 Gregg Allman first began exploring music during his teen years in Daytona Beach , Florida . He and his brother , Duane Allman , founded their first band , the Allman Joys , in the mid @-@ 1960s . That group evolved into the Hour Glass , which recorded two albums for Liberty Records between 1967 and 1968 . Subsequently , the duo founded the Allman Brothers Band , which grew in fame in the early 1970s due to their live shows , which combined traditional electric blues , jazz @-@ style improvisation and self @-@ penned instrumentals . Their 1971 live album At Fillmore East represented a commercial and artistic breakthrough . Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle crash later that year , but the band continued on , recording 1972 's Eat a Peach , a hybrid live / studio album that became an even greater success , shipping gold and peaking at number four on Billboard 's Top 200 Pop Albums chart . 
