In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Derek Trucks opens up about his life with the late Gregg Allman and some of his lasting memories with his former bandmate. 

Trucks says he knew Allman was suffering from liver cancer. “Everybody knew it was imminent,” he recalled. The guitarist received the news of his passing while pulling up to a show in Jacksonville. “You just go into self-preservation mode and try to block it out a little bit. You’ve got a few gigs to do. But I remember sitting backstage trying to think through it and I put on ‘Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More,’ and that was when it hit home.”

He also recounted a number of stories from his childhood involving Allman, from his very first memory of seeing Gregg perform when Trucks was just four years old to eventually becoming his bandmate. “He was very sweet, but just his persona was intimidating,” Trucks said of his childhood memories of Allman. “The way he walked and talked and acted. He had whatever the ‘it’ thing is. It was like meeting Willie Mays or something.”

Trucks continued, “He was the keeper of the mojo. It was just effortless for him, that part of it. He was just a bona fide fucking badass. There’s a lot of pretenders and a lot of people who think that torches get passed, but there’s not another Gregg.” 

Read the full interview here.