fine Canadian guitarists come to mind - including Murray McLauchlan and Randy Bachman. I met Murray McLauchlan when he was about 16 and already a fine musician. It turns out we sailed from the UK on the same ship (Cunard liner, Samaria, in different years. Murray in 1954, me in 1952.) A lot of my faves are blues players, so that's why so many Americans. No disrespect to fine Canadian blues players, e.g. Steve Strongman. There's also a long list of Gypsy Jazz players I like, from Django Reinhardt to Bireli Lagrène, Jimmy and Stochelo Rosenberg, Wasso Grünholz, Tchavolo Schmitt, Andreas Varady... I could be at this all night. J.
And other-than-jazz players too, like this Canadian Roma Group. Michael T Butch and the Gypsy Rebels. https://www.thegypsyrebels.com/ There's a track you can listen to from the web-page. J.
