"They drove from Macon in this old milk truck": Duane Allman and John Hammond

Rest in peace John Hammond (1942-2026)

Mar 05, 2026

Two men are playing guitars in a room. — John Hammond, Jr. with Duane, 1/31/71, Berkeley, CA 📷 Jim Marshall

Bluesman John Hammond passed away February 28, 2026. The son of famed record producer and talent scout John Henry Hammond, Hammond began his sixty-year recording career in 1963.

Duane and Hammond first crossed paths in November 1969. The latter was recording Southern Fried for Atlantic in Muscle Shoals. Duane appeared on four of the album’s twelve tracks: “Shake for Me” “Cryin’ for My Baby” “I’m Leavin’ You” “You’ll Be Mine.”

Hammond on meeting Duane1

Jerry Wexler sent me down to Muscle Shoals Sound. These guys backed Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and all these guys. I arrived and assumed they would all be Black studio musicians. They were all white guys. They were all a clique and everyone knew each other and their wives and it was a homegrown kind of thing.
I had been there for about three days and we had cut some tunes and I was feeling very frustrated and couldn’t get across the ideas that I had in mind. Then this guy Duane Allman and his friend Berry Oakley showed up. They had driven from Macon in this old milk truck because Duane wanted to meet ‘this John Hammond guy.’
“Hey Duane, how are you doing man!” They admired him so much.
Duane was just something else. He was a really great guy—one of those charismatic guys that makes everybody stand up and pay attention.
And I had never heard of him, so I didn’t know anything. Eddie Hinton said he was the guy that played the slide guitar on “The Weight,” but it was still not clear in my mind.

*Play All Night! Duane Allman & the Journey to Fillmore East* by Bob Beatty

“Soon as Duane gave me the OK, the session went fantastic.”

He said, “Man I’d love to play on your record.” We did “Shake for Me” and my jaw just slacked.
This guy was just phenomenal.
All of a sudden all of these guys that I could not communicate with before understood exactly what I meant.
And that was the beginning of a short-lived, but intense relationship.

BUY PLAY ALL NIGHT!

Duane & Hammond continued crossing paths

Many, many a jam when I toured with them. As soon as the gig was over, we’d be in the hotel room just hanging out playing tunes. He was really eager to learn as much as he could, just to soak it in. He didn’t need much time.
We’d jam country blues, slide tunes, Robert Johnson stuff. That was my inspiration. I had played with Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters and all these guys he admired so much, and he did ask me about them.
He was way ahead of me. He admired what I did. So I took that on at face value. I mean he respected me and that was great but in terms of his star rising, he was there.
That band hit so hard so fast from the beginning. I think because of Duane and Gregg, they had this great sound together. The whole band was outrageous. I mean between Gregg’s vocals and Duane’s guitar, they were intense.
These guys were totally together at the beginning.

Share Long Live the ABB: Conversation from the Crossroads

Hammond on Duane’s death

I had spent a lot of the night before he was killed with him. It was at my place in New York.2 I left that morning for Newfoundland where I had a concert and he went back to Macon. That night I got a call. It just blew my mind. I was numb for a week. It was just unreal.
We were going to do a recording together. We had ideas but we hadn’t fully explored them yet. We were talking the night before about the recording and blues songs. He had stories out the wazoo. He was interested in aspects of blues and rock & roll, R&B. He was a sponge. He soaked it all up and he knew what to do with it.
Duane would have been a great producer. He knew how to deal with sidemen, with players and producers, instinctively.
I imagine he would probably be producing albums today if he had lived. He was multifaceted. He was aware of how to make records as well as how to play. He was a trove of information and ideas.

“Duane was fearless.”

He had this vision of a mixed-race band in the deep South in 1969. He was very adamant about including everyone. He didn’t care what anyone said. He had his own vision of what was the right thing to do and he did it.
He was a live wire! He was so multifaceted that I didn’t see him as a conservative guy in any way.
He was enthusiastic about everything, about life, about music, about traveling, family. I mean, he was just an all-around guy.
He was heavy duty.
He was a good friend to me, and he was a guy who I admired.

Random Notes

Hammond taught Duane Allman open-E tuning. Up to that point (November 1969), Duane had been playing in standard tuning. The only song I know he translated from standard to open-E on slide is “Trouble No More.” See if you can tell the difference:

“Trouble No More” from The Allman Brothers Band (recorded August 1969)
“Trouble No More” from Eat a Peach (recorded March 1971)

Long Live the ABB custom swag

Inspiration for a Derek & the Dominos cover? Though Duane didn’t play on it, Hammond recorded Chuck Willis’s “It’s Too Late” for Southern Fried. Less than a year later, Eric Clapton and company rearranged the track for Layla.3 It’s probably just a coincidence, but tracing song lineage is one way to understand music history. It also shows how repertoires develop, which is a key subtext in any great rock & roll story (and fascinating stuff, if you ask me).