Gary James' Interview With
The Author Of Diary Of A Rock And Roll Tour Manager:
2,190 Days And Nights With The South's Premier Rock Band
Willie Perkins



Willie Perkins was working as an auditor and fraud investigator for a large Atlanta bank when he was introduced to The Allman Brothers Band by a mutual friend. A year later he was working as the Tour Manager for The Allman Brothers Band. He served in that position from 1970 to 1976. He also served as Personal Manager for The Gregg Allman Band and Sea Level, and the co-personal manager for The Allman Brothers Band Twentieth Anniversary Tour.

Willie Perkins has put pen to paper to share his time with one of America's classic bands, The Allman Brothers. Willie talked with us about that time.

Q - Willie, you were an early fan of The Allman Brothers. How early?

A - I first heard about them probably early 1969. The first time I heard them play live was about April of '69 at Piedmont Park in Atlanta, where they used to go on Sundays. They'd drive up from Macon and they would just set up there in the park without a permit or anything and just plug in and start playing. There was a lot of word of mouth on 'em. The reason I was introduced to 'em and connected with 'em was because a dear friend of mine, Twiggs Lyndon, was the original Road Manager. He had told me about Duane and played me a cassette tape. Of course I was like everybody else. I was an immediate fan, so much so that I asked him could I go to work for 'em? (laughs). I saw that much potential in 'em. But he said, "We're not able to pay anybody or hire anybody. I'll promise you the next person we hire will be you." And through a strange set of circumstances, a year later I got a call from the band and they wanted me to be their Tour Manager because Twiggs Lyndon had had an unfortunate incident in Buffalo, New York where he didn't get paid and he'd been up for days, fatigued, probably on some stimulants to keep going, and he got into a fight with a bartender and killed him. Obviously he wasn't able to keep traveling with 'em at that time. They called me and said, "Are you interested?", and I said "Yeah." They were coming back through Atlanta where I was livin' and working for a bank, of all things, related to a Rock 'n' Roll band. (laughs) So, I spoke to Duane and we had a long conversation and he told me how difficult it was, what a stressful job. I knew nothing about it. I knew how to keep books, financial books, and I loved what they were doing, so I took the plunge, much to the dismay of my co-workers and my family. I gave a month's notice to the bank, started with 'em the first week of 1970.

Q - When you first saw The Allman Brothers, did they have a record deal with Capricorn Records?

A - Yeah. The first record had not come out. That was April of '69. The first record came out in November of '69. So, they had been signed, but the record hadn't been finished.

Q - Were you keeping a diary to remember all the details that are in your book? You must have known that one day The Allmans would be of interest to the public.

A - Of all things I never kept a diary, because I didn't have time. I have access to a lot of the travel records, financial records, and of course my own recollection. That's why I was able to sit down and write a pretty comprehensive diary of the gig history.

Q - Would someone today, with a banking background, want a job as a Tour Manager, or would they even be considered for the job?

A - Possibly. Nowadays there are probably three of four different individuals that do what a Road Manager did back then. Now, bands, most of 'em have entertainment accounting companies that keep up with their money. They will usually send a rep on the road to keep up with that. Plus, they will have a logistical guy who just does the travel and doesn't do the money. And they have all kinds of advance people. I was in the prehistoric era of Rock 'n' Roll. We had a telephone and a briefcase. That's how we operated. We didn't have a cell phone. Only pay phones. No computers. Everything was done from phone booths and hotel phones. When I look back, it's amazing to me. We didn't know any better. We didn't know we couldn't do what we were doing.

Q - Just to clarify something Willie. You were a Tour Manager, not a Road Manager, correct?

A - Yeah. I did everything, including all the travel. Basically we would drive into a town, find out where the gig was and find a hotel nearby. That was how much pre-planning we were able to do. As time progressed it got a lot more sophisticated. We could pre-plan and pre-book and have itineraries printed up. We'd have advance men to do the hotels and the venues. But in the beginning there was none of that.

Q - Tell me about that initial conversation you had with Duane.

A - They were traveling in a Winnebago camper. Like I said, they were coming back to Macon through Atlanta where I was living and working. They played a show at Georgia Tech, the university there. I went to the show as their guest. After the show we sat down in the Winnebago and it had kind of a little breakfast nook place in front of the bus or camper. He was very frank about how crazy they all were and the long hours and low pay. He said, "If you think you can do it... Twiggs said you were the man to do it. If Twiggs was behind you, then we're behind you." I said, "I will. Just give me a month to get things in order and I'll join you." And that's the way it started.

Q - I see The Allman Brothers used to stay at The Tropicana Motel in Los Angeles. That was where Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin would stay. Did they ever cross paths with any of those people?

A - Well, prior to that trip (December 1970) that had been to the West Coast and of course Duane and Gregg had been Hourglass (band) which was much earlier, prior to The Allman Brothers. Their band then was a pretty well-established, local band, so they ran into all those folks at The Whiskey A Go Go. The reason we ended up at the Tropicana was the label we were on, Capricorn Records, was distributed by Atlantic. So, Atlantic would put their bands in The Tropicana, which has a great history, a Rock 'n' Roll history. I think it was originally owned by Sandy Koufax, the Dodgers' pitcher. But they played The Whiskey A Go Go and went all up and down the coast a lot. They were pretty much involved in that Southern California Rock scene in '68, early '69.

Q - I see Bruce Springsteen opened for The Allmans.

A - Oh, yeah. He was completely unknown when he was the opening act. I've read reports after the fact that he was impressed with 'em. They used the two drummer set-up, which other than The Dead, I don't think anybody was doing that at the time. He was an interested observer. Of course, we met him later when he was on the cover of Time magazine. He came to a show in Los Angeles.

Q - We don't see many festivals around today with an all-star lineup. Is that because it would be cost prohibitive?

A - Well, there are some today. There's a few out on the West Coast. They're traditional, yearly festivals. Festivals at that time were kind of one-offs, although there were two Atlanta Pop Festivals, neither one of 'em which was in Atlanta, but nearby. Back then there was a lot of local politics against large gatherings of "Hippies" because it was for some communities; they were just over run. It was a logistical nightmare. They didn't like the music. They didn't like the Hippie lifestyle. So, it was hard to get permits and those things tended to get so big they would be out of control. Even the promoters couldn't control the crowds. So eventually they just became logistically prohibitive to try and put one on.

Q - I remember Watkins Glen packed in 600,000 people to see The Grateful Dead, The Allmans and The Band.

A - Right.

Q - Willie, no doubt that gig was a big payday for the groups, but for the fans it doesn't seem like you could enjoy a concert when you're packed in like that. Am I wrong?

A - It was more than a concert. It was an event, a lifestyle event, plus the music. Although it was physically miserable with the heat and mud if it rained, people just got high and enjoyed the music. They just kind of let it go for a weekend. I don't think anybody said, "I want to go home and get out of here." (laughs) They enjoyed it.

Q - Which is amazing. I couldn't have done it.

A - They could, and they did. Nobody got hurt. There was one skydiving fatality, but that had nothing to do with the concert. It was just somebody jumping out of a plane over the show and the chute didn't open. But there were babies born and probably babies conceived. It worked. It was just one of those things where if you said, "Let's put on another one," they'd say, "I don't think so." But it turned out good. It was a financial success.

Q - Is there a chance that the second Atlanta Pop Festival will ever see the light of day? What would be the holdup on that?

A - Financial reasons. They're trying to figure out how best to market it. They're also trying to get all the rights from the bands, the music publishers. The Hendrix Estate, prior to the Festival, made arrangements to their audio-visual rights. They had those, but the other bands didn't. It's just been a nightmare for the guy who made the footage. He's tried so many ways to market it and they just haven't come up with a way to make it possible, but they continue to work on it. There's a little bit of Allman Brothers footage that's out. Somehow copies were made and got it on Facebook, so you can see it. I've seen it. It's actually over twenty hours of footage and it's great, not only for the music but just the historical content of it.

Q - You're talking twenty hours of footage of the entire festival?

A - Yeah.

Q - How much did it cost to lease the Starship 1? You never did reveal that in your book.

A - It depended on distance and how many cities we went. For say a week's work at least fifty to seventy thousand dollars. That was in 1970 dollars. That was quite a bit of money.

Q - I guess so. And ticket prices were low in those days and bands could still afford to lease a jet like the Starship 1, which begs the question, who is making all the money in the music business today if it's not the performers?

A - Well, the ticket sellers, the promoters. I mean, the music business today is completely different than it was back then. The marketing is different. The record companies, when they sign a band today they try to get everything a man has, the t-shirts, the live music. They call it an "all-in" deal where the band is pretty much working for a record company. But then there are a lot of artists who won't even sign with a record company. They do their own and there's so much digital distribution today. You talk to a kid today and you talk about a record store, they don't even know what you're talking about.

Q - You are the owner of a record company, Atlas Records. What is that all about?

A - Well, I started a little Blues label. My primary artist is a Blues player from Cincinnati. His name is Sonny Moorman. I had a couple of other bands, but the COVID hurt us because up and coming bands saw a lot of their product, CDs then, sold 'em at their shows and when the bands weren't touring for about a year, that knocked the hell out of record sales. And now there are no more record stores to put your product in. Everything is basically digital. There is no physical product, so the role of a record company has changed a lot.

Q - I should have asked you this earlier. What kind of a guy was Duane Allman?

A - He was a unique individual. Very talented. Very personable. Very smart. Not book smart. He graduated from high school. He was just an amazing person. He lit up a room. He obviously could play like few others. Just a magnetic personality. A great guy.

Q - And I read that Duane would disappear for days. Where would he go?

A - He'd go fishing. Sometimes he'd be off with a girlfriend somewhere, but he always came back when it was time. An interesting anecdote about the Pop Festival in Atlanta; The Allman Brothers were kind of an unofficial host 'cause it was held in Macon where they operated out of. They were the opening act and they were the final act. Duane had gone down to Miami the week prior to do some session work, recording, and he was going to drive up and meet us and be there obviously for the opening act. When he got about forty, fifty miles from the site on Interstate Highway 75, he couldn't move. It was a parking lot. There were so many cars, the Interstate was blocked. So, he had to temporarily abandon his car on the side of the road and he hitched a ride on a motorcycle from some Hippie that he didn't know, and he said, "Take me to the Festival". Meanwhile, I was having a nervous breakdown. I'd been on the job a month. It's this huge gig and Duane was nowhere in site. I had no way to contact him. Obviously no cell phones. So, I'm at the back gate just stalking back and forth and he pulls up casually on the back of that motorcycle and says, "Which way is the stage?" So, he made it on time, but unusual circumstances. Of course, the next week we had to go back and get his car.

Q - When he got to the Festival did you have words with him?

A - No.

Q - Probably because he was your employer.

A - It wasn't really his fault. He did what he was supposed to do, Probably a lesser person would have said, "I'm stuck. I can't get there." But he made it. He knew he had to be there. Those guys were very enthusiastic about making gigs. Nobody said, "It's too far. I'm too tired." None of that stuff from them.

Q - I don't think you can answer this question, but I'll ask it anyway. Had Duane Allman lived, no motorcycle accident, would The Allman Brothers have continued on? Would he have stayed with the band?

A - I think they would have in some form. I know that he was contemplating some changes within the band prior to his death. And who knows if he might have branched out. He almost left the band early on to go with Derek And The Dominos. Eric Clapton made him a job offer. He thought about it pretty thoroughly and then decided he should stay with the band. Of course we never knew about that until later.

Q - How much later?

A - After his death. He had missed a show in Chicago 'cause he was finishing up the "Layla" album and he called and said, "I really need to finish that. Can you just do that one show without me?" And we did. But we had a meeting when he got back to Macon and he said, "I've thought about it. I won't ever miss another gig because of that and I'm going to dedicate myself one hundred percent to The Allman Brothers Band," and that's what he did.

Q - Willie, you got to be a part of one of the classic bands of all time.

A - I sure did. We didn't know it at the time. It's been fifty years plus and we were thinking a month ahead of time then. We all knew the music was special, but no one really had the scope that it would last a lifetime, but it did.

NOTE: Willie Perkins has three books he's authored on The Allman Brothers. They are available on Amazon and at Barnes And Nobel.

© Gary James. All rights reserved.

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