Ramblin' man back on the road

Dickey Betts' parting with the Allman Brothers Band wasn't pleasant, but he has put it behind him with a new band and a new tour.

By TOM ZUCCO, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 20, 2001

They didn't call him in for a meeting. They didn't even call him.

They sent him a one-page fax.

That's how Dickey Betts found out last June that he'd been voted out of the Allman Brothers Band.

"No explanation," he said later. "Just a damn fax."

That one piece of paper sent Betts spiraling downward into depression, almost ruined his marriage, led to trouble with the police . . . and couldn't have made less sense.

Betts had been a front man for the Allman Brothers for 32 years. He wrote most of the band's biggest hits (Ramblin' Man, Jessica, Southbound) and remains one of the slickest electric guitar players alive.

Maybe more importantly, he helped hold the band together when founder Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1971. And it was Betts who assumed command of the band when Gregg Allman got himself wrapped up in drugs, alcohol and Cher. As a result of his guidance, the Allman Brothers not only survived Duane's death, the band laid the foundation for Southern rock and played its way into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

His last name isn't Allman. But it might as well have been.

And now he's out?

Via fax?

The band issued a statement citing "creative differences" with Betts, but Gregg Allman quickly conceded that there was more. Betts had a drinking problem, Allman said. "When it starts to affect the music, something has to be done about it," he told the Boston Globe. "And I'm not overlooking the fact that I've had problems with the stuff myself.

"Maybe this is what it will take to get him back together. He'll be back, I think, but it's all up to him."

Betts is back all right.

But not with the Allman Brothers.

Betts, who brings his new band to Jannus Landing this week, acknowledged that he drinks occasionally but denied that he has a problem with alcohol or drugs. He insisted he's been playing better than he has in years.

"The Allman Brothers deserved a better ending than that, don't you think?" Betts said recently from his Spanish-style home overlooking Sarasota Bay. "I tried to talk to them, to end it the right way."

But no one would listen. Betts said that shortly after he received the fax, he called Allman to suggest a farewell tour. To go out with dignity and preserve "the heritage of the band." Allman, Betts said, hung up on him. Twice.

A few weeks after he was booted out of the band, Betts found himself waist-deep in depression, so he checked into a crisis intervention center in Sarasota.

Then his story got even more bizarre.

Somehow, Betts' hospitalization led to reports that he was the subject of a nationwide manhunt.

"I was released the next day," he said, "but it hit the papers that I was being chased through the woods by cops using helicopters and dogs. It was hysterical. Me a wanted man?"

Even though the report was unfounded, Betts said what really hurt was that none of his former band members called to see if he was okay.

"That told me a lot," he said. "I knew then it wasn't a misunderstanding."

Betts and the Allman Brothers Band have gone their separate ways before, but they always managed to find their way back.

This time, Betts said, all the wire and wood in the world can't mend these fences.

"I don't have any relationship with those guys," he said. "I don't understand what they're doing. After a year, it's gotten to the point I'm so separated from that. I talk with Derek Trucks and some of the road guys, but that's about it.

"They said I was doing too much drinking.

"Coming from Gregg . . . "

He laughed and changed the subject.

Trouble in the past

He's no angel. Not by a long shot.

--In 1996, Betts was charged with putting a .44-caliber Magnum revolver to his wife's head and threatening her life. Donna Betts told police her husband had been using heroin and cocaine before the confrontation. The Bettses both agreed to enter a drug rehabilitation center, and the charge was dropped.

--In 1997, he was found guilty of trespassing and was put on probation for a year and ordered to do 25 hours of community service after a fight at a Sarasota strip club. A manager asked him to leave the Cheetah Club because of "obscene behavior."

--Last October, Sarasota police accused Betts of attacking his wife at their home. After being restrained by his son, police said, Betts charged his wife and punched her in the face. He was taken to the Sarasota County Jail and held overnight before being released on $10,000 bail. (Donna Betts declined interview requests for this story.)

Betts says everything is under control now. The sting of being removed from the Allman Brothers is more of a dull ache, and he's back doing what he loves: playing his 1960 Gibson and making audiences smile.

He's 57, and his new group, the Dickey Betts Band, features Mark May on guitar, vocalist-bassist David Stoltz, keyboardist Matt Zeiner, drummer Mark Greenberg and percussionist Frankie Lombardi. The band's first album, Let's Get Together, is due out in July.

On tour, Betts will be playing much of this new material, including three new instrumentals. However, the band will not be ignoring the songs that Betts made famous in the '70s, including Jessica, Blue Sky and Ramblin' Man.

"It's life or death," he said. "You can't just play old stuff all the time and stay in this business. You can't live on Ramblin' Man the rest of your life."

But the songs make for good stories. Betts likes to tell how In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, the first song he brought to the Allman Brothers, was written in a Macon, Ga., graveyard. Betts was writing a song for a girl but couldn't remember her name. So he looked around, and on the nearest headstone were the words "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed."

Ramblin' Man, he said, had to do with a friend who traveled the South building fences. Always on the move. Every time Betts would run into him, the friend would ask, "How you doing, Dickey? Still writing music, doing the best you can?"

Betts' focus now is on the future. His new band will be on the road all summer doing three five-week tours, about 65 dates in all.

His wife, Donna, will be with him, and that's important.

"I'm just fine," Betts said. "I had an argument with my wife, and when you live in a small town like this, it makes headlines.

"I've been through four divorces, and they were all caused by me being on the road," he added.

"You leave your family behind too much, and all of a sudden, they're not there."

PREVIEW

The Dickey Betts Band will be at Jannus Landing in St. Petersburg at 7 p.m. Thursday. Tickets are $16-$20. Call (727) 896-1244.

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