American Musician, Engineer and Producer. Born John Everett Sandlin Jr., will best be remembered for his contributions to the southern rock genre, and is perhaps most widely known as the producer of The Allman Brothers Band's platinum-selling 'Brothers and Sisters' album (1973). A versatile musician, he played guitar, bass, and drums at various times during his career. As a teenager, he took guitar lessons and played in a band called The Secrets and later, The Impacts. His musical influences included Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles, B.B. King, and Bobby Bland. In the 1960s, Sandlin played in a number of bands and with many musicians and worked at Florence Alabama Music Enterprises (FAME) through 1964 as a session guitarist. In 1967, Duane and Gregg Allman and their band, called the Allman Joys, merged with the Five Minutes and took the name The Hour Glass, and would go on to create the foundations of the southern rock style. The Hour Glass recorded two albums in Los Angeles for Liberty Records, 'Hour Glass' (1967) and 'Power of Love' (1968). During that period, The Hour Glass opened for such acts as Buffalo Springfield, Eric Burdon, Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, Mother Earth, and the Youngbloods. In 1969, Sandlin became more involved in record production and engineering, beginning with the critically acclaimed Johnny Jenkins album 'Ton Ton Macoute!' (1970). In the 1970s, collaborated extensively with The Allman Brothers Band on 'Live at the Fillmore East' (1970), 'Eat A Peach' (1971), 'Brothers and Sisters' (1973), and 'Win, Lose, or Draw and The Road Goes on Forever' (both in 1975), while also producing solo albums for Gregg Allman. In addition, he produced material for Alex Taylor, Wet Willie, comedian Martin Mull, Kitty Wells, Bonnie Bramlett, and others. In the late 70s, he became an independent producer, most notably on Cher and Gregg Allman's duet album 'Two the Hard Way' (1977) and on several albums by Delbert McClinton. In the 80s, he worked with Ronnie Dunn, Jerry Reed, Mac Davis, the Gatlin Brothers, and Marie Osmond. In the 90s, he produced albums for Scott Boyer, Eddie Hinton, Widespread Panic, Aquarium Rescue Unit, the Dixie Dregs, Dan Penn, Jimmy Hall, Gregg Allman and Johnny Jenkins. In the new century, Sandlin recorded and produced with the Capricorn Rhythm Section, Bonnie Bramlett, Toyshop, Eddie Hinton, The Decoys, as well as several other acts. Sandlin, who has five platinum albums and ten gold albums to his credit and is in the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, died of natural causes.