Neal Preston

Listen to "Neal Preston Exhilerated And Exhausted" on Spreaker. When Gregg Allman decided to name what turned out to be his last studio album Southern Blood, the album cover was going to feature a painting done by New York artist Vincent Castiglia, who paints using human blood. Gregg sent him two vials of his blood, but then decided to go in a different direction with the album's artwork, opting instead to show his property in Savannah, Georgia. Gregg Allman's manager, Michael Lehman, on the cover photo of Gregg's new album, Southern Blood. OC:...somewhere out there. :31 "The image on the cover is taken in his backyard actually looking out towards the river and there’s a wooden walkway that heads out towards his dock as well as some trees with some Spanish moss hanging and that’s the image that you’ll see and that Gregg saw every single day when he would sit out on his back patio, or sit out by the pool. And very often he would take walks towards the dock. And the reason that we chose that image is it just looks out towards the beyond where Gregg was and that’s where Gregg is, somewhere out there.” But, with Castiglia still having Gregg's blood, his family went ahead with a portrait. Michael Lehman, Gregg Allman's manager, on the blood art portrait of Gregg included with the deluxe edition of Gregg's last album, Southern Blood. OC:...to make the painting. :30 “After his passing Vincent was commissioned to paint a portrait of Gregg, and the kids, as well as myself, looked at many different images to determine what would be best ’cause Gregg never sat for the portrait. And they settled on a Neil Preston photo from the early ’70s and Vincent painted that. Now the interesting thing is there actually wasn’t enough blood in the two vials that Gregg had given him to paint the portrait, so some of the kids contributed their own blood to make this painting.” That portrait is available with the deluxe editions of Southern Blood, and the original painting will tour the country as part of any celebrations related to the album, as well as an Allman exhibition that's in the works.