True Friends

Scott Sharrard on Recording Gregg Allman’s Farewell Album, Southern Blood

- Jimmy Leslie

“MUSIC IS A SANCTUARY FROM THE HEAVIness for a musician,” says Scott Sharrard. “We are all country preachers trying to help people and ourselves get through.”

When it seems that, each week, another rock legend moves on to the great gig in the sky, Gregg Allman’s passing from liver cancer on May 27, 2017, is particularly notable for the indelible imprint his music made on the guitar community. Allman was a straightforward acoustic strummer and organist, but he had arguably the all-time hottest lineup of dual lead-guitar players by his side with his older brother Duane and Dickey Betts in the original Allman Brothers Band. And throughout the band’s incarnations that spanned generations, outstanding string-slingers included Dan Toler, Jack Pearson, Jimmy Herring, Warren Haynes, and Derek Trucks. Allman’s solo outfits always featured gifted guitarists, as well, but in his ultimate nine-piece ensemble, Allman settled on a single player with singular skills—Scott Sharrard.

“Gregg and I were meant for each other, because I understood how to convey what he meant,” says Sharrard, who brought a Swiss army knife sensibility when he joined Allman in 2008. His broad stylistic range, as well as a strong knack for songcraft, earned him musical director status in 2013.

What was your original audition with Allman like?