I was in Richmond Hill, Ga a couple of years ago on a service call. The day before, I called the client to arrange a time to make the visit, and he was very polite. The next day when I pulled up to the neighborhood gate, which was on an old rural road in the middle of nowhere, I called his cell phone number and only got voice mail. The greeting message that I heard said, “You’ve reached Gregory, please leave a message.” So I did. Soon after, a lady met me at the gate. She told me that Gregory had just called her to let her know I was waiting… and we proceeded into the neighborhood.
The road was lined with old Live Oak trees filled with Spanish moss. I pulled up into the driveway to park, and then we went into the house through the garage. The garage was spotless with a checkerboard floor, and it housed a couple of cars hidden by covers. The house was neat and was decorated with an eclectic sense of style. I proceeded to the bedroom to make some repairs to a poster bed.
After making the repairs, I walked through the house and passed an interesting room that was kind of a man’s cave. There were 4 old restored barber’s chairs that sat in front of a large screen TV. You know the ones, chrome with red leather seats… but I believe the red leather had been replaced by spotted cow hides that still had the hair on them. “Pretty stylish,” I thought to myself. As I kept walking, I passed an old black and white framed photograph on the wall in a hallway. It was an earthen bank on the side of a highway that had a carving dug into it that read “REMEMBER DUANE ALLMAN”.
How odd, I thought. Who would have that picture on their wall. Next to it I saw another picture of a man with long hair and a pony tail. He had a beard and the face of a famous rock star. Then it hit me. I was in Gregg Allman’s home. Unfortunately, he couldn’t be there- his assistant told me that he was working on assembling a tour with Alex Cooley.
She told me how he was nothing like most people think. A man of many talents. She even told me that he had decorated the entire home by himself… and it looked great. Who would have thought that this rock icon had such a talent for interior design.
I would have loved to have met him, and hoped he would call back needing something else- but it never happened. But I still had his cell number… something I would brag about to my friends many times. Although I was asked for it, I never gave anyone the number.
RIP Gregory.
-Geoff
