Guitarist Dickey Betts performs with the Allman Brothers Band in New Haven, Conn. on Sept. 15, 1975. Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns.

If it weren’t for Dickey Betts, there might be no Chris Stapleton, Black Crowes, ZZ Top or even Lynyrd Skynyrd as we know them. The singer and guitarist, a co-founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, is often credited with defining the blend of country, blues, jazz and psychedelia that became known as Southern rock.

The mustachioed musician with the tough exterior was so iconic that director Cameron Crowe based a character off of him in “Almost Famous.”

Betts, 80, died Thursday at his home in Osprey, Fla (near Sarasota) of cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. His long-time band, with whom he’d sparred with for years before eventually leaving in 2000, issued a statement.

“He was passionate in life, be it music, songwriting, fishing, hunting, boating, golf, karate or boxing. Dickey was all in on and excelled at anything that caught his attention,” read the statement, signed by the band members, crew and its family. “Betts joins his brothers, Duane Allman, Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks and Gregg Allman, as well as ABB crew members Twiggs Lyndon, Joe Dan Petty, Red Dog, Kim Payne and Mike Callahan in that old Winnebago in the sky touring the world taking their music to all who will listen.”

Dickey Betts, courtesy.

Betts wrote the Allman Brothers Band’s most successful song, “Rambling Man,” and numerous others hits like “Blue Sky,” “Jessica” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.”

Born Forrest Richard ‘Dickey’ Betts on Dec. 12, 1943, he learned to play ukulele by the time he was 5, later playing mandolin, banjo and then guitar. He recruited players for his own band while working jobs around town (he painted homes and delivered mail) before touring with other musicians in the mid-’60s. His band, the Second Coming, included future Allman Brothers Band bassist Berry Oakley.

The two met and played with Duane Allman, who was already successful at the time, and together with his brother Gregg Allman and drummers Butch Trucks and John Lee Johanson, formed ABB in 1969. It was no small deal that Johanson, from Mississippi, was Black.

Betts and Duane Allman were the band’s two lead guitarists, and their dueling style became the basis of Southern rock. He also penned a song, “Revival,” for the band’s sophomore album Idlewild South, and went on to write many of their iconic songs. Jam band guitarists in principle, Betts and Duane Allman became known for their free-wheeling style. A 13-minute version of the Betts-penned “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” on the band’s At Fillmore East 1971 live album, helped break ABB into the mainstream. “Blue Sky” was another early career highlight for Betts.

Dickey Betts, courtesy.

Duane Allman died in a motorcycle crash in 1971, making Betts the Allman Brothers Band’s sole lead guitarist and frontman. During this time, he wrote “Ramblin’ Man” and “Jessica,” named for his daughter, for 1973 album Brothers and Sisters. He also went on to become a notable slide guitarist in his own right, which was previously Duane Allman’s domain.

Berry Oakley was also killed in another motorcycle crash in 1972. That left Betts and Gregg Allman in charge, but the two feuded frequently. Over the ensuing decades, the band would break up and reform numerous times. The first break-up was in 1975 and lasted for four years, during which time Betts formed a band called Great Southern, with whom he released two albums. He also made a solo album in 1974, which was critically lauded but didn’t reach the success of ABB.

The second break-up happened in 1982 and lasted the better part of a decade, but when the band reformed in 1989 with a lineup that included guitarist Warren Haynes, it sparked a resurgence led by Betts, including hit song “Crazy Love.”

Betts’ temperamental personality had gotten the better of him several times, and he became known as a police agitator. There was an arrest in 1976, and again in upstate New York in 1993, after fighting with police. But before acrimoniously parting with Allman Brothers Band for good in 2000, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the band in 1995. A Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award followed in 2012.

Dickey Betts at the Gibson Guitar Factory in Nashville on May 19, 2014. Courtesy.

The same year he left the band, Crowe released “Almost Famous,” in which actor Billy Crudup’s enigmatic character was inspired by—and looked a lot like—Betts.

For more than a decade, Betts tried to relaunch a solo career, but the reenergized Allman Brothers Band, now with Derek Trucks as lead guitarist, often overshadowed him. Trucks is the nephew of Butch Trucks. Betts retired from making music around 2014. His performances after then became sporadic, including a 2018 tour with his son, Duane Betts. But he had a stroke that year that ended the tour.

In December 2023, the Allman Betts Family Revival band hosted and performed at his 80th birthday party in Florida.

Gregg Allman and Butch Trucks both died in 2017. With Betts’ death, the lone surviving member of the original ABB lineup is Johanson. Betts is survived by his wife, Donna and his four children: Kimberly, Christy, Jessica and Duane.

“Dickey was larger-than-life, and his loss will be felt worldwide,” his family said in a written statement. Added the ABB crew: “Play on Brother Dickey, you will be forever remembered and deeply missed.”

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.