Dickey Betts, founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, has died : NPR

Dickey Betts, a founding member of the famend rock group the Allman Brothers Band, died at at his dwelling in Osprey, Fla. on Thursday. The influential guitarist, songwriter and vocalist had been battling two sorts of most cancers in addition to persistent obstructive pulmonary illness (COPD). He was 80 years outdated.

The information was shared on Betts’ official web site in a press release by his household.

“Dickey was bigger than life, and his loss can be felt world-wide,” the assertion mentioned.

Betts’ blues, rock and country-influenced guitar model helped outline Southern rock within the Sixties and ’70s.

“Dickey was probably the most distinctive guitar stylists within the phrase, and also you knew it was him whenever you heard him on report or reside,” mentioned longtime Allman Brothers member Chuck Leavell, who presently serves because the Rolling Stones’ music director/keyboard participant, in a press release shared with NPR. “He leaves an everlasting and enviable legacy that we are going to all be celebrating for eternity.”

Betts was finest identified for the track “Ramblin’ Man.” The Allman Brothers Band was initially reluctant to report the track, which Betts wrote and sang, as a result of they thought it sounded an excessive amount of like a rustic track.

Launched in 1973, “Ramblin’ Man” went on to change into the band’s first and solely high 10 single on the Billboard Sizzling 100 chart.

The lean, mustachioed guitarist minimize such an iconic determine that director Cameron Crowe primarily based the rock star hero of his 2000 film Nearly Well-known on him. The character within the movie was performed by Billy Crudup.

“Crudup’s look, and far more, is a tribute to Dickey,” Crowe mentioned in a 2017 interview for Rolling Stone journal. “Dickey appeared like a quiet man with an enormous quantity of soul, doable hazard and playful recklessness behind his eyes. He was an enormous presence.”

Forrest Richard “Dickey” Betts was born in 1943 in West Palm Seashore, Fla. He got here from a musical household and began out taking part in ukulele at 5 years outdated, earlier than choosing up the mandolin, banjo and guitar. He started performing in rock bands round Florida — which remained his lifelong dwelling state — and joined the Allman Brothers Band at its inception in 1969.

Betts began out taking part in co-lead guitar with Duane Allman (one of many two brothers after which the band took its identify). He pushed rock guitar improvisation into new territory — the guitarist’s spiraling sound is completely captured within the observe “In Reminiscence of Elizabeth Reed” on the Allman Brothers’ 1971 At Fillmore East album. Betts additionally made his identify as a songwriter with songs like “Jessica” and “Blue Sky.”

After Duane Allman’s loss of life in a motorbike accident in 1971, Betts turned The Allman Brothers Band’s sole guitarist and lead singer. He had a checkered relationship with the group through the years, taking breaks to carry out with different ensembles and work on solo initiatives. However Betts wasn’t in a position to replicate the success he had with The Allman Brothers Band when he struck out on his personal.

Identified for his onerous residing methods, Betts earned a fame for trashing lodge rooms and taking swings at law enforcement officials.

But in accordance with his longtime supervisor, David Spero, Betts was additionally an ideal mensch.

“He was such a giving man,” Spero mentioned in an interview with NPR. “He took time along with his followers. He’d signal something. He posed for each image.”

The musician’s generosity was additionally highlighted in a 2005 interview for WHYY’s Recent Air, when nation music star Billy Joe Shaver described how Betts helped kickstart the music profession of Shaver’s son Eddy Shaver by noticing his expertise and even passing alongside prize guitars.

“Dickey Betts gave [Eddy Shaver] his 335 that belonged to Duane Allman and a ’55 Strat when he was 13 years outdated,” Shaver mentioned. “And Dickey had acknowledged faster than I did how a lot expertise he had.”

Story edited by Jennifer Vanasco.