Gregg Allman's Best Friend Played 'Matchmaker' for Him and Cher Because Allman Was 'Too Nervous' to Make a Move

The start of Allman's relationship with Cher is chronicled in the new documentary 'Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul,' out June 17

NEED TO KNOW

• Gregg Allman and Cher’s relationship is explored in the new documentary Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul
• Allman was too shy to approach Cher, relying on a friend to introduce them at a club
• The couple’s marriage faced challenges including media attention and Allman’s drug addiction but remained friends until his death

Gregg Allman may have been a famous rock star in the 1970s, but meeting women still made him nervous — especially his future wife Cher.

The couple's ill-fated love story is revisited in the new documentary Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul, in which the son of Allman's lifelong best friend recounts their first meeting.

Taj Middleton says in the film that his father, Chank Middleton, always described Allman — who died in 2017 — as "very, very shy," and certainly not the type to approach someone and introduce himself with a handshake.

"My dad, he had to play intermediary to get that going," Middleton says in the doc. "So the story is that they were in a club in L.A. and he put my dad to the task of essentially approaching Cher, saying hello on his behalf, and from there kind of playing matchmaker. And he would always say, ‘I don't get it. He's such a handsome guy. He's famous. But yet he's still too nervous to go up and say hello to Cher.'"

Allman and Cher, 80, eventually tied the knot in 1975 after the "Believe" singer learned she was pregnant with their son, Elijah Blue, now 49.

In her 2024 memoir Cher: The Memoir, Part One, she said she thought marrying Allman was "the right thing to do," but that there was "nothing romantic" about their Las Vegas wedding. Cher filed to dissolve the marriage nine days later, but the pair reconciled, and stayed together until 1979.

Meanwhile, in the doc, Allman Brothers Band keyboardist Chuck Leavell reveals the band's initial reaction to learning that its founder was dating one of the most famous women in the world.

"We're all going, ‘Oh what? Cher? Wow, God that's weird, isn't it? But okay,'" he recalls.

Leavell says that Cher joined the group on tour and he liked her "immediately."

"She was respectful to everyone, she didn't want to steal the limelight. She was in love with Gregg," he says in the film. "She wanted to be with him and the cameras were gonna follow no matter what."

In his 2012 memoir My Cross to Bear, Allman recalled meeting Cher at the Troubadour after playing a solo show, though she was there with David Geffen. He also wrote of a terrible first date in which he did heroin at a friend's house, and a much better second date where they went dancing.

The constant media attention eventually drove a wedge between Allman and Cher, and he says in archival interview footage in the documentary that he suddenly "couldn't make a move," and couldn't even wash his car without people flocking to his gate.

Cher wrote in her book that Allman once broke up with her in a note saying he didn't want to be made a "fool" after she went back to work with her ex-husband Sonny Bono. She's also said previously that his drug addiction had a negative effect on their relationship.

Still, the two remained friends, and Cher attended Allman's funeral when he died in 2017.

"I do not belong in Beverly Hills, and she wasn't gonna come down south," he told Dan Rather in 2015. "Now, Cher and I are friends. We are good friends now."

Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul will hit theaters on June 17.

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