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Beyond the Brotherhood
In this sporadic interview, the guitar legend talks about life after the Allman Brothers, the new Dickey Betts Band, and his fourth and latest solo album Let's Get Together (Back Alley Records). Boulder Weekly: Dickey, How's the tour going? Betts (in a warm southern drawl): It's going great. I'm in Columbus Ohio now. We just played the second show of the fourth leg of the tour. You know, we're building momentum, our crowds are getting stronger. They love the CD. Once they hear the band they really get into it. BW: How does this incarnation differ from previous Dickey Betts Bands? DB: There's a whole lot of difference with personality dynamics. But the main and most obvious sight and sound is the tenor horn with the two guitar players. Kris Jensen's such a great horn player. He's got a Charlie Parker thing going on that finds a way to fit into what we're doing. Well, we're not too far from jazz anyway on most stuff. I've wanted to have a horn in one of my bands for a long time. When I was working with the Brothers, if you think about it, I never did any side projects. You know I haven't had a band together since way in the hell back there during the '80s. BW: It seems like you were revisiting the past while moving forward with the new song "Let's All Get Together." Was this your answer to "Revival" (Dickey's first song written for the Allman Brothers in 1970), and is it symbolic of your own revival as a musician? DB: Well, you know that's exactly what that song was written for. In fact I told my wife Dona, I said "This is my new Revival" (Laughs). It's one of those songs played for the audience, and they know it's written for them. You know, it's telling them come on, let's have a good time. But I wasn't revisiting older ideas with anything else. It takes a lot of balls to put a song like "Tombstone Eyes" on a record. But I thought it was a message that needs to be told because of the problems everybody's having with this heroin and stuff. You know, dead is dead and it's final. That's what that song's basically saying. BW: Is this mostly newer material you've been working on? DB: None of the songs has been recorded before. I wrote "Tombstone Eyes" four or five years ago when I was with the Brothers. Gregg didn't want to sing it, so I did. But I sang it so damn cold and straight ahead, you know. I felt it was too damned depressing the way I sang it, so I just kinda put the song away. And when I put this band together, Matt Zeiner, the keyboard player, has kind of a Delbert McClinton, Ray Charlesy gravelly voice, and I asked him to try it. God, he did a wonderful job on it. So we went ahead and recorded it. "One Stop Be-Bop" and "Rave On" were written at the Beacon rehearsals on that last Beacon thing I did (March 2000), right before I got thrown out of the band. BW: How did you piece together this band? DB: The first thing I did was call Mark May, the guitar player. I'd been watching him for about five years, enjoying his CDs with Icehouse Records. There are a lot of good guitar players around but I liked his guitar playing and the way he sang, and I needed a good blues singer. Then I knew Brother Dave Stoltz from when he auditioned with the Allman Brothers Band after Allen Woody and Warren (Haynes) left. He didn't get the gig, Oteil (Burbridge) got it, but I thought he was good, so I called him for bass. And then I sent out word on the streets to different people I know. After carefully looking through about 75 applications, I selected ten and flew 'em down to my house and came out with the six I needed. It's a seven piece band with me. BW: So you weren't waiting around for anything after the Allman Brothers? DB: No, you know what my idea with that was. Gregg was, and still is, kinda running me down in the press real bad. So I knew I needed to get out very quickly before that touring season was over and let everybody see that I was indeed okay and a lot of these things weren't true. Because I think if I would have just disappeared with all that bad press out, people would have said "Well, I guess he's not playing anymore." So I worked hard to get the band out quick. So things are cooking along good, you know, we're just trying to gain ground. You kinda gotta go back and start over when these things happen. BW: The media has always had this scandalous infatuation with the Allman Brothers. Gregg and CherŠ The drugsŠ It seems like its Dickey Betts' turn these days. DB: I will say about this bad ink I've got here on this damned domestic thing. Once the story comes out-I can't talk about it now because it's pending-but you know my wife and I have been under a hell of a lot of emotional stress from this stuff that happened with the band, plus my workload has tripled by trying to get this new band off the ground. And it's been kinda hard on us. My wife and I love each other very much. You know how the press likes to pick up on these matters and blow things up, but you only get part of the story. When the truth comes out, people will see it's not what it appears. You know, it ain't me babe, and I hope people will understand. BW: So what actually happened with the Brothers gig? Got anything you want to say about that? DB: Yeah, there's a million things that happened. The social dynamics-I guess you would call it-became so pressurized and stressed that it just finally blew up. Butch Trucks decided that-and I don't mean to say this in a vicious kind of way, but it is true-Butch Trucks about three years ago decided he was the leader of the Allman Brothers Band. That's basically when all the problems started. BW: You two racked horns? DB: Well, he wanted to get the Allman Brothers to promote his private business affairs. We just didn't want to do that. So he took offense. Anyway, that's basically what happened, at least from where I was standing. BW: Any hard feelings? DB: I don't like the words "hard feelings" because I think all of us practice everyday not to hold bitter feelings. But yeah, to be honest, yeah, there's some pretty raw feelings still about Gregg and Butch. I'm not surprised about Butch, but Gregg selling me out really, really hurt. I didn't think he'd ever turn on me like that. You know, I hope those guys do good, that's all I can say. BW: What's been the most rewarding thing since moving past the Brothers? DB: The rewarding thing is just the enjoyment that I'm getting out of the music and everybody's enthusiasm. Everyone's bringing a lot to the table, always talking about new song ideas, and ideas for the songs that we're already doing. It's just really nice. I'm making one-fourth the money working three times as hard and having ten times as much fun creating three times as much music. BW: It's good to see you coming out with some fresh writing. DB: Thank-you man. But, you know, writers are so damned insecure, you think you're never gonna write again once you've finished a song. BW: Are you writing other stuff now? DB: Yeah, as a matter of fact we're already writing for our next album. We always have these hotel room acoustic gigs where we play around with ideas. We're gonna let this record go its course, and then I'll probably do a live thing. I'm also thinking seriously about doing an acoustic record and inviting friends to sit in. Maybe ask Dylan if he wants to play on one, and Charlie Daniels, John Hammond, maybe Vasser Clements on another one. And just do an assortment of my instrumentals and maybe some delta blues covers and maybe write a couple. BW: What did you think of the film Almost Famous? DB: You know, if I talk about it, it sounds like I'm a pompous ass, but the truth is that some of the story lines in there really did happen. I did befriend Cameron Crowe. He had done a couple of things in Creme magazine and I liked the way he wrote. Nobody knew he was as young as he really was. But I talked the guys into letting him travel around on our bus, and the tape situation really did happen with Gregg. There were a lot of things in there that reminded me of the old days involving him. BW: In the film, Billy Crudup looks a lot like you when you were younger. DB: Yeah, it was kinda chilling when I saw it. Crudup said he was portraying a Dickey Betts-type character in one of his interviews. I thought they really did a great job at recreating those old days. For a movie, they didn't miss it how the hotel rooms looked and the action that goes on. I got a kick out of it. BW: What's the difference between then and now for Dickey Betts? DB: With me, I'm in more of a role now of being like a teacher. What I mean by that is a lot of these younger guitar players, they treat me like I treated B.B. King when I first met him. You get older, and if you're good at all, you notice people start paying you this real embarrassing respect that you're not used to. But as far as the music and the traveling, it's much the same, it's out on the bus, card games, a lot of laughs, loud music, you know, you got the thing turned up. We're just a lot more careful about getting hurt and being in the wrong places at the wrong times. BW: What's been getting the best live response on tour? DB: This crowd really digs "One Stop Be-Bop." When we played that song before the CD was out, they didn't know what the hell to think of it. Now that they've had a little chance to live with it, they fuckin' love it man. Because it's so off the wall, you know, how do you get away with doing that in a rock 'n' roll band. I think some of their favorites are "Dona Maria" off this and they love "Immortal" that Matt does. We're playing about two and a half to three hours. It's just how long I've always believed a show should be. BW: Are you breaking out anything older? DB: I change around stuff a lot during the night. Just about any of the stuff I wrote with the Brothers you may hear in any night. I did "Back Where It All Begins" last night. And I do "Elizabeth Reed" and "Jessica" and "Blue Sky," and sometimes we do "True Gravity," and then I do "Rave on," "Be-Bop" and "Dona Maria" from this new CD. We do a hell of a lot of the new record in our show. BW: Anything you want to add? DB: I always like to say hello to folks out there. Come see it. We're thinking of ya.
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Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Dickey Betts will inevitably go down in history as the fringe rogue of America's top 20 guitar heavyweights. With his razor tremolo and vicious shuffling blues attacks, tossed up with poignant acoustic balladry and raw rock-jazz improvisations, the 57-year-old delta crooner has played it all-with gravity. For the man who largely defined the Southern Rock phenomenon, Betts is the life of the party on stage. But people close to him know his humble candor and introspective nature. Despite getting canned last summer after a 31-year rollercoaster career with the Allman Brothers Band, on top of a savage barrage of recent media hamstrings with far-flung rumors of drug abuse and a few nights in the hoosegow for misdemeanor domestic violence, Betts is shining it through with an iron will, some homegrown guitar genius, and a little help from friends and fans.
