Duane was killed in a motorcycle accident on October 29, 1971 in Macon. At his funeral, Gregg performed "Melissa", which was his brother's favorite song. "I tried to play and I tried to sing, but I didn't do too much writing. In the days and weeks that followed, ... I wondered if I'd ever find the passion, the energy, the love of making music", he remembered. As the band took some time apart to process their loss, "At Fillmore East" became a major success domestically. "What we had been trying to do for all those years finally happened, and he was gone," Gregg remembered. He later expanded upon his brother's passing in his memoir: