New book by Allman Joys drummer delves into early careers of Duane and Gregg Allman

Editor’s note: Bill Connell’s memoir “Allman Joy: Keeping the Beat With Duane and Gregg,” written with John Lynskey, is available now from Mercer University Press. A book release party is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Mercer Music at Capricorn on Sept. 6, featuring a discussion with Lynskey and Chuck Leavell.

There’s a fire station at 322 Paul W. Bryant Drive in Tuscaloosa now, its driveway festooned with a swirling, crimson “A’ that evokes Nick Saban, Heisman trophies and national championships.

Turn back the clock about 50 years, though, and it was Bear Bryant himself prowling the sidelines for the Crimson Tide, and, instead of a fire station, the Fort W.W. Brandon Armory.

It’s a Friday night (maybe Nov. 25, 1966) and you’ve paid $1.50 to watch what’s been billed as a “gigantic show and dance” – the Allman Joys are in town, with Duane on lead guitar, Gregg singing and playing the organ and Bill Connell, Tuscaloosa High School class of ‘66, on drums.

Close your eyes. Can you picture it?

Chuck Leavell can. Then again, he was there.

Though he was just a teenager, Leavell was no stranger to the Tuscaloosa music scene in the mid-1960s.

His band, the Misfitz, played up the road at the YMCA every Friday night. The Gents, with whom the Misfitz had a friendly rivalry, played for an older crowd on Saturdays.

“We looked at the Allman Joys as role models,” Leavell told the Telegraph last week. “ We thought ‘Man, if they could do it, we can do it.’ All of us revered them because they were from the South and they had brought all this great music to our region.”

Though they were several years away from forming the Allman Brothers (important, formative years that included creating the band Hour Glass, spending time in L.A. and Duane becoming a highly sought-after session musician down at Muscle Shoals), it was clear to Leavell that Duane and Gregg had “it.” They were special. And there keeping the Allman Joys on track was Connell.

“They were hip, they were fun, they were talented. All of them looked the part and Bill just fit like a glove,” Leavell said. “He was a natural talent, had the rhythm in his body. The Joys needed someone who could kick them in the rear end, someone to inspire them. That was Bill.”

Bill Connell could easily have ended up in the Allman Brothers Band.That’s according to John Lynskey, Allman Brothers Band archivist extraordinaire.

A Miami native, Lynskey became the editor-in-chief of the band’s music magazine “Hittin’ the Note” after meeting Kirk West in the mid-90s. Lynskey, involved with The Big House Museum since its inception, has also played a key role in various ABB archival releases over the years.

If you’re writing a book about the Brothers, Lynskey is your first call.

Connell wasn’t, of course, in the Allman Brothers Band. That’s because he was drafted to fight in Vietnam.

“It’s one thing to worry about where your next gig is coming from,” Lynskey said. “It’s another to worry about Uncle Sam calling your number. The draft cost the Allman Joys a drummer and a couple of bass players.”

Connell visited the Allmans in Macon in July of 1970 when he left the Navy. The Joys had turned into Hour Glass and then ABB. The Brothers already had not one, but two iconic drummers in Jaimoe and Butch Trucks.

“Duane told me ‘Man, I’m so sorry, but we’ve already hired two drummers,’” Connell told the Tuscaloosa News in 2021.

Connell continued playing with a number of bands, thanks in part to Duane looking out for his former bandmate.

After he graduated from college and began working as a producer and director for Alabama Public Television, Connell played various gigs and festivals, including shows with Gregg Allman in 2015.

A few years ago, Connell decided he wanted to write about his career and his time with the Allman Joys. So he reached out to his friend Leavell.

The stories were raw, but they were fun and interesting, Leavell said. They needed to be told. So Leavell connected Connell with writer J. Marshall “Jeff” Craig, who had helped him write his own book “Between Rock And A Home Place.”

“There was a group of about four of us who were really determined to get the story out,” Leavell said. “It was almost like taking a trip back in time on a journey with Bill as he joined the Allman Joys. I thought ‘I’m in heaven, this has to be finished.’”

If you wanted to boil down the legacy of the Allman Brothers to two words, they could be “tragedy” and “perseverance.”

The same could be said of Connell’s memoir.

On Dec. 27, 2021, Craig died in a freak accident. After absorbing the tragic loss, Leavell and Connell turned to Lynskey to help finish the book.

“There was an instant connection with Bill talking over the phone,” Lynskey said. “We picked up where Jeff had left off, and in some ways started over. We worked for almost a year, got everything together earlier this year, and Mercer University Press agreed to publish it.”

But Lynskey and Connell would never meet in person. Connell died in his sleep on March 31, though he did get to see the manuscript before his death after Leavell took a copy to him.

“That was a real blow,” Lynskey said.

Other friends stepped up to help finish the book, titled “Allman Joy: Keeping the Beat With Duane and Gregg,” including Birmingham sound engineer and music producer Mark Harrelson and Alabama Music Hall of Famer Paul Hornsby.

“The people at Mercer Press, I can’t speak highly enough of them,” Lynskey said. “They bent over backwards to make sure it got done. We’re very happy with the finished classic. It’s very insightful, very funny, a wonderful moment in time.”

Capricorn Studios is hosting a book release party Sept. 6, with cocktails and 5 p.m. and a discussion between Lynskey and Leavell at 6.

The event is free and open to the public, and you can buy a book and get it signed.

Lynskey said “Allman Joy” provides an insider’s look into how dedicated Gregg and Duane were to their craft at an early age. They dreamed big and they believed they could accomplish those dreams.

“It’s incredibly insightful into the personalities and musical abilities of Gregg and Duane and the adventures they went through,” he said. “The Allmans, the brothers and the band, created a genre of music that was uniquely American, a blend that had never really been seen before.

“It was visceral music, which will always touch people. I think great music is timeless.”

There are a lot of people involved in getting the book across the finish line, but Lynskey gives Leavell a lot of the credit.

It says something about about Leavell’s character that, after a remarkably successful career from the Allman Brothers Band to the Rolling Stones, working with the likes of Georgia Harrison, Aretha Franklin, Eric Clapton and, last year, REM’s Mike Mills and Macon’s Robert McDuffie, he would still have such a remarkable sense of loyalty to an old friend.

Fame and success have a way of changing people. But Leavell remains uniquely down-to-earth. Alan Paul, who published the book “Brothers and Sisters: The Allman Brothers Band and the Album That Defined the 70s” earlier this summer, told the Telegraph that Leavell was a huge help.

“He never forgot where he came from,” Lynskey said of Leavell.

Leavell said he would like to think that’s true, giving credit to his parents for the values they instilled in him as a boy. He’s the greatest rock ‘n’ roll keyboardist of his generation, but Leavell thinks of himself as “the luckiest guy in the world.”

“I love what I’m doing, I love playing music,” he said. “I’ve had a pretty good career and it’s still going on, which is amazing at age 71. I don’t see any end in sight… I’m still living the dream.”