Macon Magazine

A part of Georgia's music history, he worked promoting key artists around the world from right here in Macon. Alan Walden I N M E M O R I A M Alan Walden. Photo by courtesy of Leah Yetter. BY CANDICE DYER | PHOTO BY LEAH YETTER A lan Walden's life was, in his words, a Southern Gothic yin and yang of "soul brothers and rednecks." The Macon impresario who managed both Otis Redding and Lynyrd Skynyrd, along with dozens of other marquee artists, died on July 16, following a battle with cancer. He was 83. He started his career at 19, filling in for his big brother, Phil Walden, who was promoting Redding before he was deployed by the army. "A scrawny redhead, pale white country boy from the segregated South, my father could have been the biggest bigot," says Alan's daughter Jessica Walden. "But he wasn't. There was real love between Otis and my dad, who never recovered from the singer's death. If there was ever a white boy who believed in the Black man or woman, or the underdog of any kind, it was my dad." His big brother returned, and the two ran Walden Artists & Promotions, which evolved into the publishing house Redwal Music, shepherding the largest, continuously touring collective of Black artists in the country – even outpacing Motown. Alan o en traveled with the musicians and would stay in the Black- only motels with them, dodging the Ku Klux Klan and hostile lawmen wherever they went – an "eye-opening experience for a fellow raised to wear bowties," as he described himself. "How many white people were running the country back-roads with Black people at that time?" says Newton Collier, a horn player who credits Walden with helping launch his career with Sam & Dave. "Alan Hustler's Inc. "I named it that, meaning 'let's hustle' as in hard work, taking care of business," Alan said. "Then the magazine came out, and the name has been a source of embarrassment for my family ever since – but I am hard- headed enough that I kept it!" He auditioned 187 acts in the Southeast and fatefully selected three of them for recording sessions at Muscle Shoals. One of them was Lynyrd Skynyrd. "I went from being the liberal white guy promoting Black R&B to managing the most redneck band in the world – a bunch of hard-drinking, fist-fighting fools," Alan said. In his tumultuous career, Alan's roster of artists has accumulated 53 gold and platinum records, and he racked up several citations for his role in breaking down racial barriers. "Alan Walden was there with his brother Phil at ground zero of the Otis Redding phenomenon," notes Ben Wynne, author of Something in the Water: A History of Music in Macon, Georgia, "and a er that he made a substantial contribution to the Southern Rock movement through his work with Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Outlaws. Not a bad resume." Alan was inducted into Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2003, and, while reigning as Macon's elder statesman of rock, penned his memoir Southern Man: Music & Mayhem in the American South. "Without Alan Walden, a bunch of musicians would've never seen the road outside Macon," Collier says. Alan Walden is survived by his wife, Tosha, his daughters, Jessica and Georgeanna; his son, Roger "Christian"; a grandson and several nieces and nephews. was the only white boy on the block when we played the Apollo." At one point, a demo landed in Walden's lap: "When a Man Loves a Woman." Alan recounted that memory in an interview for Street Singers, Soul Shakers, and Rebels With a Cause: Music of Macon: "I loved it the minute I heard it so I flew to Muscle Shoals to sign up Percy Sledge. He was working as a hospital orderly and had just come out of a room where he'd given someone an enema. I told him he was going to be a star. He took off his rubber gloves, and his reply was 'You think I can quit this job?'" Alan's instincts were right; the song became Atlantic Records' first gold single. In 1970, the brothers parted ways, and Alan established his own business: 48 maconmagazine.com | October/November 2026

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