Second Home
The Allman Brothers were living in Macon, Georgia when older brother Duane put the legenday band together. From the beginning in 1969, Gainesville was a regular (usually early) stop on any Allman Brothers road trip or tour. The Allmans were thought of as a band from Georgia, but Duane and Gregg grew up and went to high school in Daytona Beach, so no matter where or when after, the Allman Brothers were always a Florida band.
((( Crossing the (Fla/Ga) Line )))
alligator @ The Great Southern Music Hall
[FROM THE TOP]
A popular venue for shows on the UF campus was the Reitz Union Lawn, here
music
HOMEGROWN ROCK N ROLL (BO DIDDLEY)
TOM PETTY ’81 (FATHER KNOWS BEST)
MUDCRUTCH ’71 (TOM PETTY INTERVIEW)
EAGLES w/ JIMMY BUFFETT
JIMMY BUFFETT’S BACK
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (TICKET QUEST)
PAT BENATAR @ THE FLORIDA GYM
FRANK ZAPPA (HALLOWEEN ANGEL)
TALKING HEADS (NEW WAVE @ THE BANDSHELL)
THE POLICE (ROADTRIP TO TOMORROW LAND)
ROLLING STONES (STONED IN ORLANDO)
Southbound
Songs of the North Florida South
ALLMAN BROTHERS (FLORIDA NATIVES)
@ THE BANDSHELL
SEA LEVEL (CHUCK LEAVELL)
THE DIXIE DREGS (SOUTHERN FUSION)
TOM PETTY (HOMETOWN BOY)
MUDCRUTCH (1971) THE INTERVIEW
“YOU GOT LUCKY” (TWO TICKETS TO TOM PETTY PARADISE)
DIXIE DREGS
STEVE FORBERT
COWBOY
LES DUDEK
FAT CHANCE BAND
OUTLAWS
LYNYRD SKYNYRD
BLACKFOOT
.38 SPECIAL
MOLLY HATCHET
ATLANTA RHYTHM SECTION
SWIMMING POOL Qs
PYLON
CMT
Music Everywhere
The Rock N Roll Roots of a Southern Town
By Marty Jourard
When the Beatles launched into fame in 1963, they inspired a generation to pick up an instrument and start a band. Rock and roll took the world by storm, but one small town in particular seemed to pump out prominent musicians and popular bands at factory pace.
Many American college towns have their own story to tell when it comes to their rock and roll roots, but the story of Gainesville, Florida, is unique: dozens of resident musicians launched into national prominence, eight inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a steady stream of major acts rolled through on a regular basis. From Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers to Stephen Stills and the Eagles’ Don Felder and Bernie Leadon, Gainesville cultivated some of the most celebrated musicians and songwriters of the time.
Marty Jourard, a member of the chart-topping band the Motels, delves into the individual stories of the musicians, businesses, and promoters that helped foster innovative, professional music and a vibrant creative atmosphere during the mid-sixties and seventies. The laid-back southern town was also host to a clash of cultures. It was home to intellectuals and rednecks, liberals and conservatives, racists and civil rights activists, farmers, businessmen, students, and hippies. Although sometimes violent and chaotic, these diverse forces brought wild rock and roll energy to the music scene and nourished it with an abundance of musical fare that included folk, gospel, soul, country, blues, and Top Forty hits. Gainesville musicians developed a sound all their own and a music scene that, decades later, is still launching musicians to the top of the charts.
Music Everywhere brings to light a key chapter in the history of American rock and roll―a time when music was a way of life and bands popped up by the dozen, some falling by the wayside but others leaving an indelible mark. Here is the story of the people, the town, and a culture that nurtured a wellspring of talent.
road trips
DIRE STRAITS (VINNY’S NIGHT IN JACKSONVILLE)
ROLLING STONES (TANGERINE BOWL)
movies (back home)
THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW
OriginalNoise
Southbound
1971 — Mudcrutch (Tom Petty)
In the woods, springs, beach party, depot street,
1972 —
1973 — Brothers and Sisters (Chuck Leavell)
1974 — Gregg Allman (Homecoming)
Return to Forever
John Moran (Great Southern Music Hall house photographer)
1975 —
1976 — Sea Level
1977 —
1978 —
1979 — Dixie Dregs Night of the Living Dregs
1980 —
1981 —
1982 — Surprisingly Southern JazzJaco Pastorius (Bass Guitar)
That Saturday afternoon at UF, we were walking down Fraternity Row toward Lake Alice field where Sea Level was playing a show. We knew Sea Level, Allman Brother Chuck Leavell‘s band, but we had never heard of the opening act, The Dixie Dregs. Being on the bill with Sea Level, we expected The Dregs to be a good Southern Rock band, the kind Georgia’s Capricorn Records was known for.
The Dregs easily lived up to Capricorn’s high musical standard, but surprised us to hear how far beyond North Florida they took us. Steve Morse, The Dregs’ leader and guitarist, was much more sophisticated than your typical Rock a Rock N Roll guitarist. He was better described as an Electric Jazz guitarist or as many would say, a player of Fusion. And with a violin (Allen Sloan) in the band, The Dregs sounded more like the Mahavishnu Orchestra, than Molly Hatchet.
LAKE ALICE: “DON’T FEED THE ALLIGATORS.” Chuck Leavell, who had replaced Duane Allman, fit in well with the Allman Brothers, writing much of the band’s Brothers and Sisters album, and brought to the Allmans a funkier, honky-tonk sound. And in his own band, Sea Level, Leavell classified as “Jazz.” Not really Fusion, and still southern, but sounding as a sort of Southeastern Steely Dan. No matter what it was called, it was Leavell’s virtuoso piano that attracted most attention, and it was a bonus that it leaned toward Country’s back woods.Looking back, we probably shouldn’t have been surprised by Steve Morse and The Dixie Dregs, but we were. They were far from the Lynyrd Skynyrd and Outlaws sound we expected, sounding more like King Crimson, and with Allen Sloan’s violin, more like the Mahavishnu Orchestra than the Allman Brothers. At the end of the Lake Alice day, we all left satisfied, and more than “pleasantly” surprised. STEVE FORBERT @ LAKE ALICE FIELD
Martha and Meredith on the bus
Beyond The Brothers
Dickey Betts (Great Southern)
w / Chuck Leavell, Butch Trucks, and Jimmy Hall
When Gregg quit the band amidst his trouble with Cher and the law, his bandmates went on without him.
((( “Bougainvillea” )))
Dickey Betts
w / Chuck Leavell, Butch Trucks, and Jimmy Hall (Wet Willie)
Soon after the 1982 Allman Brothers show at the Bandshell, the band broke up. The show had many high points (including meeting Steve Z in the back), but the band wasn’t what Gainesville and UF had come to expect. Gregg was married to Cher, and in trouble with the law (and Les Dudek?). It wasn’t a surprise to hear the Allman Brothers were calling it quits, but it was sad to hear.
Though, the Southern Rock void was filled quickly. Dickey Betts, in the spirit of Great Southern band, recruited Chuck Leavell (the pianist who filled in for Duane, and was a most important contributor to the Allman Brothers’ 1973 album, Brothers and Sisters) and Wet Willie’s vocalist Jimmy Hall, along with his horn section. (ABOVE) A band suited to play the Florida Theater …
1983 — Although we had enjoyed the Allman Brothers’ show at the Bandshell a year before (especially running into, and reconnecting with Steve Z), the band was at a historic low. As low as when Duane and Barry died, and even lower creatively.
Gregg was infamously married to Cher, and in trouble with the law, almost as much as with Les Dudek, the once Allman Brother guitarist, and another of Cher’s post-Sonny husbands.
As dramatic musically, was that Chuck Leavell had left the band to start his own, called Sea Level. Soon after the 1982 show at the Bandshell, Gregg called it quits, the first time there was no Allman Brothers Band since its debut in 1969.
Almost immediately, Dickey Betts (an original guitarist with Duane) called Chuck Leavell and Butch Trucks, asking if they wanted to get together and play some shows. Both agreed, and then recruiting Wet Willie singer John Hall and his horn section, Dickey had a high-energy, honky-tonk jam band. Still swampy, but with a noticeable leaning toward Jazz, Funk, and Swing.
Live in Gainesville, Florida
Southbound
Songs of the North Florida South
GAINESVILLE ROCKED
ALLMAN BROTHERS (FLORIDA NATIVES)
@ THE BANDSHELL
SEA LEVEL (CHUCK LEAVELL)
THE DIXIE DREGS (SOUTHERN FUSION)
TOM PETTY (GAINESVILLE’S FAVORITE SON)
MUDCRUTCH (TOM PETTY INTERVIEW 1971)
“YOU GOT LUCKY” (TWO TICKETS TO TOM PETTY PARADISE)
EAGLES w/ JIMMY BUFFETT
FRANK ZAPPA (KISS MY ASS / HALLOWEEN 1979)
PAT BENATAR (@ THE FLORIDA GYM)
TALKING HEADS (POST PUNK AT THE BANDSHELL)
road trips
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (TICKET QUEST)
THE POLICE (ROADTRIP TO TOMMORROW)
DIRE STRAITS (VINNY’S NIGHT IN JACKSONVILLE)
movies
THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (THE MOVIE WITHOUT AN END)
Since its construction in 1928, The Florida Theatre was Gainesville’s premier entertainment venue, until it closed in 2020(?)., In the beginning, the theater featured silent film and live stage shows, accompanied by orchestras, and musical acts of all kinds. The Theater’s opening night featured Frank Morris and his 18-piece ensemble, the Brilliant Florida Orchestra. Performances were often broadcast by the city-owned radio station, WJAX including Frank Morris and His Variety Vendors, Blue Steele and His Internationally Famous Radio Orchestra, Kay and Betty the Children of Jazz, and Banjo James.
Chitlin’ Circuit — Gainesville’s Cotton Club
On the Outskirts of (Down) Town
The Chitlin’ Circuit in Gainesville, Florida, included the Cotton Club, which was a venue that provided a space for African American performers and audiences during the Jim Crow era. The Cotton Club, originally built in 1940-1941 as a Post Exchange for Camp Blanding, was later acquired by William and Eunice Perryman and became the Perry Theater, primarily serving African Americans. It eventually became known as the Cotton Club, hosting notable artists like James Brown, B.B. King, and Ray Charles, and was a part of the larger Chitlin’ Circuit, a network of venues that catered to Black performers and audiences.
“Get In Get Out”
Randall Bramblett tells the story of a Macon, Georgia band on the North Florida road, that always stopped in Gainesville.
((( roadwork )))
“Green Grass and High Tides”
Outlaws
1975 — Outlaws
((( homegrown )))
“The Devil Went Down To Georgia“
Charlie Daniels Band
1979 — Million Mile Reflections
((( Another Deal )))
“Fire On The Mountain”
Marshal Tucker Band
1974 — Fire on The Mountain
((( Still in the Country )))
“Still in Saigon“
Charlie Daniels Band
1982 — Windows
((( Eight Years After )))
“Uneasy Rider“
Charlie Daniels Band
1973 — Honey in the Rock
((( Vietnam At Home )))
“Knoxville Girl”
Outlaws
1975 — Outlaws
((( Gators in The Boat )))
“The Thrill is Gone”
Marshal Tucker Band
1976 — Fire on The Mountain
((( Country Blues )))
yt.
Marshall Tucker Band @ O’Connell Center
w/ B.B. King
The Cotton Club in Gainesville is now the Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center, which opened in 2019. It’s dedicated to preserving the history of the Chitlin’ Circuit and the legacy of the Black community in Gainesville. The museum hosts events and exhibitions, including one by artist Yvonne Ferguson that highlighted the Chitlin’ Circuit, showcasing the contributions of Black artists and performers. The museum also features a mural painted with the help of students from the Caring and Sharing Learning School, further emphasizing the connection to the community and its history.
alligator
THE MOTELS — Original members Marty Jourard (keyboards and saxophone) and his brother Jeff Jourard (guitar) grew up in Gainesville. Marty Jourard wrote a book about the musical history of Gainesville, titled “Music Everywhere: The Rock and Roll Roots of a Southern Town.” The Motels played Fort Lauderdale twice, and lead singer Martha Davis lived a short while in Tampa, as a kid.
These stories were featured first in the Spring 2025 edition of the Florida Gator Magazine. Want to grab your copy? Print versions are mailed to all UF Alumni Association members three times a year.
From Grateful Dead to Taylor Swift, generations of UF students have celebrated their love of music.
b/ Marty Jourard
Three years after the British Invasion, the faculty-led Lyceum Council was still booking easy listening acts such as Mantovani and folk singer Glenn Yarbrough. So Student Government Productions took over the music booking and began choosing newer artist acts. Suddenly, the music of their generation was everywhere.
In 1968 alone, SGP and the Interfraternity Council teamed up to present The Hollies, The Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Ray Charles, Dion, The 5th Dimension and the Four Tops. The airwaves and concerts rang with this explosion of new rock and pop styles.
It was the beginning of a golden era of music for UF students from the late ’60s through the mid-70s, both on and off campus.
On campus, the university was literally a playground for concerts and performers. Florida’s mild climate made outdoor shows routine — when it wasn’t raining. Maybe you missed the flyers advertising a show, but music filled the air, even on random strolls across campus: Atlanta Rhythm Section on the Union Lawn, local rockers RGF at the Florida Arts Building courtyard, Mudcrutch on the Museum Terrace, Rotary Connection at the Plaza of Americas. Even the banks of Graham Pond made an impromptu amphitheater for smaller acts.
Indoor venues rocked too, such as the University Auditorium and the Rathskeller, a pub in Johnson Hall lost to the UF community when it burned in 1987. The Florida Gym hosted the majority of music concerts, and Elton John played the gym on Oct. 21, 1973, as the last date of his “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” American tour. It was a laid-back time, and the night before the show, Elton was spotted at the Center Theater, seated in the back row, watching the buddy-cop movie “Electra Glide in Blue.”
In clubs across town, the foolproof combination of live music, nickel beer nights, a dance floor and the opposite sex attracted students. Blues guitarist Freddie King and Ted Nugent played the Longbranch Saloon; Johnny Winter played an outdoor show.
For a generation of UF students, music was, in fact, everywhere. The Reitz Union lawn, left, was the scene of outdoor concerts by the likes of the Atlanta Rhythm Section, Herbie Mann, Nitty Gritty Dirt like Jerry Garcia, right, of the Grateful Dead and Elton John. Pre-Heartbreakers, Tom Petty’s band, Mudcrutch performed in campus, and the UF Bandshell and Flavet Field were popular concerts locations, hosting bands like the Talking Heads, top.
Students who weren’t at the shows were listening to assorted AM and FM radio stations (remember the Quadship?) and hanging out at record stores like Chapter 3 and Hyde and Zeke’s, flipping through new and used albums to find an old favorite or discover new tunes.
On football weekends, Fraternity Row resembled a miniature Woodstock, the frats hiring local and regional groups like The Tropics or Ron and the Starfires, all polished professional acts who replicated the sound of hit records with uncanny precision, a precursor to today’s tribute bands. Students could travel frat to frat, music festival style, stopping for a listen or a dance along the way. Rock ’n’ roll was here to stay. Or was it?
Love it or hate it, disco arrived on the scene in the mid ’70s. The clubs installed disco balls and hired DJs to play dance music for couples doing the Hustle or the Bump. Other genres soon followed: new wave, punk, alternative, rap. On campus and in town, rock made room for new music.
Marty Jourard is the author of “Music Everywhere: The Rock and Roll Roots of a Southern Town,” published by University Press of Florida, exploring Gainesville’s unique rock history as the home to eight rock ’n’ roll Hall of Famers. See page 69 for more on the book. Jourard was part of the Gainesville music scene from 1969 to 1975. He is a musician and writer in Seattle and continues to perform as a member of The Motels.
When it came to bringing music to campus, SGP rocked
By Cindy Spence
In his early 20s, and a senior at UF, Chris Qualmann was already a shrewd judge of talent. He had been directing Student Government Productions and its six-figure budget for a couple of years, so it wasn’t unusual for agents for new rock ’n’ roll bands to call him up.
“This guy from Premier Talent, a minor agency, called me and he goes, ‘Chris, you need to book this band; they’re gonna be big, I promise, they’re gonna be really big.’”
The agent needed the concert date, but Qualmann was booked; he had only one open Saturday, at the small campus beer hall, the Rathskeller.
“Will they play this venue?” Qualmann asked. “Will they play for $750?”
The agent said sure, no problem, and the show was booked for May 2, 1981. SGP charged $2 at the door. The students who packed into the Rathskeller got their money’s worth, along with being a part of Rock N Roll history.
The band was U2.
“I think the statute of limitations has expired on this, the capacity of the Rat was about 350, and we might have had 500 people in there,” Qualmann says today.
In the six weeks between when Qualmann booked the band and the concert date at the Rathskeller, U2’s first album, “Boy,” was released in the U.S. and raced up the charts.
“People went crazy for them,” Qualmann says. “They did the encore and then ran out of songs, but the crowd wanted more. Bono told them the band didn’t have any more songs, so they just played ‘I Will Follow’ a second time.”
Music in the Air
Mark Stock (BS ’81) worked with Qualmann in those years, helping SGP and the Interfraternity Council create a soundtrack for UF students.
Ask him about the bands, and he asks, “How much time do you have?”
“Linda Ronstadt
The Eagles
Tom Petty
B.B. King
Grateful Dead
The Plasmatics
Little River Band
Bob Hope
George Burns
Rodney Dangerfield
Robin Williams
Frank Zappa
Bonnie Raitt
Kool & The Gang
Pat Benatar.”
Stock says he did a bit of everything, including providing transportation. UF would not pay for limos, even when they were in the contracts, so Stock drove bands around in his 1970 Dodge Charger.
When he chauffeured Pat Benatar, she spotted a McDonald’s and asked to stop.
“Here’s Pat Benatar, riding around in my car, and walking into a McDonald’s in Gainesville,” Stock says. “It was surreal.”
For all the fun, there was a serious side to bringing music to campus. “We had an attitude,” Qualmann says. “We were going to do something every single weekend.”
Qualmann says he went to his third-floor office at the Reitz Union every day to call agents and promoters, and he and his staff attended the Billboard International Talent Forum to scope out new acts.
“I needed to know who was touring next month, two months from now, six months from now. We had things booked and scheduled, and that’s how we successfully did something every weekend,” Qualmann says. “We used to bid on everything.”
First, SGP placed the big concerts, like the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt in the stadium. Then, he’d look for an open weekend for a free concert. If no one was touring, he’d schedule a free movie on the Union Lawn, or if a smaller act was available, he’d book the Rathskeller.
That work ethic permeated SGP, and many went on to careers in the music industry. After years of negotiating with agents for the biggest rock stars of the era, Qualmann became an entertainment lawyer. Stock went on to Entertainment Tonight and Paramount Pictures.
The students handled the finances. The ticketed concerts paid their way. For the free concerts, they used a six-figure budget generated by student fees.
“We were just a bunch of kids. We didn’t know what we were doing,” Stock says. “Art Sandeen [vice president for student affairs gave us $100,000 and told us to find bands, find dates and put on a show. And we learned how to do that. Who’s going to do that today?”
Miles Wilkin (BSBA ’71) went on to an entertainment career in Broadway, including working with Pete Townsend to create the Broadway production of the rock opera “Tommy.”
“You pinch yourself really,” says Wilkin, a distinguished alumnus for whom the Miles C. Wilkin Acting Studio in the UF School of Theatre + Dance is named. “Were it not for the opportunity as a student to learn about staging an event. I don’t think I would have had the career I have had.”
Qualmann calls SGP a learning lab.
“If you had a line on your resume that said Student Government Productions, that meant something.”
It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll
The Florida Gym hosted many big names, with the Grateful Dead playing the gym’s final concert on Nov. 29, 1980. The band encouraged fans to record and share bootleg tapes of their concerts, making the Florida Gym concert one of the best-documented campus concerts. Today, you can find bootleg recordings online and on the band’s official site.
The gym was due for renovation, and things got out of hand.
“They played an incredible show,” Qualmann says. “It was kind of nuts, and I caught hell for it the next morning. We had people breaking into the gym through bathroom windows, and there was beer on the floors.”
The O’Connell Center opened soon after, and shows shifted from the gym to the O Dome, including Tom Petty’s first time performing with the Heartbreakers in Gainesville. Today, of course, students know Tom Petty for the third quarter anthem, “I Won’t Back Down,” at Gator football games.
For a Halloween Festival at Flavet Field, he booked the Plasmatics for the Bandshell. The band blew up a car on stage.
“It was a perfect storm. Halloween fell on a Saturday and on a full moon,” Qualmann says. “We estimated the crowd at about 20,000. People came from all over.”
All in all, the university and student government leaders appreciated the musicality of the campus culture, courtesy of SGP.
“We felt like kids in the candy shop sometimes,” Qualmann says. “The students loved it, and I think the administration, if they were honest, they loved it, too.”