Dickey Betts just turned 80, so here’s five of the best quotes I ever got from the legendary Allman Brothers guitarist

By Steve Newton

Happy birthday to southern-rock guitar hero Dickey Betts, who is celebrating his 80th trip around the sun today.

Now I know why the Allman Brothers named that stellar 1975 compilation LP The Road Goes On Forever.

During that legendary musical trek I got to interview Betts four times, in 1989 (just before the ABB reunited), 1991 (after the release of Shades of Two Worlds), 1992 (after the release of An Evening with the Allman Brothers Band: First Set), and lastly in 2001 (after he got booted out of the band).

In recognition of Dickey’s milestone here’s five of the best quotes I got from those conversations.

1989: “He’d probably be pulling his hair out at some of the music that’s around. But most likely he’d be producing albums–he was always very strong in the studio. And hopefully he’d be playing with me once in a while.” (On what his former bandmate Duane Allman might be doing if he were still around today.)

1991: “Oooh, that’s a good one for you to ask. I don’t know. But that’s a pleasant thought, and I’m sure that they are. Hendrix is right there with ’em, too. They’re probably playin’ ‘Dreams’—you know, that’s a nice drifty, heavenly kinda soundin’ song.” (On what song Duane Allman and the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd would be playing if they were jamming up in heaven.)

1991: “We were the first band that sounded like this, but we weren’t the first band that could have sounded like this, I don’t think. The thing is, most bands from the south would either move to L.A. or move to New York to get started. In fact, Atlantic Records did everything they could to get us to move out of the South. They said we’d never break out of the South. They said, ‘Move these guys to Los Angeles, dress ’em up, get ’em out of those damn boots and blue jeans.’” (On being the flagship band of the southern-rock movement.)

1992: “There’s a whole new generation comin’ out to see us, and there’s just a very few bands that are doin’ that: maybe the Rolling Stones and, of course, the Grateful Dead. I’m proud to be of that fraternity, to say that we’ve transcended a generation. It’s difficult to do in rock music, especially as trendy as this music tends to be.” (On the continuing popularity of the Allman Brothers, as proven by a string of 10 sold-out shows at New York’s Beacon Theatre.)

2001: “You know, I refused to get into this dirt-throwin’ contest, but I don’t know how else to put it: it was a dirty little business deal, is what it was. You know, Butch Trucks decided about three years ago that he was the leader of the Allman Brothers Band, and ever since he had come to that epiphany, there’s been nothing but trouble.” (On why he was no longer a member of the Allman Brothers.)

To hear the full audio of my interviews with Dickey Betts from 1991, 1992, and 2001 subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can also eavesdrop on over 400 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with the legends of rock since 1982.