Allman Brothers Guitarist Dies

Guitarist Dan Toler, who played in the Allman Brothers Band in the late 1970s and 1980s, has died of Lou Gehrig’s disease at his home in Sarasota, Florida, his manager said.

Toler died on Monday and was in his early 60s, the manager, Glen Halverson, said.

Toler and his late brother, drummer David “Frankie” Toler, played in several groups, including Dickey Betts & Great Southern.

Dan Toler was part of the Allman Brothers Band from 1979 to 1982 and was featured on the group’s albums “Enlightened Rogues,” “Reach for the Sky” and “Brothers of the Road.”

“His ability to make people laugh and feel good and happy was amazing,” the Sarasota Herald Tribune quoted his friend and former bandmate Chaz Trippy as saying. “That smile of his is just a force of life and, God, how he loved playing that guitar.”

Toler announced in 2011 that he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative nerve diseased better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Funeral arrangements were pending, Halverson said.