John C. "Scooter" Herring, former Allman Bros. road manager
Richard
The Associated Press
Tue, Nov. 13, 2007
MACON, Ga. --John C. "Scooter" Herring, a former Allman Brothers Band
road manager whose drug conviction in the 1970s contributed to the
breakup of the band, has died. He was 67.
Herring died Saturday, a spokesman for Hart's Mortuary in Macon said.
A funeral service is scheduled Wednesday at Harvest Cathedral in
Macon.
Federal prosecutors went after Herring during the 1970s, charging that
he helped supply singer and keyboardist Gregg Allman with cocaine. To
avoid criminal charges, Allman testified against Herring and gave
details of his own drug use.
In 1976, Herring was convicted of five drug offenses and was sentenced
to 75 years in prison. Considering Allman's testimony an act of
betrayal, the band soon broke up.
Herring's 1976 conviction was later overturned by the 5th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals. In 1979, facing a new trial, he pleaded guilty to a
two-count accusation which carried no more than five years in jail and
$35,000 in fines.
Herring's daughter, Kellye Ivey Brown of Macon, told The (Macon)
Telegraph she knew there were a lot of infamous stories about her
father, but she just knew him as dad.
"He's a granddaddy, a great-grandfather, a lot different from the
hippie persona. He was all of that for sure," Brown said.
She said Herring lived the last few years at Vineville Christian
Towers in Macon.
"I've been getting phone calls all day from people wanting to make
sure I knew how much he did for all of them," Brown said.
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/251/story/175914.html
The Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer
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SC) before all this court crap broke them up
wazzzy
set for Wednesday
John C. "Scooter" Herring, who lived much of his life on the outskirts
of rock 'n' roll fame and starred in one of the most sensational
trials in city history, died this weekend. He was 67.
Services for Herring are scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday at Harvest
Cathedral, 2254 Rocky Creek Road.
Herring lived a quiet, charitable life the last few years in Macon,
and he likely died of heart disease, his family said. But he was once
a defendant in a federal drug trial that gripped the rock 'n' roll
world's attention, featured testimony from rock legend Gregg Allman
that - according to some - helped break up one of Macon's most famous
contributions to music history: The Allman Brothers Band.
Herring was originally from Thomasville, but moved to Macon and
graduated from Lanier High School. He met Allman in 1973, when Herring
was a motorcycle mechanic. The two became friends and Herring was
hired into The Allman Brothers Band, which had exploded onto the
national scene.
He was Allman's personal assistant and, at 6' 6", his bodyguard.
But as Allman fell deep into an admitted drug addiction, the band drew
federal attention. Herring and Macon pharmacist Joe G. Fuchs took the
rap as Allman's main drug suppliers in a series of trials that played
out here in the late 1970s.
Allman was granted immunity and testified against Herring during a
trial that featured death threats and around-the-clock protection for
Allman, courtesy of federal agents. Herring's conviction was thrown
out, largely because of the way the trial judge handled jurors who
might have read a Macon Telegraph story about the death threats
against Allman. Herring eventually pleaded guilty to lesser charges
and served far less than the initial 75-year sentence. Southern
rockers put on benefit concerts to help pay for his legal defense,
which ran into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"That boy isn't going to jail for no 75 years," Charlie Daniels was
quoted as saying in 1979. "He ain't done nothin' to deserve it."
Herring ended up spending about three years in prison, his sister,
Angel Herring Walther, said Tuesday. She said that Pres. Jimmy Carter
pardoned him, shortening his time in jail.
Herring made a lasting impression on people, and Walther said the
family found a birthday card from Prince, the famed musician who
performed at the Super Bowl this year, as they went through her
brother's stuff. His father gave him the nickname "Scooter," because
of the way he scooted around as a baby, she said.
"If you were his friend, you knew it," Walther said. "And he would
give you the shirt off of his back. He was a friend for life."
Walther said the Muppet character Scooter, who served as the gofer on
The Muppet Show and as road manager for the rock band "Dr. Teeth and
the Electric Mayhem" in the original Muppet Movie, is based on her
brother.
"The story has it, Jim Henson said he was just unforgettable," Walther
said. "So he made him an unforgettable character. ... He even dressed
him exactly as Scooter dressed."
Many felt Allman's testimony, and the bitterness that followed,
dissolved the band, which has since reunited. But Herring denied that,
and said long ago that he had forgiven Allman, if not the federal
authorities that pressured him into testifying. Herring also blamed
himself for seeking out the limelight that came from touring with the
band, both as Allman's drug connection and, eventually, the tour
manager for his solo act. "You might say I was his crutch," Herring
said in 1979.
Willie Perkins, the now-retired Allman Brothers tour manager who
initially hired Herring, said Herring was "a man of character."
"And he never let me down in any of our working relationships or
personal relationships," Perkins said. "I'll leave others to make
whatever judgements they want to make."
In later years Herring was a tour manager for Sea Level, which was
fronted by former Allman Brothers member and current Rolling Stone
Chuck Leavell, who lives in Twiggs County. He also worked with
Grinderswitch, another southern rock band with local ties. In fact,
Grinderswitch member Larry Howard has since become a minister and will
officiate at Herring's funeral today, as Herring requested in his
will, Herring's sister said.
Walther said she wasn't sure Tuesday afternoon where Herring would be
laid to rest, but the family hoped to bury him at Macon Memorial Park,
where his infant son was buried in 1973. She didn't know whether
Allman would attend her brother's funeral today.
"We're probably going to be surprised at the people that are there,"
she said. "He's worked for so many different bands."
Herring's daughter, Kellye Ivey Brown of Macon, said she knew there
were a lot of "wild stories" about her father, but to her he was just
a dad and granddad. He moved back to Macon a couple of years ago and,
though his health was often bad, he attended his great-granddaughter's
softball games every time he could.
"Every hit she got, every base she got on, she got a shiny dollar
coin," Brown said.
Herring lived the last couple of years at Vineville Christian Towers,
a Macon retirement home. Brown said her phone has been ringing since
he died, with people at the home wanting to make sure she knew "how
much he did for all of them."
"When he cooked a meal up there he shared it with anybody who need
it," she said. "He did grocery shopping for them. He went to Cordele
to buy truckloads of produce to distribute at Vineville Christian
Towers."
Though Herring got out of the music business many years ago, he did
reconnect with the Allman Brothers family recently. Brown said she and
her husband took him to last month's Georgia Allman Brothers Band
Association "GABBAfest." She said Herring was excited to see his old
friends.
Macon's Kirk West, who has had a long association with the band and
now carries the title "Tour Magician," called Herring "a stand-up
character."
"He was a good guy," West said. "He did a good job for a long time and
took some heat there in the 70s. But he stood up for it, stood up to
it. He told me the other day, he said, "Look, there was no ill will,
no ill feelings with anybody over any of what down. Everybody did what
I wanted them to do.'"
By Travis Fain