David Browne
View all posts by David Browne June 15, 2026
The question “Can white men sing the blues?” has been debated for decades, especially once earnest white kids began taking a crack at the music in the 1960s. But in the case of Gregg Allman, no one ever raised the question.
It wasn’t simply a matter of his husky, often pained voice and the genuine sense of despair, desperation, and boastfulness conveyed by it. It was also a reflection of the tragedy that haunted Allman’s life, from the murder of his father when Gregg was 2 years old to the motorcycle accidents that took the lives of his brother Duane and Allman Brothers Band member Berry Oakley a year apart in the 1970s.
Add in the impact of fame, celebrity, chemical temptations, and divorces — especially with dealing with a relatively shy person like Allman — and he more than earned his right to sing the blues. “You’ve got to consider why anybody wants to become a musician anyway,” Allman told Rolling Stone in 1973. “I played for peace of mind.”
[This list was originally published in 2017. The new documentary Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul, produced in part by Rolling Stone, chronicles Allman’s life and career via a rare 2014 interview, conducted just three years before his death from complications from liver cancer. While the doc digs deep into Allman’s personal troubles, addiction chief among them, it’s rooted firmly in the songs he wrote and performed. These are his 20 essentials.]
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“It’s Not My Cross to Bear” (1969)
Image Credit: Ginny Winn/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images The first Allman vocal on the first Allmans album starts out perfectly, with a throaty roar. One of the earliest songs he showed to his bandmates (and written when Gregg was in L.A. and hanging out with future members of Poco), this slow-blues declaration of independence from a bad relationship sets the bar high. Sounding wise beyond his years (he was only 22), Allman alternates between toughness and tenderness in the same song.
