When the Allman Brothers Band formed in 1969, drummer Jaimoe became the first musician guitarist Duane Allman recruited for the group. More than five decades later, as he celebrates his 82nd birthday on July 8, he's also the last surviving original member of one of rock's most influential bands, a role he recently reflected on with remarkable honesty.
Following the death of guitarist Dickey Betts in April 2024, Jaimoe became the only surviving member of the band's original lineup, which also included Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, Berry Oakley and fellow drummer Butch Trucks. It's a reality he admits he somehow always expected.
"I was the first one and I knew I would be the last," Jaimoe recently told Rolling Stone. "Some things you just know."
Born John Lee Johnson in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, Jaimoe built his musical foundation playing with soul legends including Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Joe Tex and Clarence Carter before crossing paths with Duane Allman in famed recording studio Muscle Shoals. Although he dreamed of becoming a jazz drummer, that meeting changed the course of rock history. As one half of the Allman Brothers Band's groundbreaking twin-drum attack alongside Trucks, Jaimoe helped create a sound that blended blues, jazz, country and rock into something entirely new.
His love of jazz proved especially influential. According to a 2020 interview with the Wall Street Journal, Jaimoe's passion for artists like John Coltrane helped shape the band's improvisational approach, bringing a freer, more adventurous spirit to Southern rock. As Jaimoe explained, "Music is music, and there's no such things as jazz or rock 'n' roll."
That influence wasn't lost on guitarist Warren Haynes, who joined the Allman Brothers Band in 1989.
"In some ways he's one of the most defining members," Haynes told Rolling Stone. "The Allman Brothers would not have been the same without him. That dimension would have been missing. It played such a big role in the sound of the music."
The band's career was marked by extraordinary highs and devastating losses. Just as At Fillmore East established them as one of America's premier live acts in 1971, Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident. Bassist Oakley died in a remarkably similar accident the following year. Decades later came the deaths of Gregg Allman in 2017, Trucks in 2017 and Betts in 2024, leaving Jaimoe as the final surviving original member.
Looking back, Jaimoe remembers the band's bond as something deeper than simply being coworkers.
"People talk about these 'family bands' and all that stuff, but the Allman Brothers really was like a family," he said. "Anything that was happening, you knew about."
That connection is symbolized by a small mushroom tattoo on his right calf. The original members famously got matching tattoos together in San Francisco in 1971, and today Jaimoe's is the last remaining tattoo worn by an original Allman Brother.
Despite knee replacements, back surgery and countless miles behind a drum kit, Jaimoe has no intention of slowing down. He continues leading Jaimoe's Jasssz Band, is working on a memoir with Allman Brothers historian Alan Paul, and still occasionally reunites with former bandmates to celebrate the music that helped define Southern rock. Asked why he organized the 2020 reunion concert marking the band's 50th anniversary, his answer was wonderfully simple: "I missed playing."
Thirty years after the Allman Brothers Band entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and more than a decade after the group's farewell performance, Jaimoe remains a living link to one of rock's most influential legacies. As the keeper of that history, he continues carrying forward the spirit of the band he helped build from the very beginning.
Related: ’70s Rock Icon Who Died in 2017 Getting New Documentary ‘Music of My Soul’
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