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An Exclusive Interview with DICKEY BETTS:

Former Allman Brother Set to Headline Frankenmuth Blues Fest

By Scott Baker

        For a seasoned veteran in the music business, it's one thing to stay fresh and vital and another to find new ways to remain relevant in the current musical climate.
Accomplishing both many times over in his 30-plus years, Dickey Betts is so inspired at this point in his career, he has a tough time keeping off the road since his departure from the Allman Brothers Band in 2000.

Headlining the first ever Frankenmuth Blues Bash on the Cass, Sept. 4, along with such acts as the Larry McCray Band, Matt Besey, Thornetta Davis, and Frank Bang and the Secret Stash, Dickey Betts and Great Southern plan to hit the stage around 10 p.m. mixing up classics from his Allman days to brand new pieces introduced over the past four years.

The two-day event boasts another full line-up on Sept. 5, featuring Alberta Adams, Big James and the Chicago Playboys, The Saucecats, Carl Weathersby, and headlined by the Fabulous Thunderbirds.
Even during winter breaks, Betts keeps busy recording music until the bus is ready to hit the tour trail again.

"We don't tour too much in the winter time," said Betts, early this week for his only interview in this state.  "I'll play through September and then we'll take most of the winter off until March. Then I'll be back out. We're working on doing some recording this winter too, so we'll really need the time off. Plus I don't like traveling with that ice and snow in those busses. It's pretty rough out there."

Touring for the majority of the year, the southern toned Betts has taken a well-deserved family break, with a few days off at home in Florida, recouping from a house fire a few months back.

"We had a fire in our big house,"  said Betts.  "We're over here in a guest house staying. I finally built me a big house after all these years. We got a big Spanish Mission style place here, but we caught on fire, so we're over in a little cottage. Lost a lot of Navajo rugs, you know old rugs that I collected. I lost a few guitars. It was pretty much a mess, but we saved the house. The house didn't go up, you know. It was about four months ago."

"I lost a lot of old collectors stuff that I had. Thank God I didn't lose that many guitars, because there was this one piece of furniture, a big couch, that didn't catch on fire, and it was kind of blocking the heat from where I have most of my guitars sitting and it protected  'em. The headstocks got burned up, not burned off, but like charcoaled, but then the bodies were protected, but it could have been a lot worse. Believe me, it could have been a lot worse."

Having weathered the fire, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member is focused on his summer shows with The Great Southern.

"We're leaving a smoke trail behind us everywhere we go," said the great guitarist. "We got a nice little band. We've got it down to five pieces now. It's really a good outfit."

Betts has flirted with different line-ups and band members over the past four years, including guitar great Mark May in the first edition of the Dickey Betts Band. Settling on the musicianship of bassist Pedro Arevelo, drummer Frankie Lombardi, keyboardist Mike Kach, and former Allman Brother and original Great Southern member 'Dangerous Dan Toler' on second guitar, Betts has settled the sound and vision in his mind of the perfect band.

"I had a seven piece band then," said Betts about his first solo trip to Michigan out of the Allman's in 2000.  "I cut down to one drummer and left the horn. Now it's Danny Toler and myself and bass and drums and keyboard. Since the Duane Allman days, he's probably the best (guitarist) that I've found to play with, for my style."

Betts and Great Southern will be filling up CD and DVD bins soon, as they have just signed a deal to get a slew of material out in the market.

"We signed with Eagle Rock out of London," stated Betts.  "So we've got a bunch of product coming out. They want to do a DVD and they want to do a live CD and then they want to compile the two (most recent) records I've already done. (They will)  put 'em together and have Danny go in and play on  'em, put that out, and then I've got a bunch of new material for a new record. We've got all kinds of product, we just needed to find a record company that was interested in it."

The two CD's Betts has recently put out have been in and out of stores due to distribution problems. Betts basically released the material on his own and figured he'd try re-recording some of the new tracks with Toler, combining the best collection of songs for his Eagle Rock debut, which has world-wide distribution.
"Collectors #1’ which is acoustic and then the Let's Get Together’ which is a big electric thing, we're going to cut half and half, somewhere along those lines and I'm going to re-sing some of them that I did there on the first album and put Danny in there playing guitar on it," said Betts.  "Danny did play on Collectors. That's him on the acoustic album. I think that'll make a nice record. Those were kind of secret albums anyway. They really never were released. I just did 'em on my own, you know."

Betts creativity has picked up considerably since his departure from the Allman Brothers.
"You write songs and don't have any place to put 'em, it gets tough, so I just started doing some of my own recording and sell 'em on the Internet and at shows. But now that we've got a record company, it'll be much nicer."

One of the pitfalls in Betts career has been starting from the ground up each time his solo career takes off.
"Coming out of the Allman Brothers, one would think you could just start where you left off," he said. "You know, with the Allman Brothers and boom, you're just,  'wow. We' l go see Dickey Betts.' But this is about the third or fourth time in my career this has come along. The Allman Brothers broke up a couple of times and then the disco period came in and just about ruined us all. So I've had to do this about four times during my career and you don't just go start up wherever you want to, you've got to start at the fu**ing bottom and work back up. It's really just like you were starting all over again,  'cause, you know, our crowds are pretty sophisticated. They don't just buy a name. You're gonna have to get out there and prove yourself for a while."

Noting the struggle, Betts is positive that the development of his band is right on course.
"We've really been pretty efficient. It's been three and a half years for the band and we're just about where we should be. I mean it's been pretty efficient. We're making money now instead of breaking even and things are coming around. I've got a record company."
"So everything's just peachy out here," he laughed.  "With a lot of fu**ing hard work--I mean we work the hell out of the road out there. We don't leave any people disappointed behind either."
    

Betts has been drawing a lot of inspiration from watching his son Duane Betts build a musical reputation out in California.

"I'm really the curious type," said the guitarist.  "I'm still into the old guys, but I was just out spending some time with my son who's 26 and they've got a band called White Star. And I hung around with those guys for about three days and listened to them rehearse and they've got an album coming out on Atlantic. It really reminded me of when we were 26, you know. And it really got me fired up. So I get inspiration from things like that or then if I go hear some heavy jazz, somebody that's been around for years, I'll take something home from that."

"They didn't do it on purpose either," he continued.  "They live out there in Los Angeles, Malibu you know, and Lou Adler's son, Cisco Adler is one of the singers in the band. So Lou gives them this guesthouse to stay in. Well now you think, the silver spoon boys, but this guest house is a damn wreck," laughed Betts. "My son and the drummer is Alex Orbison, Roy Orbison's kid  - so my son and Alex sleep in the racquetball court. They don't even use it anymore. And the pool is all green and sh**, but it's in Malibu, it's beautiful, but I mean they're really rat-holing up there, you know. The whole band lives in the house and it kind of fired me up, because that's the way we all start. Kind of bunkin’ in together like that, writin’ and rehearsin’ everyday."

 Betts is interested in possibly working with the young blood to see what kind of new results they can create.

"I want to write with Cisco some. (I) could get Cisco and my boy Duane. Get them together and write something with 'em for our album you know."

"Those guys have got a hell of a record coming out. I've heard it and it's really good. It's a real fresh kind of rock and roll. They've got two male singers and it's kind of like Mick Jagger and Steven Tyler when they were young and the Lynyrd Skynyrd band when they were all young, like when they were kids. It's the same mixture and they've got a little bit of hip-hop lyrics in a couple of tunes and then that real Lynyrd Skynyrd kind of guitar riff going. It's a pretty cool kind of record really. And the words are very clever."
While the road has continued to go on for Betts, the party days of the band are not quite what they used to be.

"We have fun out there, but it's not crazy. We're pretty seasoned you know. The youngest guy in my band is 27 and I'm probably the oldest guy in my band, so between there's 27, 35 and 38 years old, but even at those ages, these guys have been around a long time man. I mean we do some drinkin and stuff like that, but we don't do it to the point that it may ruin a show or something. I'm definitely the veteran in the band," he laughed.

"There's a lot of psychology in being in a band later. You want to guide the guys, give them some direction, but you don't want to sit on their ass all the time and tighten them up. We've got a nice thing going on. Everybody trusts each other and we got a good road crew. A bunch of real pros in our crew and (David) Spero is managing and ICM booking, so you couldn't ask for much better."
  

As thrilled as Betts is to get everything lined up for success again, it's his band that still blows his mind with the possibilities he can achieve musically now.

"We've got a hell of a bunch of musicians. Everybody's just about as good as I can find. And we can play Jessica’ or Elizabeth Reed’ and it's a whole 'nother way of playing it, but the freshness and the enthusiasm just really drives you on, makes you wanna play and have fun with it."

With such a huge back catalog of tunes, Betts does find some tunes tiring him out every so often.

"Well yeah, yeah, yeah, there's some of them that I just don't play anymore, but I hate to mention the tunes because it hurts peoples feelings. Like it would be their favorite song and I don't like that song, but yeah. There's some I don't do because there's just only so much you can do with it when you're trying to improv on it. 'Ramblin' Man' is a song I still play and it's not that I'm tired of it, but it is a song you can't do a whole lot of real band participation in the improv, you know. I play my solo different every time, but the band kind of play a track behind it. So that would be one, but I still play it. I love to sing it, but yeah there are some you get tired of."

"But that's one thing I'm writing new tunes all the time for too, you know. When you've been doing it as long as I have, the crowd kind of expects - they want to hear these things. So that's how I play three hours, just trying to get the new tunes in and get the ones we know they want to hear. I guess the longer I play, we'll be doing a five hour show, you know," he laughed.  "We play a good three hours, if it's one of those kinds (of shows). If you go with the bands in front of you, or if you're in front of another band, sometimes you have to limit it so everybody gets a chance to play."

For the very first Blues Bash in Frankenmuth, Betts is looking forward to making it one that will never be forgotten.

"I guarantee you we'll play as long as they'll let us play," he said.  "You know, some of those festivals, they'll give us two hours, which two hours is a good set. I mean, if I can't play two hours then, I feel like,  'well OK--then I'm opening up for these guys.' I can't stay ahead forever. I kind of understand. Actually we're closin’ most of the shows we do.

Betts was on hand at the 4th Annual Jammy Awards in New York City this past March, sitting in with the Derek Trucks Band, Steve Winwood, and playing  'Ramblin’ Man’ along with Reid Genauer & The Assembly of Dust and special co-vocalist Edie Brickell.

"That was a lot of fun," laughed Betts. "Moe. Wasn't there (though). Moe. is probably my favorite one of those jam bands. Hell, they actually pay me sometimes to go out to Vegas or something and play with them on a gig. Those guys are real good players too--every one in that band. That's one of my favorite bands out there right now. Sometimes I go out and see them and sometimes they show up at my gigs. It's a lot of fun doing that kind of thing."

 With a stronghold on being the author of the biggest Allman Brother songs, Betts wants it to be known that history is still in the making.

"I've got some cool songs that I've already written and there's a lot more comin’" he stated.  "I tell ya, that little Blue Sky - you talk about tunes holdin’ up over the years - that isn't really that complicated, but it's so much fun to play. It's just got this nice feel to it and it's kind of like a painting. You can just play it different every night and put a little different color in it here and there. If you listen to it, it's not that complicated a tune, but boy it really turns itself over to you when you want to play. It's really held up over the years."

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