Music legend Gregg Allman has died on Saturday at age 69, according to a statement on his website.
Allman “passed away peacefully at his home in Savannah, Georgia,” according to the site. The organist and singer for The Allman Brothers Band helped create the Southern rock genre.
Allman cancelled some tour dates last year because he was “under his doctor’s care at the Mayo Clinic” due to “serious health issues,” according to the Associated press. He canceled the remainder his 2017 tour back in March.
The statement on his official website says that as Allman faced a variety of health problems.
“Gregg considered being on the road playing music with his brothers and solo band for his beloved fans essential medicine for his soul. Playing music lifted him up and kept him going during the toughest of times,” the statement continued.
Allman was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and raised in Florida by a single mother after his father was shot to death. The rocker was known for his long blond hair and songs including “Whipping Post,” ″Ramblin’ Man” and “Midnight Rider.”
Gregg and his late brother, guitarist Duane Allman, founded the legendary Allman Brothers Band and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. Gregg Allman was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.
The Allman Brothers Band first started in 1969 and their seminal live album “At Fillmore East” in 1971 made them household names among rock fans. Duane was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1971 and Gregg was its sole namesake for another 45 years.
Gregg told the Associated Press in 2012 that he thought about Duane on a daily basis and could sometimes feel his presence.
“I can tell when he’s there, man,” Allman told the AP. “I’m not going to get all cosmic on you. But listen, he’s there.”
The Allman Brothers Band broke up several times over the years and had a revolving door of members. Allman admitted that he “spent years overindulging in women, drugs and alcohol before getting sober in the mid-1990s,” in his memoir, according to the AP.
Allman also had a short-lived marriage to Cher and the pair released a series of duets under the name “Allman and Woman.”