Something In Gregg Allman’s “Song For Adam” Video Just Screams ‘Duane,’ And It’s Hard To Miss

Rock Legend Gives One Last Gift On His 70th Birthday

It was Gregg Allman’s 70th birthday and despite the fact that he’d been gone 7 months, the late legend still found new and thrilling ways to haunt us with the music of his soul. While fans and friends around the world are celebrating his birthday in a variety of colorful, musical ways, the greatest gift came from Allman himself – the music video for his poignant cover of Jackson Browne’s “Song For Adam,” Southern Blood’s closing track and one of the final songs Allman listened to in the hours before his death.

Written by Jackson Browne after the death of his friend Adam Saylor in 1968, “Song For Adam” is an emotionally charged ballad about the sudden loss of a friend; when paired with the Erica Silverman-directed music video, “Song For Adam” becomes a glimpse into the heart and soul of Gregg Allman as he prepared for an afterlife that he knew would hold those he spent over 40 years missing.

According to Allman’s widow Shannon in an interview with Garden And Gun, the night before his death was spent staying up past 4:00 a.m., reminiscing and listening to “Song for Adam” repeatedly.

Decades long friend Chank Middleton says, “It reminded him so much of Duane, and he never stopped mourning his brother.”

The music video stars Jamestown Revival’s Zach Chance and Yates Robertson as a pair of motorcycle riding pals whose long sandy blonde and dark brown hair make them look eerily like late Allman Brothers Band alumni Duane Allman and Berry Oakley, killed within a year of each other in near identical motorcycle accidents. Actor Johnny McPhail plays one of them as a wizened old man, roaming the earth on his own but forever looking and longing for something hiding in his peripheral vision but always just out of view.

On the 47th anniversary of Duane’s passing, it’s hard to ignore the parallels between this artfully crafted music video for “Song For Adam” and Gregg’s own life – but strangely enough, the sight of McPhail’s character riding off into the sunset to finally chase the phantoms of his past reassure us that Allman had the same thing in mind when he left us, and we know exactly who sat at the edge of the road waiting for him when he got there.