\n<\/p>\n
Dickey Betts, a honky-tonk hell raiser who, as a guitarist for the Allman Brothers Band, traded fiery licks with Duane Allman in the band\u2019s early-1970s heyday, and who went on to write some of the band\u2019s most indelible songs, including its biggest hit, \u201cRamblin\u2019 Man,\u201d died on Thursday at his home in Osprey, Fla. He was 80.<\/p>\n
His death was announced on social media by his family. His manager David Spero said in a statement to Rolling Stone magazine that the cause was cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.<\/p>\n
Despite not being an actual Allman brother \u2014 the band, founded in 1969, was led by Duane Allman, who achieved guitar-god status before he died in a motorcycle accident at 24, and Gregg Allman<\/a>, the lead vocalist, who got an added flash of the limelight in 1975 when he married Cher \u2014 Mr. Betts was a guiding force in the group for decades and central to the sound that came to define Southern rock.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Although pigeonholed by some fans in the band\u2019s early days as its \u201cother\u201d guitarist, Mr. Betts, whose solos seemed at times to scorch the fretboard of his Gibson Les Paul, proved a worthy sparring partner to Duane Allman, serving as a co-lead guitarist, rather than as a sidekick.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n With his chiseled features, Wild West mustache and gunfighter demeanor, Mr. Betts certainly looked the part of the star. And he played like one. Nowhere was that more apparent than on the band\u2019s landmark 1971 live double album, \u201cAt Fillmore East,\u201d which was filled with expansive jams and showcased the intricate interplay between Mr. Betts and Mr. Allman. It sold more than a million copies.<\/p>\n \u201cThe second half of \u2018At Fillmore East\u2019 is as vivid and exhilarating as recorded rock has ever been,\u201d Grayson Haver Currin of Pitchfork wrote<\/a> in a 2022 appraisal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A centerpiece of the album was \u201cIn Memory of Elizabeth Reed,\u201d<\/a> a haunting, jazz-influenced instrumental written by Mr. Betts whose title was taken from a headstone at a graveyard in the band\u2019s hometown, Macon, Ga. That track\u2019s \u201ctextural interplay,\u201d Mr. Currin continued, \u201cresembles Miles Davis\u2019s then-new electric bands, organ and guitar oozing into one another like melting butter and chocolate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cDuane and I had an understanding<\/a>, like an old soul kind of understanding of let\u2019s play together,\u201d Mr. Betts said in a 2020 interview with The Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Florida. \u201cDuane would say, \u2018Man, I get so jealous of you sometimes when you burn off and I have to follow it,\u2019 and we would joke about it. So that\u2019s kind of Duane and mine\u2019s relationship. It was a real understanding. Like, \u2018Come on, this is a hell of a band, let\u2019s not hot dog it up.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Allman made his feelings about his bandmate clear. \u201cI\u2019m the famous guitar player,\u201d he once said, \u201cbut Dickey is the good one.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n That brilliant guitar dialogue ended in Macon on Oct. 29, 1971, when Mr. Allman lost control of his motorcycle<\/a> after swerving to miss a truck and died of extensive internal injuries sustained in the crash (Berry Oakley<\/a>, the band\u2019s bassist, was killed a year later in a motorcycle accident just a few blocks from the site).<\/p>\n Mr. Betts took over as the band\u2019s effective leader and featured guitarist when the Allman Brothers Band regrouped to complete its next album, \u201cEat a Peach.\u201d Released in 1972, it was critically acclaimed and vaulted to No. 4<\/a> on the Billboard charts. Among the album\u2019s most memorable tracks was Mr. Betts\u2019s sunny country-inflected number <\/em>\u201cBlue Sky,\u201d<\/a> which came to be regarded as a rock classic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The band reached new commercial heights with its follow-up the next year, \u201cBrothers & Sisters,\u201d which contained two of Mr. Betts\u2019s signature songs: \u201cRamblin\u2019 Man,\u201d<\/a> which rose to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the upbeat instrumental \u201cJessica.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cRamblin\u2019 Man,\u201d which, like all his signature songs, Mr. Betts sang, is a carefree tale of an unfettered life on the open road. \u201cI guess the song is more or less autobiographical<\/a>,\u201d he said in a 1973 interview with the future movie director Cameron Crowe, who was then a writer for Rolling Stone. \u201cNot right down to the point, but overall it\u2019s a pretty true song. There\u2019s a lot of things I wish I could say in my songs that I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n He apparently made an impression on Mr. Crowe. With his horseshoe mustache and bad-boy swagger, he became the inspiration for Billy Crudup\u2019s rock-star character in Mr. Crowe\u2019s quasi-autobiographical 2000 film, \u201cAlmost Famous.\u201d<\/a> As Mr. Crowe told Rolling Stone in 2017: \u201cDickey seemed like a quiet guy with a huge amount of soul<\/a>, possible danger and playful recklessness behind his eyes. He was a huge presence.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Forrest Richard Betts was born on Dec. 12, 1943, in West Palm Beach, Fla., one of three children of Harold and Sarah Betts. Growing up on the Gulf Coast in Bradenton, near Tampa, <\/em>he learned an early appreciation of music from his father, a fiddler, and started playing ukulele at 5.<\/p>\n He graduated to guitar and formed his own band in his teens. In 1967, he formed another band, the Second Coming, with Mr. Oakley. They eventually found themselves jamming with Duane Allman, who invited them to join his new band.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n After the triumph of \u201cBrothers & Sisters,\u201d which topped the Billboard 200<\/a> for five weeks in 1973, the Allman Brothers Band started to fray. Gregg Allman started a side solo career, as did Mr. Betts, who released an album, \u201cHighway Call,\u201d under the name Richard Betts in 1974.<\/p>\n Along the way, the band\u2019s outsize drug and alcohol use was becoming an increasing problem, as was the internal pressures that came with success. The band splintered in 1976 after Gregg Allman testified against his personal road manager in a federal drug case<\/a>; Mr. Betts vowed never to work with Mr. Allman again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Still, he did. Although Mr. Betts continued with a side venture, Dickey Betts & Great Southern, in 1979 the Allman Brothers Band released a comeback album, \u201cEnlightened Rogues,\u201d reviving the twin-guitar approach by adding a new guitarist, Dan Toler; the band would continue to tour and record, despite lengthy hiatuses, until 2000. That year, the group fired Mr. Betts, citing \u201ccreative differences<\/a>\u201d \u2014 while also alluding to continuing struggles with substance abuse, which he denied.<\/p>\n By that point Mr. Betts had been through plenty of struggles with drugs and alcohol, as well as multiple arrests, including a much-publicized incident in 1996, in which he was accused of aiming a .44 Magnum handgun at his wife, Donna, during a quarrel over his drug use and charged with aggravated domestic assault. The charges were dropped after he agreed to check into a rehab facility.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In addition to his wife, Mr. Betts\u2019s survivors include his daughters, Kimberly, Christy and Jessica Betts, as well as his son, Duane Betts, who made appearances with the Allman Brothers Band in the 1990s and later joined Great Southern.<\/p>\n Despite undergoing brain surgery<\/a> in 2018 after a fall at home, Mr. Betts released live albums with his outfit the Dickey Betts Band in both 2018 and 2019.<\/p>\n He received notable recognition when Bob Dylan referenced him in \u201cMurder Most Foul,\u201d<\/a> Mr. Dylan\u2019s 2020 opus about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It contains the line \u201cPlay Oscar Peterson, play Stan Getz\/Play \u2018Blue Sky,\u2019 play Dickey Betts.\u201d<\/p>\n When friends called him about the shout-out, Mr. Betts was deeply honored, he said in a recent interview<\/a>, but also embarrassed. \u201cI would say, \u2018Well, he just used me because it rhymes with Getz.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n