Sweet! Where's the rest of it?

I saw this band twice in 1988. When the first set ended they all came to the bar and I was standing there and the guitar player who I later learned was Warren Haynes led the blind piano player up to the bar right next to me and I said to him " You all are hot. Smoking hot" and he said "You know where there is any cocaine?". I said no man I don't. It turned out to be Johnny Neal.

They had Marty Prevett on bass, Matt Apps on drums and it was a tight, hard edge rock band. Even with Dickey in the band it was more of a George Theragood Bad to the Bone vibe than an Allman Brothers vibe. It did eventually get that way somewhat on Jessica, Ramblin'Man, Blue Sky and Liz Reed.

Got to talk a minute with Warren at the bar and mentioned the hard edge rock vibe to him and he said that is why their first album is called Pattern Disruptive. That it's a different street to run down for Dickey. That the guys suggested that is what Dickey should do, kinda reinvent himself because Dickey and Gregg are back playing bars again.

I bought a copy of the album the next day and thought it would be a huge hit. But it just barely got on the charts and sold only 35 thousand copies or so.

Gregg's I'm No Angel surprised everyone and went Gold. But the next year Epic Records, which had signed Gregg in 1987 and Dickey in 1988, pressed Dickey and Gregg to record as the ABB and see if they could go platinum again for the first time since Brothers and Sisters. But Gregg was reluctant and Butch wasn't that interested in working with Gregg again but Dickey told Butch he and Gregg played a lot of shows together in 1986 and 7 and Gregg was in good shape. I got the impression the ABB was reluctant to try it again and Butch said they were and the legacy of the band was about ruined by the last lineup. The Dreams box set was out celebrating the 20th anniversary so they told Epic they would do a tour in 1989 to support the box set and if that felt right THEN they would do an album for Epic.

I did!.....First time I saw and heard a young guitar player named Warren Haynes as well.

Maybe 300 people

Bought tickets to see this version of the band for a show in Bessemer, Al, just outside of Bham. I was very excited.

About 3 days before the show I somehow got word the promotor who was selling tix was totally scamming everyone. Dickey had never been booked.

Oh well.

In 1986 I saw Gregg and Dickey at a small club in Winston Salem, NC. About 300 people there and I already knew what the tour was about. Dickey's band would play then Gregg's followed by a 3rd set with David Toler and Matt Abts playing drums together, rotating bass players ( Gregg's was Bruce W. and Dickey's was Marty T.) and Danny Toler played duel lead guitar with Dickey. So it was a lineup that was like an Allman Brothers show. And the set was indeed ABB songs.

But the promoter was promoting the show as The Allman Brothers Band show. Posters, radio commercials and the big sign at this little club. Yep right on the street the big sign said " Tonight The Allman Brothers Band".

When Dickey took the little stage he went straight to the mic and said " Look here. The promoter didn't have permission to book this show like this. If you feel ripped off I don't blame you. This is The Dickey Betts Band and the Gregg Allman Band and later on tonight we will join forces. Butch Trucks and Jaimoe are not here tonight so we don't call this the Allman Brothers. Those signs are a damn lie."

I never knew that Matt Abts and Johnny Neel were in Dickey's band. I also never knew that Johnny Neel was blind!! I have a boot DVD of the Brothers 1989 reunion tour here in the Bay area. It's damn good, Johnny on keyboards. I thought he was a good player.............he also gets spots on harmonica and on one tune lead vocals as well. He nails all of it. Overall though Johnny IMO didn't really fit with the classic sound of the band and when they went back to just Gregg on keys it was back to their early sound and of course the rest is history..........that lineup with Dickey and Warren on guitar, Allen Woody on bass was enormous.
They do a great I'm No Angel on that '89 boot...........just made sense to play it, obviously the only recent hit from anyone in the band.