Michael Allman, Revealed

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Michael has two Facebook pages because one is full.  He has 3500 followers.  A lot of folks try to friend Michael through Janie because they can’t get on Michael’s page. People will do anything these days on FB to get next to someone talented and famous.  Michael takes self-promotion on Facebook as a serious part of his work.  He says he has to promote himself on Facebook because he doesn’t want anyone else to bs their way through territory that is strictly his.  He said, when I asked about his middle name, Sean, that his Mom loved the 007 role played by Sean Connery.

Michael has two sons, both completely different.  One is perfect and the other is a terror.  He dearly loves them both and embraces the unfortunate with the successful.  Originally from Detroit where he raised his kids, when he could be there, they still live up north, but one son does travel to see his Dad perform.  He was a bit sad when he offered up the fact that just as his Dad wasn’t there for him, Michael was barely present while his kids were growing up.  Sande and I said to Michael and Janie…”what other people think of you is none of your business.”  Wrap your brain around that…it takes you out of those negative and dark places of internalizing and hurting yourself because of the hurt other people want to put on you.

Michael told us he fell off the stage one night.  The resulting conclusion was “no more Yaeger Bombs during a performance.”  He agrees that if he arrives at a venue too early there is a definite possibility of excesses of mind-altering alcoholic substances and debauchery that can work against his being able to stand up straight and negotiate the end of the stage, etc.  So many cool people have fallen off stages, the last famous one being Steven Tyler.  Maybe it’s just something you have to do once to establish yourself as a true rocker, something like being able to say you’ve been a member of the mile-high club since 1976.

I had noticed that Michael had a gorgeous heavy silver necklace with a tooth hanging from it, topped off in silver.  “Love your tooth” I said, hoping a story would be behind it.  Well, there was a very funny story behind it, and I will tell you this story, beginning with Michael and Janie going out and partying one night and taking a cab home.  They’re driving along and the cab runs over an alligator! A 9 foot alligator! Thinking it was rather dead, Michael and Janie got out and checked it out.  They were on top of it when it opened its mouth, exhaled the death rattle, and went to the big swamp in the sky.  Then they saw a tooth lying in the road and took it with them.  They called the police to get the alligator taken away and for a surprise birthday gift on July 3rd, Janie presented the necklace with the tooth wrapped in silver on a gorgeous Tiffany chain. Michael didn’t have words to express how much that meant to him.    He likes to joke that if he loses a tooth he has one to fall back on.  If I forgot to previously mention another talent that Lady Jane possesses, she keeps a video/photo online Facebook diary of all their gigs and friends.   A wonderful thing to look back on and trace your musical and personal history.

Michael was very generous and gave Sande and I four of his CD’s, and autographed 2 with a sharpie that Lady Jane carries with them wherever they go.  Our whole experience with this couple was laid-back, pleasurable and fun. I have said before that it can be like pulling teeth when you interview another person, but this was over an hour of conversations, sometimes the same and sometimes 4 people talking all at the same time.  It was a real, feel-good time!  For more information and a calendar of performances for the Michael Allman Band, log onto his website at www.michaelallmanband.com.  We are so happy that the band will be playing at the Swordfish Grill on Sunday, 10-27-13 at their annual Stone Crab Fest.  Many more dates are on the website calendar, so you can catch the band in other Florida venues.

I cannot possibly end this interview without giving my personal opinion of the CD Michael gave me of his original tunes and the all-out talent of the band as a hole.  I grooved to it through Sarasota downtown traffic and construction.  I brought it in the house and played it on the best old boom box in town.  I listened for something familiar, like his father’s voice.  There may be the tiniest glint of an older, legendary Allman Brother, but Michael distinctively has his own sound and a great spin on Southern blues as well as rock n’ roll.  I see a bright future for the Michael Allman Band.

Thanks, Michael and Lady Jane, for your way cool company and words, Renee Bennett at Ace’s for allowing us to conduct the interview at your venie, and let me not forget Mark Kracker, the man and friend that made this interview possible.  Rock on, my friends!