December 1943 to April 2024
Emerging from the shadow of Duane to write signature hit Ramblin’ Man, the Allman Brothers guitarist was a hard-living pioneer of Southern rock
“I’ve definitely lived a dangerous life,” Dickey Betts once admitted, and you only had to see him to know it. A stern gunslinger with a cowboy hat, handlebar moustache and ’57 Goldtop, Betts’ outlaw stage presence in The Allman Brothers Band often bled into his hairy personal life. Despite that, his passing on 18 April aged 80 meant he outlived all but one of his co-founders in a group synonymous with early death.
Born Forrest Richard Betts in 1943, his Florida family’s bluegrass background meant the young Southerner took up first the ukulele, then banjo and mandolin, before the epiphany of Chuck Berry’s Maybellene – and perhaps the realisation that “girls like guitars” – showed him the path. An early band, Second Coming, featured Berry Oakley on bass, and after the pair jammed with session ace Duane Allman in 1969 – convincing him to bury the hatchet and bring in kid brother Gregg on vocals – the great pioneers of Southern Rock had their nucleus.
In the end – and unlike so many of his bandmates –Dickey Betts managed to achieve both sides of the rock ’n’ roll equation, by living fast but dying old
Flying in the face of two-guitar wisdom, whereby most 60s bands assigned chords to one player and solos to the other, both Duane and Betts played lead, their intricate dovetailed harmonies spellbinding to hear. While the former was a slide specialist, the latter quickly announced his sweet-but-fiery touch and writing skills. Early compositions like Revival became fan favourites, while the 12-minute version of In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed, from the Allmans’ millionselling 1971 live album At Fillmore East, was a fiery groove in thrall to Miles Davis.
Duane was better known, thanks to his cameo on Clapton’s Layla (“I’m the famous guitar player,” he insisted, “but Dickey is the good one”). But after the slide man perished on the road in October 1971 – followed a year later by Oakley – the surviv
