Singer, songwriter, and keyboardist Johnny Neel passed away on Sunday at the age of 70 following a nearly 60-year music career that included time in the Allman Brothers Band and Dickey Betts Band. In the wake of his passing, Neal’s former ABB bandmate Warren Haynes took to social media to share a few words on his late collaborator.
“Aside from being an amazing musician and singer, Johnny was one of the funniest people on the planet — a true character,“ Haynes wrote. “‘Johnny Neel stories,’ as we refer to them in our little chunk of the music world, are legendary. Some of you reading this will know some of those stories and even ones that I don’t know — but I know a ton.”
Neel joined the Allman Brothers Band in 1989 for the group’s 20th-anniversary tour and co-wrote four songs on the band’s 1990 studio album, Seven Turns, including chart-topping single “Good Clean Fun”. He only played with the band for one year, though he co-wrote “Maydell”, which appeared on the Allman Brothers Band’s final studio album, Hittin’ the Note, in 2003.
“The first time I met Johnny was at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville when I had just moved there,” Haynes recalled. “He was sitting in with a band at a blues jam and he sang a song and played harmonica. The first thing I noticed, other than that he was blind, was that he sang better than their singer and he played better harp than their harp player. After he was done, I approached him and introduced myself and told him how much I enjoyed hearing him to which he replied ‘I’m really a keyboard player but this band doesn’t have keyboards.’ ‘Wow,’ I thought. He must be a helluva keyboard player — and he was.”
Born blind on June 11th, 1954 in Wilmington, DE, Neel cut his first single, “Talking About People”, at age 12. He moved to Nashville in 1984 and remained a fixture of Music City for the next 40 years. He played keyboards and organ on records for a range of acts including Willie Nelson, Todd Snider, David Allan Coe, Jeff Coffin (Dave Matthews Band), Haynes’ Gov’t Mule, and more. Before joining the Allman Brothers Band, Neel and Haynes got their start as session musicians around Nashville.
“After that, Johnny and I joined the Dickey Betts Band together, along with Matt Abts and Marty Privette,” Haynes remembered. “That was a powerful band and the success and strength of that band, and the record ‘Pattern Disruptive’ that we made together, led to Johnny and I joining the Allman Brothers together. While on the road with the Allman Brothers, Johnny and I would get adjoining rooms so I could ‘keep an eye’ on him. Needless to say, many stories arose from that situation as well, but again they will remain untold — unless you happen to find yourself in a closer, more private environment where they flow like wine (and other things) in the company of like-minded musicians and friends of Johnny Neel.”
Over a 30-year span, Neel released a dozen of his own albums and appeared on the soundtracks to blockbuster Disney films Finding Nemo, Cars, and Ratatouille. He formed several all-star bands over the years including a Pink Floyd tribute Blue Floyd with Allen Woody, Marc Ford (The Black Crowes), Matt Abts, and Berry Oakley Jr.; Deep Fried with George Porter Jr., Brian Stoltz, and Abts; The Grease Factor with Jeff Sipe and Count M’Butu; and more. After suffering a stroke in 2019, he returned to the stage and performed through the 2020s at Nashville’s 3rd and Lindsley.
“Mostly what I want to focus on, however, is what a musical person Johnny was,” Haynes concluded. “There was always music in his head. It was his savior. Whenever we were writing together, he was an endless fountain of ideas, and the same on stage or in the studio. His uncanny ability to draw from so many musical styles and genres was amazing and his gift for improvisation was unmatched. We wrote a lot of music together, we played a lot of music together, and we traveled the world together, and maybe most importantly, we had a lot of fun times and created a lot of beautiful memories. Hence the stories. Johnny’s music and his legend will live on forever. Miss you Neely.”
RIP, Johnny Neel.
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