Forrest Richard “Dickey” Betts, co-founder, co-guitarist, and songwriter in The Allman Brothers Band, passed away April 18 at his home in Osprey, Florida. He was 80 and in the final years of his life dealt with cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Noted for writing some of the ABB’s most-recognized songs – “Ramblin’ Man,” “Blue Sky,” “Jessica,” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” – generations of guitarists were impacted by his playing alongside Duane Allman. Together, their style – shaped by blues, rock, and country with extended (often intricate) solos, harmony lines, counterpoints, unison licks played mostly on Les Pauls through Marshall plexi amps – defied categorization while becoming the seeds of “southern rock.”
Betts was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, and raised in Bradenton, where he grew up hearing string bands. At age five, he started playing ukulele before physically growing into the mandolin, banjo, and guitar. At 16, he and friend/guitarist Joe Dan Petty joined a band called Circus Act before Betts bailed to join The Jokers, which played rock songs in venues throughout Florida. Betts soon moved on to join the Sarasota-based Blues Messengers, which included bassist Berry Oakley and keyboardist Reese Wynans. In 1968, that band moved to Jacksonville and changed its name to The Second Coming. After meeting guitarist Duane Allman and his bandmate, drummer Jai Johanny Johanson, in ’69 they formed a new group; Allman convinced his younger brother, Gregg, a keyboard player and vocalist, to move home from California to join them. They called the group The Allman Brothers Band, in part to take advantage of a contract Duane had with producer Phil Walden’s newly founded Capricorn Records.
That August, they spent nine days at Atlantic Records’ studio in New York City, recording their self-titled debut album of five songs that originated during jams with lyrics by Gregg Allman, along with two covers of blues songs. All reflected the band’s rock influences, while “Dreams” introduced a jazz bent; in the years that followed, it and the album closer, “Whipping Post,” became concert staples. The disc was released in November of ’69 and its only single, “Black Hearted Woman,” failed to chart.
For the follow-up, Idlewild South, they hired producer Tom Dowd and songwriting shifted away from strict reliance on Allman, with Betts bringing two songs that deepened their jazz leanings; “Revival” was chosen not only as the opener, but a shortened radio version was released as the first single and became their first hit, spending three weeks (just barely) on Billboard’s Hot 100. Betts’ seven-minute instrumental homage to Miles Davis, “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” got little initial notice but became a concert highlight as the band built a reputation and drew critical acclaim for its high-energy jams; the 13-minute version that appears on 1971’s At Fillmore East helped make it essential to the repertoire, its simple melody allowing Betts and Duane Allman to create sophisticated improvisational solo passages that sometimes extended to a half hour.
Tragedy befell the band with its next album, Eat a Peach. Sessions began in September of ’72 with a handful of songs; Betts’ “Blue Sky” marked his first turn as lead vocalist. After finishing three tracks, they did a short tour, then returned to Macon. The following day, October 29, Duane Allman was killed in a collision while riding his motorcycle. Stunned, the band stepped away from recording.
Alan Paul, a music journalist who began covering the band in the late ’80s and is the author of the New York Times best-sellers One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers and Brothers and Sisters: The Allman Brothers Band and the Album That Defined the ’70s, recalls conversations about the mood immediately after Allman’s death.
“They were really, really determined to keep going,” he said. “Yes, they did take some time off, but they found themselves sitting around, completely miserable and uncomfortable. Within days, they were gravitating to their rehearsal space. Butch Trucks told me, ‘We’re musicians. We play music, and that’s how we grieve. That’s how we communicate.’ It’s not like any of them were going into therapy, which probably should have happened.”
Recording wrapped in December with six songs augmented by three leftover from Live At Fillmore East sets, one of which – “One Way Out” – became another fan favorite. The album was released in February, 1972.
In One Way Out, Paul further recalls how the band toured behind the album after Betts took it upon himself to learn Allman’s slide parts. The tour also forced Betts, serving as bandleader both musically and emotionally, to tackle another challenge in Oakley, who became severely depressed while coping with Duane’s death. Oakley’s playing was greatly affected by his mental health (and alcohol abuse), and Joe Dan Petty, who had always been part of the group’s inner circle, occasionally filled in on bass. That November, Oakley was killed in a motorcycle accident just a few blocks from the scene of Allman’s crash.
Pushing forward, in August of ’73 they released Brothers and Sisters, an album written mostly by Betts and planted more firmly in country and blues. “Ramblin’ Man,” the last track recorded with Oakley on bass, became the group’s biggest hit (#2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 that winter) and the album became their biggest seller, reaching #1.
On “Ramblin’ Man,” Betts played his ’57 Les Paul Standard goldtop that he later painted red. In 2002, he told VG, “It had oxidized so terribly that I had to do something to it; it didn’t look cool and worn, it looked ugly. I did it myself, and I was real careful with it – I used nitroce lulose lacquer and alcohol-based stain. It looks great, and it sounds great!” In ’73, Betts became one of the first guitarists to get a custom-made instrument from Rick Turner and Ron Wickersham at the fledging Alembic, which was making its mark with active electronics and ornate designs. Other early adopters were Stanley Clarke and Jerry Garcia; Betts rarely played his.
For his 1974 solo debut, Highway Call, Betts delved even deeper into country, recruiting bluegrass legend Vassar Clements to play fiddle, along with pedal-steeler John Hughey and latter-day ABB pianist Chuck Leavell. The amalgam worked well on an upbeat set that melded bluegrass, jazz, and – on the 14-minute “Hand Picked” – a tasty piece of Western swing with Betts and Clements playing extended harmonies and all four players taking deft solo turns.
“Highway Call is, simply put, effervescent,” said VG contributor Rich Kienzle, who saw the band perform at Pittsburgh’s Syria Mosque in January, 1971. “It revealed deep passions for country music through original songs with detours into bluegrass and Western swing. Replete with fabulous vocal and instrumental work, it also proved that Betts possessed the same musical depth that Duane was known to have.”
“Highway Call’s mix of jazz and country made perfect sense given Dickey’s larger vision,” Paul added. “It and Brothers and Sisters are, arguably, the peak of his creativity. From songwriting to his singing, playing, and arranging, it’s fantastic stuff – impeccable.”
After the ABB disbanded in 1976, Betts assembled Great Southern before the ABB re-formed in ’78 with Dan Toler on second guitar. Their 1979 album, Enlightened Rogues, was produced by Tom Dowd and reached Billboard’s top 10, boosted by the Betts-penned single, “Crazy Love,” which reached the Top 30. The band shuffled through changes in personnel, producers, and management before dissolving in ’82.
To mark its 20th anniversary in ’89, they re-formed for a summer tour with Johanson on drums along with Betts and guitarist Warren Haynes, recruited from the Dickey Betts Band. It went well enough that they decided to record what would become Seven Turns and its hit single, “Good Clean Fun.” Further tours followed, along with the 1991 studio album Shades of Two Worlds.
Betts missed part of a 1993 tour after he was involved in a confrontation with two police officers, but he returned in ’94 to record what would be his final studio album with ABB, Where It All Begins, and its Top 10 hit “No One to Run With,” which Betts had written with John Prestia nearly a decade earlier. In ’95, Betts and the ABB were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In the late ’90s/early 2000s, Gibson issued two signature-model Betts Les Pauls, one based on his ’57 goldtop, another on the same guitar after its refinish. In ’02, Betts told VG he also had a ’36 National Tricone that once belonged to Elvin Bishop, a ’35 National Style O, Duane Allman’s ’32 Dobro, a ’28 J-50, and a 14-fret ’36 J-50. In the ’90s, he sometimes played a Strat with a Seymour Duncan Hot Rail stacked humbucker, and also got into Paul Reed Smith McCarty models. His typical live rig included two 50-watt Marshall heads running to four cabs with 12″ JBL-made Lansing 120 speakers; in clubs, he used one stack, outdoors, he ran both. His slide guitars were run through a Bogen PA head hooked to two off-brand speaker cabs. “It’s the perfect Elmore James slide sound,” he told VG.
In 2000, Betts was dismissed after the ABB “suspended” him prior to a tour that summer, citing difficulty working with him because of substance use. Betts sued, and the resulting litigation made the split permanent. He re-formed what had been the Dickey Betts Band in time for a summer tour as Dickey Betts & Great Southern with the addition of his son, Duane (VG, February ’21 and September ’23).
Betts’ final recorded release was 2021’s Dickey Betts & Great Southern Official Bootleg Vol. 1, which compiled live recordings. He reconciled with Gregg Allman prior to the singer’s death in 2017. In August of ’18, Betts suffered a stroke that forced cancellation of a planned DBB tour, and the following month underwent surgery to relieve swelling on the brain resulting from a fall in his home.
In his 2020 interview with VG, Duane Betts remembered how his father instilled in him that a guitarist should strive to serve the band’s performance – and the song – over a solo.
“I don’t try to be better than anybody, I just try to tell a story – take the listener on a journey that makes them feel something,” he said.
After his father’s passing, Duane shared more thoughts with VG.
“Dad was about the songs just as much as he loved jamming and pushing the boundaries of improvisation,” he said. “All of his songs have great melodies that are easy to follow. He was abundantly aware of how to convey the sentiment of the song to the listener, and was a true stylist. His songs had his personality all over them.”
Asked about songs that have the most meaning to him, Betts said, “‘Blue Sky’ has to be my favorite. It’s the perfect song. It has such a pure and innocent feeling and instantly makes you feel good; great words and melody, simple and to the point.
“‘Jessica’ is obviously a great composition. It has such a lyrical quality without the presence of a singer. It’s hard to make instrumentals feel like they aren’t just a bunch of notes, but with ‘Jessica’ there is intention, and he nails it.”
Discussing the guitars and amps used to record his 2023 solo album, Wild & Precious Life, Duane told VG that his #1 guitar was given to him by Dickey; “I mainly used my Les Paul – the Dickey Betts signature prototype #1 – through a ’65 Deluxe Reverb I got from Derek Trucks.”
Several notable guitarists marked Betts’ passing on social media, including former bandmate Warren Haynes, who wrote, “Aside from being a huge, major influence on my music from before I picked up a guitar, Dickey was the one person I credit for everything amazing that happened in my career.”
Other notable players whose musical taste and styles have been informed by Betts shared memories with VG. One was Jack Pearson, who began developing his renowned slide technique with help from ABB records, and was a member of the band from 1993 until ’99.
“When I first joined, Dickey gave me a slide and said it was one of Duane’s. I was so surprised you could’ve knocked me over with a feather,” he chuckled. “I really enjoyed playing rhythm on Dickey’s solos; he’d take off and build a lead… Yeah, it was great being in the middle of that! Sometimes, during his solos, I’d stand between Gregg’s Leslie cabinet and Jaimoe’s drums and we’d be digging a big ol’ groove that was very funky and gave Dickey room to fly. He had a very distinctive sound and style that people recognize after just a couple notes.
“There were times when I had to stop myself from playing Dickey’s signature licks during my solos,” he added. “I’d start one then quickly switch to something else, thinking, ‘Don’t play that! That’s a Dickey lick and he’s probably gonna play it as soon as you get through!’ (laughs)
“Dickey had a lot of nice guitars, but no matter which he played, he always sounded like Dickey Betts. Hanging out, we’d talk about guitars and our mutual influences from the early blues, jazz, and country recordings – everything from Jimmie Rodgers to Charlie Parker, and of course we were both crazy about Django Reinhardt.
“Dickey and I had a nice talk on the phone last year. I’m really glad we got to do that.”
“My introduction to the Allman Brothers Band came during my senior year of high school in 1971,” recalled Greg Martin, co-founder and lead guitarist in Kentucky Headhunters. “My bandmates, Richard and Fred Young, had a brand new copy of At Fillmore East, and our first listen through was a revelation; Dickey and Duane’s twin Les Pauls made one huge sound. But it wasn’t until a couple years later that I began to truly appreciate Dickey’s playing. After Duane died, he stepped up in a big way and refined his writing, playing, and vocal abilities. It’s been said that Dickey wasn’t a fan of his own slide playing, but I loved how he took what he learned from Duane and made it his own.”
“Dickey had the sweetest tone and phasing,” Martin added. “There was no mistaking it whenever his guitar came on the radio.”
Johnny Stachela, guitarist in Duane Betts’ band with Gregg Allman’s son, Devon (VG, December ’20), said Betts’ appeal is centered in songcraft.
“That’s what people connect with, time and again,” he said. “‘Ramblin’ Man’ and ‘Blue Sky’ exude pure joy. They are perfectly-crafted songs wrapped in transcendent guitar lines. It’s the furthest a guitar player has gone with that Hank Williams approach to songwriting. Every note Dickey played unfolded as part of a beautiful melody; ‘Jessica’ and ‘In Memory of Elizabeth Reed’ are the greatest rock instrumentals of all time. Their composed arrangements are so lyrical. For a guitarist, they’re incredibly inspiring, and more than 50 years after he wrote them, they’re still the most fun to play live. He set the bar impossibly high.”
Stachela is also among the throng whose concept of tone is derived in part from the ABB.
“My approach is similar to Dickey’s in that I plug an SG or Les Paul straight into a cranked vintage tube amp – usually a blackface Super Reverb or Concert from the ’60s. It really comes down to the PAF sound – the muscle and the magic in the clarity, going from clean to dirty just by turning the guitar’s knobs. When the tone is good, you can play all night.”
Charlie Starr (VG, June ’24), guitarist in the ABB-adjacent Blackberry Smoke, cited Betts’ solo on “It’s Not My Cross To Bear” as particularly influential to him.
“It’s right after Duane’s solo, and comes in like a damn tornado!” Starr said. “It’s so powerful, perfect… and a prime example of early Dickey. His soloing was so fierce, but gradually incorporated more of the beautiful country vibe that became a trademark, like in ‘Long Time Gone’ and ‘Highway Call.’”
Other favorites cited by Starr include “Jessica,” “In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed,” and “Les Brers In A Minor,” which he calls, “…some of the most important rock-and-roll music ever recorded. Guitar players will be learning those parts until the end of time. Dickey’s style and playing were just beautifully musical. His guitar was as beautiful a voice as Gregg’s singing – ringing like a bell or trumpet. And he didn’t just play licks when he soloed – he played melodies, first and foremost. You can sing his solos.”
VG music editor/contributor Pete Prown noted that, as in most two-guitar bands, one player in ABB typically got more attention.
“Duane got more adulation, but Dickey was obviously a monster. He was a deep-pocket rhythm guitarist and his lead work was built on rolling constructions of triplets, fat wrist vibrato, and clean bends, often delivered in a major and minor blues scale – or the Dorian mode. And like Eric Clapton, Dickey enunciated every note, so his playing was approachable by younger players and students. One particular fan was Bob Dylan, who name-checked him in the lyrics to ‘Murder Most Foul,’ writing, “Play Oscar Peterson, play Stan Getz/Play ‘Blue Sky,’ play Dickey Betts.’”
Kienzle, who caught the ABB at its peak in that 1971 Pittsburgh show, recalled the impact they made from the first note.
“Opening with an explosive ‘Statesboro Blues,’ the twin-guitar passages were breathtaking, Duane and Dickey separating to spin incendiary, articulate, and inventive solos,” he said. “And they finished with a ‘Whipping Post’ that transported everyone – band and audience – to another dimension. Those of us fortunate enough to be there share a special privilege.”
“Dickey was, by extrapolation, a founding father of the southern-rock genre,” noted VG “Fretprints” columnist and feature writer Wolf Marshall. “He’ll be remembered for developing the harmony-guitar style as the sound became embedded in pop culture. After Duane’s death, he became a commanding, multifaceted guitarist, far beyond the perception of an Allman sidekick. Duane put a finer point on it when he said, ‘I’m the famous guitar player, but Dickey is the good one.’
“As composer and singer, Dickey rose to the occasion by writing the band’s most-beloved instrumentals, ‘Jessica’ and ‘In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,’ and ‘Ramblin’ Man.’ One can’t think of southern rock without the image of Dickey coming to mind.”
“Dickey’s fluent major-key runs and crystal-clear Les Paul tones broke new ground and inspired generations,” added VG contributor Tom Guerra. “In the early days of the ABB, his melodic solos were the perfect counterpoint to Duane’s bluesy slide barrages. By bringing together jazz, blues, swing, and country stylings, the group defined a new genre, and classifying them as southern rock doesn’t tell half the story.
“When Duane and Berry died, Dickey grabbed the reigns and kept the band alive,” he added. “I first saw him play in ’79, and from the first note it was clear Dickey was the bandleader, conducting the group’s tight arrangements with stern precision.”
Songwriter/guitarist J.D. Simo added, “Dickey changed everything. His mixture of early rock and roll with Bob Wills’ psychedelic abandon stood out amongst some of the most-influential guitarists to ever grace the planet. My heart goes out to his family, especially my soul brother, Duane.”
This article originally appeared in VG’s July 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
