On October 29, 1971, lead and slide guitarist Duane Allman, group leader and founder, was killed in a motorcycle accident in the band's adopted hometown of Macon, Georgia, making it the final album to feature him.

Other highlights include vocalist Gregg Allman's performance of his brother's favorite song, "Melissa", plus Dickey Betts' "Blue Sky", which went on to become a classic rock radio staple.

The album artwork was created by W. David Powell and J. F. Holmes at Wonder Graphics, and depicts the band's name on a peach truck, in addition to a large gatefold mural of mushrooms and fairies.

The album's title came from a quote by Duane Allman: "You can't help the revolution, because there's just evolution ... Every time I'm in Georgia, I eat a peach for peace".

[1] On release Eat a Peach was an immediate commercial success and peaked at number four on Billboard's Top 200 Pop Albums chart.

Four individuals—group leader Duane Allman, bassist Berry Oakley, and roadies Robert Payne and Joseph "Red Dog" Campbell—checked into the Linwood-Bryant Hospital for rehabilitation in October 1971.

"[7] On October 29, 1971, Duane Allman, aged 24, was killed in a motorcycle accident a day after returning to the band's home of Macon, Georgia from an extended tour of concert gigs.

Allman was exceeding a safe speed at the intersection of Hillcrest Avenue and Bartlett Street as a flatbed lumber crane approached.

[8] The flatbed truck stopped suddenly in the intersection, forcing Allman to swerve his Harley-Davidson Sportster motorcycle sharply to the left to avoid a collision.

[8] The motorcycle bounced into the air, landed on Allman and skidded another 90 feet (27 m) with him pinned underneath, crushing several internal organs.

[12] The band laid down these three songs and went back on the road for a short run of shows, and at this point several checked into rehab.

[3] After Duane's death, the band held a meeting on their future; it was clear all wanted to continue, and after a short period, they returned to the road.

"[10] Following Duane's death, which severely impacted his younger brother, organist/lead vocalist/songwriter Gregg Allman, lead guitarist Dickey Betts gradually took over as group leader.

[14] The band recorded three more tracks with Dowd, including "Melissa", "Les Brers in A Minor", and "Ain't Wastin' Time No More".

[15] The heroin addictions had taken their toll on the band members; Gregg Allman later said, "We were taking vitamins, we had doctors coming over and sticking us in the ass with B12 shots every day.

Dowd later said, "When we recorded At Fillmore East, we ended up with almost a whole other album's worth of good material, and we used [two] tracks on Eat a Peach.

[14] The song was composed when Duane was still alive, on a 110-year-old Steinway piano in Studio D of Criteria,[16] but the lyrics deal with his passing, as well as veterans coming home from the Vietnam War.

[14] When rehearsing the song, all in the band felt something was familiar about it—which turned out to be a solo of Betts's from live renditions of "Whipping Post" that resurfaced many years later on a bootleg recording.

As a result, the recording contains a slight pitch variation due to the difficulty of matching the original speed of the instruments when the intro was spliced onto the master tape.

[18] Believing them perfect for an Allman Brothers album, he purchased them and "bought cans of pink and baby-blue Krylon spray paint and created a matted area to make the cards on a twelve-by-twenty-four LP cover.

[18] The album includes an elaborate gatefold mural featuring a fantasy landscape of mushrooms (referencing the psychedelic drug, a band favorite in its early days) and fairies, drawn by Powell and J. F. Holmes.

[22] Atlantic initially intended to title the album The Kind We Grow in Dixie, the label of the postcard series Powell had seen in Athens,[18] but the band refused.

When the writer Ellen Mandel asked him what he was doing to help the revolution, he replied: I'm hitting a lick for peace—and every time I'm in Georgia, I eat a peach for peace.

"They needed help because the buzz in the record business and on the street was that the ABB was finished as a band and would never survive without Duane," said Wooley.

[21] After being played some songs from Eat a Peach by Sandlin, Wooley was "blown away" and accepted the offer at half his usual salary.

[31] Rolling Stone's Tony Glover wrote that, even without their leader, "the Allman Brothers are still the best goddamned band in the land ...

[26] David Quantick of BBC Music also considered it their "creative peak", praising the album's "well-played, surprisingly lean bluesy rock".

[35] Biographer Alan Paul notes that the band's members "all profoundly felt the absence of their guiding light" during the touring cycle for Eat a Peach.