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Watch Gregg Allman Tell Graham Nash How He Avoided Draft With Foot-Shooting Party

December 8, 2022

Today marks what would have been Gregg Allman’s 75th birthday. While the legendary founding keyboardist and primary vocalist of The Allman Brothers Band sadly died on May 27, 2017 at the age of 69, the world could have lost Gregg much earlier had it not been for the fact that he literally shot himself in the foot to escape being drafted and sent to fight in the Vietnam War.

Gregg being born in 1947 and his brother Duane a year earlier in 1946, made the Brothers Allman prime drafting material as the Vietnam War began to escalate rapidly in the mid to late-1960s. As Gregg relates to fellow music legend Graham Nash in a 1991 interview on Nash’s The Inside Track talk and performance program, both he and Duane were called up for the draft.

Gregg recalled watching the lottery on television. “They drew the lots on TV, the ping pong balls, kinda like a lottery thing,” Gregg told Nash and the audience. “The first one, the first one was December ‘47 and I went ‘God.’ Then the next day, the very next day, the paper came…”

Gregg recalled how Duane had been called up the year before and went in with “lace panties” on. While that idea didn’t work, Duane was able to escape the draft through pure luck as his draft card somehow got lost in the shuffle.

Duane, possibly knowing that Gregg wouldn’t be so lucky, then suggested that Gregg shoot himself in the foot when he was called up the following year. “So we threw a foot-shooting party,” Gregg said. “I can’t believe I’m telling this really.” Gregg being a raconteur, we’ll let him finish the story. Gregg also plays a trio of Allman classics as well as a choice cover.

In honor of Gregg Allman’s 75th birthday, hear him perform and tell Graham Nash about his foot-shooting party in the video below (at about the 19-minute mark) via Beta Gems Lost Media:

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Melissa	00:13:17
Midnight Rider	00:25:11
These Days	00:34:26
Come and Go Blues	00:42:08

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Channel	BetaGems Lost Media
Bands	Gregg Allman (See 17 videos) and Graham Nash (See 14 videos)

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Happy Birthday Gregg Allman: Playing Acoustic With Dickey Betts & Dan Toler In 1981
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Happy Birthday Gregg Allman: Performing ‘Come And Go Blues’ & ‘Melissa’ On ‘Letterman’
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Happy Birthday Gregg Allman: Revisiting The Pre-Allman Brothers Group Hour Glass
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Happy Birthday Gregg Allman: ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’