I had the opportunity to catch up recently with David “Rook” Goldflies, bass player for the Allman Brothers Band from 1978-1982 (appearing on Enlightened Rogues, Reach for the Sky, and Brothers of the Road.) David shared the story of how he joined Dickey Bett’s “Great Southern” and got the nickname “Rook”:

“I was like a babe in the woods there man, I was probably 19 or 20 years old, the band was probably just reaching early 30 or late 20’s, they called me “Rook”. It happened the first day I met the guys. There was an audition in Cincinnati, Ohio. We were in some little motel room… the Carousel Inn on Reading Road, in Cincinnati, Ohio actually. Danny Toler has heard of me through his brother, David Toler, who we called Frankie. Went to the motel room and played a little bit, and Dickey said “Yeah man, great, come on let’s go!” I walked out and they were getting on a bus, and Danny Toler said “walk on board. Look at this guy, the rookie!” They called me the Rook, and that was it.”

David played with Great Southern for a year and recorded “Atlanta’s Burning Down” with Dickey. A year later, the band was playing New York City’s Central Park when Gregg Allman, Jaimoe and Butch came onstage.  Soon after the Allman Brothers re-united, and “Rook” was a member of the band.

David is still active in music, and when I spoke with him he was in the studio:

“I’m working with a guy named Gary Allman, one of Gregg’s cousins. He’s written a bunch of stuff. He wrote some tunes that are just great, beautiful, heartfelt, real tunes, man like the real thing. He’s got one called “Standing in the Georgia Rain, Washing my Blues Away,” you know stuff like that. Gary’s got Gregg’s voice. He plays B3, he plays slide guitar, the whole thing.”

I’m looking forward to hearing more from that collaboration!