“Butch Trucks, a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, tragically died the night of January 24 in West Palm Beach, Florida,” the band’s public-relations firm said in an official statement.

 

“His wife, four children, four grandchildren and all of the Allman Brothers Band, their families and Road Crew survive Butch. The Trucks and Allman Brothers Band families request all of Butch’s friends and fans to please respect our privacy at this time of sadness for our loss. Butch will play on in our hearts forever.”

Born Claude Hudson Trucks in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1947, he started the ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND with Duane and Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley and Jai Johanny Johanson in 1969. 
 

The ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND left the road in 2014 after a series of celebrated concerts, and Trucks concentrated on work with the FREIGHT TRAIN BAND. That group, which had another round of dates set for March, included Berry Oakley Jr., son of ALLMANS’ late co-founding bassist. (The elder Oakley died in a 1972 motorcycle accident just three blocks from where Duane Allman crashed the year before.) Trucks also led the LES BRERS project, which featured various ALLMAN BROTHERS alumni, and spearheaded various Allmans-related super-jams recently.

There had been talk last year of a possible ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND reunion, though Trucks’ nephew Derek Trucks – a late-period member who’s now focused on his own TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND – had already declined to participate.