At 59, Gregg Allman can look back on a very full musical life. What he can still recall of it, anyway.

As the Allman Brothers Band's founding lead singer and organist, Allman composed a good deal of the wild-eyed Southern rock pioneer's road-tested classics ("Whipping Post," "Midnight Rider") and carried the band beyond the tragic deaths of his brother guitarist Duane Allman and bassist Berry Oakley. Solo, he put together a bonafide rock classic (1973's "Laid Back" LP), took a whole mess o' legal and illegal substances in the '70s and '80s before quitting cold turkey in the '90s, and was married to Cher for four years.

Allman still tours solo and with the Brothers. His Hawai'i dates this weekend — including a Sunday gig at Aloha Tower Marketplace — end a three-month trek for his Gregg Allman & Friends solo tour.

Allman's recollections of things being "pretty crazy" on the Brothers' first Hawai'i trek back in 1974 seemed either lost to time or suspiciously selective. (I'm thinking the Allman Brothers Band did a lot more on Maui than just wolf down cold pineapple.)

But phoning before a concert at Chicago's House of Blues last week, the mellow, good-natured Allman still gamely discussed Maui's finest, finding balance on and off the road, and scaring the heck out of a teenage Cameron Crowe.

Q. Got any good Allman Brothers Band in Hawai'i memories?

A. Things were pretty crazy. ... I remember we stayed over (on Maui). We passed by George Benson's big pineapple farm. ... I don't know if he still has it or not. But they would serve us these freezing cold pineapples. Every morning, they'd bring it with the paper. They were so good! Oh, God!

And I remember the crowds were really good. It was almost like a vacation. We just beached it all day and played all night.

I didn't want to leave. (Laughs lustily.)

Q. How does touring as much as you do solo and with the Allman Brothers still suit you at 59?

A. In looking back on this tour, I don't know what I was thinking. It didn't look that long on paper, you know? (Laughs hard.) But let me tell you, this has been one hell of a long tour. ...

I'm playing probably about as much guitar as I am Hammond (B-3 organ). ... So that's really fun ... to do some pickin'. Because I miss it. I do. I actually play electric guitar.

Q. What do you like about having Allman Brothers Band tours and Gregg Allman & Friends solo tours to work on as a musician?

A. For the same reason that I love living way out in the country on (a) little bayou: It balances things out.

I live in a place that's probably just the opposite of Times Square. ... You've got Saturday night every night. You've got ... "Hey, let's go fishing. Let's just kick back and do nothing. Or let's ride motorcycles or paint." ... And so it makes for a balance.

(But) after I'm home for about five weeks ... I start driving my wife nuts because I'm ready to go play. ... I hope I don't get too old to go out and play. Because I'm one miserable dude staying at home! (Laughs hard.)

Having this band and the Allman Brothers Band is a balance. In my band, I can play pretty much anything — within reason — that I want. Or, you know, try. With the Brothers, it's, uh, you've got more than one head chef.

Q. Which moments in "Almost Famous" did director Cameron Crowe take directly from his experience as a teenage Rolling Stone reporter touring with the Allman Brothers Band for his first cover feature?

A. There's a bunch of 'em. (Laughs) Jumpin' off the roof into the pool? That was my brother (Duane). (We) were in San Francisco at the Travelodge, which is still there. ...

The one that (Crowe) didn't put in there (happened) after he did this interview with me and (guitarist) Dicky (Betts). It was late in the night after the gig. ... We stayed up with him till almost the crack of dawn doing this interview. And then we decided after he'd left — about an hour later — to go up and knock on his door and say, "Well look, man, we decided we can't let you have this much information so we're going to have to have (the interview tapes) back." (Laughs hard.)

Of course we were just having fun with him, right? But, oh man, he looked like he was going to swallow his tongue.

We kept 'em for about an hour. And right before he had to leave for his plane, we took 'em back to him. (Laughs hard.)

Q. Did Duane really yell out "I am a golden god!" before he jumped into that pool?

A. I don't think he did that, no. ... Because he didn't tan too well. (Laughs.)

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.