In November 1972, after nearly a year of severe depression, Oakley was killed in a motorcycle accident (not dissimilar from Duane's), making it the last album on which he played.

The album was followed by a tour of arenas and stadiums, but drug problems, strained friendships, and miscommunications marred relationships between group members during this time.

[1] The band also purchased 432 acres of land in Juliette, Georgia for $160,000 and nicknamed it "the Farm"; it soon became a "group hangout" and fulfilled bassist Berry Oakley's communal dreams.

[4] "Everything Berry had envisioned for everybody—including the crew, the women and children—was shattered on the day Duane died, and he didn't care after that," said roadie Kim Payne.

[9] On November 11, 1972, overjoyed at the prospect of leading a jam session later that night, Oakley crashed his motorcycle into the side of a bus, just three blocks from where Duane had been killed in a bike accident.

Several bassists auditioned, but the band picked Lamar Williams, an old friend of drummer Jai Johanny Johanson's from Gulfport, Mississippi.

[15] The band began recording Brothers and Sisters in the autumn of 1972 at Capricorn Studios in Macon, Georgia, prior to Oakley's death.

Allman brought a song he had worked on for a year, titled "Queen of Hearts", but he was drunk and none of the members of the band would listen to him.

[20] The entire group were initially reluctant to record "Ramblin' Man" — "We knew it was a good song but it didn't sound like us," said drummer Butch Trucks — but the band gradually headed in a more country direction, as that was Betts' background.

Les Dudek, the guitarist who would eventually record "Jessica" and "Ramblin' Man," had entered the sessions when he was asked to jam with Betts through mutual friends.

[20] A version more similar to the finished recording was broadcast on ABC's In Concert TV program in December 1972, several months in advance of Brothers and Sisters's release.

[26] When his baby daughter Jessica entered the room and began bouncing around to the melody, Betts attempted to capture her mood with the song.

[24] Brothers and Sisters concludes with another country-inspired track, "Pony Boy," which showcases Betts' acoustic slide playing.

[29] The song was heavily inspired by Robert Johnson in its building rhythm, and Blind Willie McTell influenced its humor.

[34] Billboard called it the "success story of the summer," noting that there was no "sustained merchandising promotion effort needed" on the LP.

National promotion director Dick Wooley sent advance tapes of "Ramblin' Man" to Atlanta and Boston radio stations and "listener phone-in reaction was near-phenomenal.

Bud Scoppa of Rolling Stone deemed the album "no masterpiece, but the new band has shown that it can carry on the work of the old, and add the appropriate new twists when necessary.

"[41] Janis Schacht of Circus was very positive, writing, "Never, even in the face of adversity, do the Allman Brothers quit making strong, hard-driving rock/blues albums. ...

"[32] In Creem, Robert Christgau said "Gregg Allman is a predictable singer who never has an unpredictable lyric to work with anyway, and the jams do roll on, but at their best—"Ramblin' Man," a miraculous revitalization of rock's weariest conceit—they just may be the best.

Bruce Eder of Allmusic called Brothers and Sisters "not quite a classic album, especially in the wake of the four that had appeared previously, but it served as a template for some killer stage performances, and it proved that the band could survive the deaths of two key members.

David Fricke of Rolling Stone gave it four stars, writing, "The road to that symmetry is caught in this four-CD set by a disc of rehearsals and outtakes that sounds like the work of a more brawny, Southern Grateful Dead.

"[44] Walter Tunis of the Lexington Herald-Leader wrote that "The larger set is costlier, about $65, but the edition's two live discs chronicle the Chuck Leavell/Lamar Williams-era Allmans as exquisitely as Fillmore East did the groundbreaking Duane Allman/Berry Oakley lineup.

By industry standards the road crew was a cluster-fuck of drugged-out hangers-on that seemingly kept their job by keeping the ABB supplied with drugs and high most of the time.

The roadies of the Dead dosed the food and drinks of as many people as possible with LSD, holding no compunction about the practice as they felt "evangelical" about the substance.

[49] When all three roadies engaged in the fight, the Dead's security (the Hells Angels) assumed Wooley a "bad guy" and they joined.

The jam between the three bands was later called "garbage" by Trucks, as all involved were under the influence of various substances, including alcohol, cocaine, and LSD.

In 1974, the band were regularly making $100,000 per show, and were renting the Starship, a customized Boeing 720B used by Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones.