DICKEY BETTS,
1943-2024

Dickey Betts, the Allman Brothers Band guitarist and singer who penned their biggest hit and was a driving force in the rise of Southern rock, died Thursday (4/18). He was 80.

The cause was cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Rolling Stone has reported.

“The legendary performer, songwriter, bandleader and family patriarch was at his home in Osprey, Florida, surrounded by his family,” Betts’ family has announced. “Dickey was larger than life, and his loss will be felt worldwide. At this difficult time, the family asks for prayers and respect for their privacy in the coming days.”

The pairing of slide guitarist Duane Allman with Betts was a marriage of virtuosity as the two used the blues as a starting point to launch innumerable jams that incorporated elements of jazz, country, soul and early rock 'n' roll. Betts was the country counterpoint to Allman’s urban-blues style—often breezier and lighter—and after Allman’s death in 1971, his songwriting provided a distinct counterpoint to the harder-hitting style of Gregg Allman.

Betts penned some of the Allmans’ best-known songs, among them “Blue Sky,” “Revival” (the band’s first single to chart), the signature instrumentals “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” and “Jessica” and their lone Top 10 hit, 1973’s “Ramblin’ Man,” which reached #2.

In 1969 Duane Allman invited Betts to join the then-unnamed Allman Brothers at the behest of bassist Berry Oakley, who'd been in the band Second Coming with Betts prior to joining the Allmans.

The twin-guitar attack, augmented by Gregg Allman’s organ and two drummers, rewrote the rule book on how guitarists interact with one another in a rock band, dissolving the distinction between rhythm and lead roles.

Following Duane’s death (in a motorcycle accident at age 24), Betts upped his songwriting and lead-singing contributions and became the band’s focal point in concert, standing center stage with the other members in a horseshoe around him. Rather than bring in another guitarist to re-create the two-guitar sound, they hired pianist Chuck Leavell as an instrumental foil for Betts.

The band split apart in 1976, reforming in 1979 and breaking up again in 1982. Betts and Allman toured together with their own bands in 1986, reuniting for a tour in 1989.

Betts left the Allmans for good in 1996 after their annual spring run at the Beacon Theatre in New York. He retired in 2014 and in 2017 announced that he would no longer record music.

As a solo artist, Betts released around a dozen albums, beginning with 1974’s Highway Call and including two records with Great Southern in the late 1970s.