1. Forrest Richard Betts was an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter.
22 Facts About Dickey Betts
1. 2.
Dickey Betts was best known as a longtime member of the Allman Brothers Band.
3.
Dickey Betts was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, on December 12,1943, and raised in Bradenton.
4.
Dickey Betts grew up in a musical family listening to traditional bluegrass, country music and Western swing.
5.
Dickey Betts started playing ukulele at the age of five and, as his hands got bigger, moved on to mandolin, banjo, and guitar.
6.
Dickey Betts gained additional renown for his instrumental, "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed", from the band's second album, Idlewild South, followed by his striking guitar duet-driven "Blue Sky" on Eat a Peach.
7.
Dickey Betts practiced slide guitar intensively in order to be able to cover the majority of Duane's parts.
8.
Dickey Betts wrote the song "Jessica", inspired by his young daughter Jessica, and the Allmans' highest-charting single, "Ramblin' Man", for the band's 1973 breakout commercial success Brothers and Sisters.
9.
Dickey Betts formed another band, Dickey Betts, Hall, Leavell and Trucks, where he was co-frontman along with former Wet Willie singer, saxophone, and harmonica player Jimmy Hall.
10.
Dickey Betts returned to his solo career performing live at smaller venues, and released the album Pattern Disruptive in 1989.
11.
Dickey Betts was replaced on numerous Allman Brothers tour dates throughout the mid-to-late 1990s, for what were reported in the media as "personal reasons".
12.
Dickey Betts's last show with the Allman Brothers was at the Music Midtown Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 7,2000.
13.
Dickey Betts was temporarily replaced for the 2000 tour by Jimmy Herring, formerly of the Aquarium Rescue Unit.
14.
When Dickey Betts filed suit against the other three original Allmans, the separation turned into a permanent divorce.
15.
In 2005, Dickey Betts released the DVD Live from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
16.
Dickey Betts was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Allman Brothers Band in 1995, and won a best rock performance Grammy Award with the band for "Jessica" in 1996.
17.
Dickey Betts was ranked No 58 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time list in 2003, and No 61 on the list published in 2011.
18.
Dickey Betts was a Florida native, born in West Palm Beach.
19.
Dickey Betts was married five times, last to Donna, in 1989.
20.
Dickey Betts had four children: Kimberly, Christy, Jessica, and Duane.
21.
Duane, named for Dickey Betts's former bandmate Duane Allman, is a musician and performed and recorded with his father, and with Gregg Allman's son Devon in the Allman Dickey Betts Band.
22.
Dickey Betts died of cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at his home in Osprey, Florida, on April 18,2024, at the age of 80.