Show notes
This week on the Wednesday Dose of Dopey, We kick off an unofficial “Allman Brothers Month” with acclaimed music journalist and author Alan Paul, whose books One Way Out, Brothers and Sisters, and Texas Flood have become essential reading for fans of Southern rock and rock history.
Before the interview, Dave plays a hilarious voicemail from Australia about a first DUI, drinking gin while delivering food, accidentally racing an unmarked police car, and finishing the remaining booze in front of the cops. Dave also dives into listener emails about 2C drugs, psychedelic chemistry, his latest obsession with air fryer chicken thighs, and his fantasy “ultimate junkie cocktail”—before quickly reminding everyone how grateful he is to be sober.
Then comes a fascinating deep dive into the lives of Duane Allman, Greg Allman, Dickey Betts, Stevie Ray Vaughan, David Crosby, Jerry Garcia, and the complicated relationship between genius, addiction, recovery, and music.
Alan shares remarkable stories about Stevie Ray Vaughan’s dedication to Alcoholics Anonymous, how his recovery inspired countless musicians to get sober, the Allman Brothers’ heroin use, the infamous Scooter Herring drug trial that nearly destroyed the band, Duane Allman’s opposition to shooting heroin despite using it himself, and Greg Allman’s controversial testimony that fractured relationships throughout the rock world.
The conversation also explores psychedelic culture, the legendary mushroom logo, Eat a Peach, Dickey Betts’ complexity, Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead, and why some of rock’s greatest musicians remain endlessly fascinating decades after their deaths.
ALL THAT AND MORE MORE MORE MORE on a new Allman based episode of that good ol dopey podcast!
