Music world ‘grateful’ for Dickey Betts. A look at his history with the Allman Brothers

The response from music stars on Thursday served as a reminder that Dickey Betts, a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band who died this week at 80 years old, was a force in the industry for decades.

Artists including Channing Wilson, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Brother Crane guitarist Damon Johnson, and Butch Walker also took to social media to pay tribute to the late guitarist.

“Rest in peace, Dickey,” Johnson said. “We are eternally grateful for your mountainous musical gifts. They have touched us all.”

Betts, born Forrest Richard Betts in December 1943, was a trail-blazing songwriter who alongside Duane Allman founded the Allman Brothers Band, a group with strong ties to Macon that helped define the Southern rock genre of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Betts’ family posted a statement on Instagram regarding the rock legend’s passing.

The Allman Brothers Band also posted a statement on its website Thursday.

“With deep sadness the Allman Brothers Band learned today that founding member Dickey Betts has passed away peacefully in his home in Sarasota, Florida, following a period of declining health,” the band said in a statement. “He was passionate in life, be it music, songwriting, fishing, hunting, boating, golf, karate or boxing. Dickey was all in on and excelled at anything that caught his attention. “Play on Brother Dickey, you will be forever remembered and deeply missed.”

THE EARLY YEARS

In 1969, music promoter Phil Walden — who had just created Capricorn Records with his brothers — traveled to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to recruit a gifted young guitarist named Duane Allman for his new label.

Allman went to his native Florida and put together a band, consisting of his brother Gregg as a vocalist and keyboardist; guitarist Dickey Betts; bassist Berry Oakley; and drummers Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson, according to Macon Telegraph archives.

The death of Duane Allman in 1971 suddenly thrust Betts into a more prominent role within the group . He contributed as a songwriter, instrumentalist and sometimes lead vocalist.

Betts was part of the band’s long-running concert staples from “Blue Sky” to 1972’s “Eat a Peach,” the group’s first album without Duane, which soared to No. 4.

The 1973 release “Brothers and Sisters” rose to No. 1 nationally on the back of the country-like Betts-penned single “Ramblin’ Man,” which peaked at No. 2.

After the death of band member Berry Oakley in 1972 and legal issues in 1976, the group split up.

Although the band would eventually reform in 1979 and go on to make several albums, steadily declining record and concert ticket sales and tensions around management issues led the group to again disband in 1982.

SOLO CAREER

Betts released his first solo album, “Highway Call,” in 1974 and released “Dickey Betts & Great Southern” in 1977, which included the song “Bougainvillea,” co-written with Hollywood star Don Johnson. In 1978 he released the album “Atlanta’s Burning Down.”

Betts would later form the group Betts, Hall, Leavell, and Trucks. However, the group was short-lived and disbanded in 1984.

Betts returned to his solo career, releasing the album “Pattern Disruptive” in 1989.

Betts eventually re-formed the Dickey Betts & Great Southern band in 2000 with the addition of his son Duane, named after Duane Allman, as lead guitarist.

ALLMAN BROTHERS REUNION

To celebrate the Allman Brothers’s 20th anniversary, the band came back together for a one-off reunion tour. The success of the tour resulted in a permanent reunion.

The band released three albums between 1990 and 1994.

However, tensions began to rise when Betts was replaced on several tours in the late 1990s and was eventually suspended prior to the band’s 2000 summer tour.

Betts’ last show with the Allman Brothers was at the Music Midtown Festival in Atlanta on May 7, 2000.

The suspension led Betts to file a suit against the band which caused a more than 15-year silence between Betts and Greg Allman, although the duo would go on to reconcile before Allman’s death in 2017.

There was the possibility they’d all be buried together. Plans were previously in the works to erecting a fence that would surround not only the graves of both brothers and late band member Berry Oakley, but also make room for other performers in the group including Betts and Jaimoe Johanson when they died was a possibility.

In August 2018, Betts suffered a mild stroke while on tour, according to prior reporting from The Telegraph.

Betts opened the 2018 tour in Macon.

In a 2020 interview with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Betts said he didn’t know what it was like to be a rock star in 1973.

“Well, I don’t know,” he told the Herald-Tribune, “It kind of came on so gradually I didn’t notice it. I’d been working for years before that, y’know? It was nice having big crowds and all. It sure was a lot of fun.”

Betts’ ties to Macon have kept him a well-known icon locally.

Famous Mike’s in Macon even has a burger named after the artist - the Dickey Betts burger, a blackened patty topped with bacon, swiss cheese, grilled onions and mushrooms with blue cheese.

A timeline of the Allman Brothers Band career can be found on The Big House website, a museum dedicated to the legendary group.