The one and only - Dickey Betts. Thanks for all the great moments and music.

Thanks for the read, think I'm going to listen to Pony Boy now...

HA!!! This interview is pretty amazing......but the first paragraph is freaking incredible. Good and bad, I love me some Dickey.

The mementos are reminders of Betts' vital role in the group. It was Betts who suggested that Duane recruit his younger brother, Gregg, as the band's singer

Hadn't known that
Great read alright -- great photo too -- Dickey is the man

 

Great article!

thanks so much for posting...great article.

love hearing from Dickey...really miss his music & his awesome presence...

Dickey just being frank...very cool. Miss seeing him do shows...so talented!

Thanks for posting the link; I really enjoyed reading the article.

Yet another reason why I love this site!

love it but it's stupid to name the bar Dickey goes to

Good reading - glad he can do what he wants even if it is nothing!

When you get down to it, always something with Dickey. Great guitar player, musician and I love his style. When I saw him perform live a few years ago, he and his band stunk; I left early. Of course at the gig the next day, according to friends who attended, he Rocked it.

For his sake, I hope he makes the most of his time and enjoys every minute of it. Cheers Dickey!

[Edited on 11/23/2017 by StratDal]

[Edited on 11/24/2017 by StratDal]

When I saw him perform live a few years ago, he and his band stunk; I left early. Of course at the gig the next day, according to friends who attended, he Rocked it.

I never understood late in his career why he stuck with the ABB stuff, playing small clubs in front of 200-300 peeps....It always seemed to me that his heart belonged to Richard Betts and "Highway Call"..Man that would have been something had he been able to put a band like that one back together, hitting the road and playing country swing. I would have been ten times more likely to have driven for hours to hear that...I guess we'll never know, hope he's doing what makes him smile...

I have a feeling he will still do a little recording with other artists occasionally.

Dickey Betts has pretty much always stood on his truth . He’ll always be my favorite guitarist , songwriter , melody player, rhythm player ,musical composer and any other hat he chooses to wear. The Allman Brothers Band will always be my favorite band.
The great news which I always new would happen is that Gregg and DB were speaking . I had hoped for more and years ago thought it may happen. It didn’t. It takes dying to bring it all full circle and even then in some families it can bring the worse out .

DB as far as I know is healthy but it pains me as a fan that he no longer would want to play for us. WE get it Dickey your older but so are your fans. We love you if we can forgive our selves for aging we certainly can forgive you. Get on the road for just a few short shows it may help with depression and darkness and embrace the love of your fans and to hear the roar of happiness and joy that you’ve given to many.. dont count your fans out .. we are here...
I know I’d be there ... Thanks for enlightening me to the music I hold so dear to my heart.

I wish that I saw shows with only 200-300 hundred people there. I think that is a little misleading.

All the Dickey shows that I saw had far bigger crowds then that. I am also very lucky that I never saw him have a bad night. I also tended to stay away from shows where he would be going on very late. Too much down time leads to a few too many beers sometimes.

I miss Dickey and would love the odd show but I can understand.

:DB as far as I know is healthy but it pains me as a fan that he no longer would want to play for us. WE get it Dickey your older but so are your fans. We love you if we can forgive our selves for aging we certainly can forgive you. Get on the road for just a few short shows it may help with depression and darkness and embrace the love of your fans and to hear the roar of happiness and joy that you’ve given to many.. dont count your fans out .. we are here...I know I’d be there ... Thanks for enlightening me to the music I hold so dear to my heart.

Very well put!

When I saw him perform live a few years ago, he and his band stunk; I left early. Of course at the gig the next day, according to friends who attended, he Rocked it.

I never understood late in his career why he stuck with the ABB stuff, playing small clubs in front of 200-300 peeps....It always seemed to me that his heart belonged to Richard Betts and "Highway Call"..Man that would have been something had he been able to put a band like that one back together, hitting the road and playing country swing. I would have been ten times more likely to have driven for hours to hear that...I guess we'll never know, hope he's doing what makes him smile...

I always have thought Dickey's best solo work was represented by the "Highway Call" album. He certainly wrote some other good stuff for the other solo albums, but "Highway Call" is just pure Dickey Betts. I saw one show on the "Highway Call" Tour, and it was the real deal.

I saw Great Southern several times, and the crowds were in the 1,500 range. Good shows, but amazingly loud...instruments overshadowing vocals.

When I saw him perform live a few years ago, he and his band stunk; I left early. Of course at the gig the next day, according to friends who attended, he Rocked it.

I never understood late in his career why he stuck with the ABB stuff, playing small clubs in front of 200-300 peeps....It always seemed to me that his heart belonged to Richard Betts and "Highway Call"..Man that would have been something had he been able to put a band like that one back together, hitting the road and playing country swing. I would have been ten times more likely to have driven for hours to hear that...I guess we'll never know, hope he's doing what makes him smile...

Demand would be less, and tour would be doomed.

Agree.

Every DB & GS show I saw folks were there for ABB music.

I only saw one really bad show, a couple other where Dickey was pissed off and showed it.

One of the best times I ever had was sitting backstage at Artpark for an amazingly good show.

I had two of my kids with me, we hung out with the Bomberrys and Pat Harrington, who now plays guitar in Victor Wainwright's band.

Got on the bus after the show, the band signed Dickey's set list that my son retrieved from the stage after the show.

Also met Terry Sack that day.

Great times.

Nice read. I was at Dickey's house a couple years back for just about 4 hours. Along with the birth of my kids and other family moments those hours ranked with some of the best moments of my entire life. I played guitar after legendary guitar and he told a story with just about every one of them. From his '57 Les Paul he stained to that Duane dobro mentioned in the article. I asked permission to play each and every one. When I played the one dobro mentioned in the article he said that it was the dobro Duane had played when they recorded Little Martha. The shivers that rocked my nervous system were emotionally charged. He didn't play for the first hour of my guitar to guitar shuffle, but he eventually got the fever. I was playing his whole collection of acoustics and electrics. He got up from his couch grabbed a guitar, came over moved my wife and I's drinks and sat inches from me so he could hear my playing on his '57 Les Paul unplugged. For the next couple hours we played a few tunes together. Quite the "pinch me" moment. It was not that long after his brother had passed and I think it was therapeutic in a sense for him. We ended after he made one last request if I knew Billy Joe Shaver's tune Tramp On Your Street. I told him I knew it and I had actually just recently seen him in NYC. Half of his acoustics were tuned to open E including the one on my lap at the moment. We played the intro and he started singing the verses. I filled the pockets only between his singing taking care to not step on his lyrics, after the 2nd chorus pre lead, I looked at his eyes for direction to see if he was going to just hit the last verse, but he stared into my eyes and with a subtle nod softly saying "go ahead", that moment seemed a lot longer than it actually was. I played a lead with a slide and had my chest throbbing with an unheard percussion. I was so nervous but lived in the moment flub free. I couldn't believe I was actually playing lead guitar for Dickey Betts in his home. He was his happiest talking and playing. He had an aura about him I can't explain, at one point he grabbed a violin off the wall that Vassar had given to him that belonged to his father. He played a little bit exhibiting his overall love of music. He's quite the character, an American Treasure in his own right. I love the man and wish him peace in all his days. He has given me more joy than I could ever repay, not just that day, but in my musically obsessed life in general. I pray for his happiness and well being in all he encounters. God Bless Dickey Betts!

great interview and amazing story Fretsman. wow!

great interview and amazing story Fretsman. wow!

Ditto!

Thanks for posting this.

"But I feel like I did my work, and I'm not gonna do anything that's gonna top what I'm known for. So why don't you just stay home?"

Well someone has to answer that. People still want to hear ya play Dickey, that's why. You don't have to top yourself or create something so incredible people will be speechless for the rest of the night after they hear it and be talking about it for years. You proved all that already. What's left is, enjoying yourself, playing your music, playing for yourself and for the people who like to come out to hear it. Since finances are not an issue anymore, you don't have to play 5,000 seat halls. Come out to places where you have people who want to hear you and just enjoy that. Is it really less of an accomplishment to make a couple of hundred people happy than to play 5,000 seat halls? Joy is joy no matter how many people are benefitting from it.

If you want to sit home and just not play shows anymore, nobody will fault you for it, everybody is allowed to retire, but I think your band could open for Mule, or Derek & Susan, you could have other jam bands with any number of different people playing. Don't feel like it's a snub to your dignity to now be an opening act, because you have been a star with a world re-knowned band.

Once you have hit the pinnacle of your career, what comes next is just enjoying yourself without the strain of worrying over finances, or any of the other stuff that happens while you are making your way to the top (failed/ruined relationships from the rigors of touring, cheating spouses/lovers, problems with taxes, royalties, managers, egos in the bands etc. etc.). all that bullshit is done.

If you want to come out and play, people will still enjoy it.

[Edited on 11/26/2017 by gina]

If there was ever one thing that Dickey Betts ALWAYS was, that would be true to himself....And after reading this article, it's easy to see he hasn't changed a bit, well into decade number seven....Genuine Since '69....And probably way before that!!

It's nice to see Dickey getting some love on this thread. That wasn't always the case in this forum

Imagine.....the print edition of Rolling Stone wasting two pages on a retired 73-year-old
backwoods guitar-playing genius when they could be telling us about Selena and the Beebs
reuniting, Chance The Rapper or what Taylor Swift had for lunch. Ridiculous! No wonder
everyone dumps on Rolling Stone.

"he figured he could draw 5000/night and make 20K a night but wound up playing bars for a quarter of that' and the shows were not that great, because the band was not that great. The first DB solo albums were fantastic

The last iteration of GS was ersatz

Yes Dickey is a musical master, and he is straightforward about not having the fire in his belly to
burn it up onstage. I'd rather remember his genius than pay to see him blow it. For that, in fact, I tip my hat. Be nice to see a DB bio before he poots.

"he figured he could draw 5000/night and make 20K a night but wound up playing bars for a quarter of that' and the shows were not that great, because the band was not that great. The first DB solo albums were fantastic

The second incarnation of Great Southern was as stated above "not that great"...I always thought the only player in that band who could really play was the keyboardist...And the first DB & GS album was really good (1977) the second, not so much....