(CelebrityAccess) — Johnny Neel, the singer, songwriter, musician, and former member of the Allman Brothers Band has died. He was 70.
Neel’s passing was confirmed by his longtime bandmate Warren Hayes on social media: “We wrote a lot of music together, we played a lot of music together, and we traveled the world together, and maybe most importantly, we had a lot of fun times and created a lot of beautiful memories,” said Hayes. Hence, the stories. Johnny’s music and his legend will live on forever. Miss you Neely.”
Born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1954, Neel suffered damage to his vision while still an infant that left him permanently blinded.
“I was an incubator baby and was put in the oxygen and this burned out my retina. This was back in 1954. They didn’t know that much about it then,” Neel told interviewer Michael Smith in 2001.
Despite his physical limitation, Neel became an accomplished musician at an early age, recording his first single “Talking About People” as Johnny Neel and the Shapes when he was just 12.
He joined the Allman Brothers in 1989 and recorded multiple songs with the band, including “Island” and “Good Clean Fun,” which he co-wrote with Gregg Allman and Dickie Betts.
Neel also performed with the Dickie Betts Band, The Criminal Element, Deep Fried, and X2, among other acts.
