I have so many great memories of the Allman Brothers early days. It was an incredible time.
Dickey Betts
Everything comes to an end.
I'm influenced by Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelly, Roland Kirk, John Coltrane, B.B. King, and then by bluegrass. But when I was 16, bluegrass wasn't cool. We was rock n' rollers then: Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis.
Some people take me as being a rowdy, honky-tonk hero type. Some people see me as a quiet person. I guess I can be either one, you know, at any moment.
I really feel like I've written my most effective music in the instrumental realms.
I've written some songs that are pretty scary, but 'Jessica,' 'Ramblin' Man,' and 'Blue Sky' are happy songs. That's the way I wrote them: have-fun tunes to make you feel good.
Anytime I'm playing music or getting ready to record, Duane Allman will enter my thoughts, and so will Berry Oakley. It's part of my musical makeup and mental process when it comes to music. We learned to play together and taught each other a lot.
I don't have to do Gregg Allman songs.
You can't play music and be mad at anybody. It'll show in your heart!
It's hard for people to understand that when five or six guys are together working intensely, they can really get into some duels.
Ramblin' was in my blood.
I grew up in South Florida, and my family was pretty poor. We weren't your upper-class whites by any means.
I wouldn't call myself a jazz player or a blues player.
Now, I'm not the kind of guy who likes to look in the mirror and say, 'Oh, you're the best.'
People say a lot of things in the heat of the moment. But in the entertainment business, ya never say never.
My guitar has, like, become part of me, you know.
Our tunes aren't just sing-along tunes: they're very complex. After a few days of that, you gotta take a break.
When I was a kid in school, and you asked me what I was gonna be, I mean, even as a little first grader, I was gonna be a guitar picker on the 'Grand Ole Opry.' I just had it in my head that that's what I wanted to do, having no idea how it was done.
I like to play acoustic slide. I like that. I just... I can do it, you know. But it ain't my cup of tea.
I've learned to climb a tree pretty fast.
My daddy had been a fiddler, and I heard a lot of fiddle music as a child. I had a ukulele and had played along with him.
When I was a kid, my dad was in construction and used to move the family back and forth between central Florida's east and west coasts.
Human nature is you work shoulder to shoulder in a real emotional kind of setting, and there are jealousies that come up. There's resentment, and resentment turns to just outright bad things.
In 1969, I was playing guitar in several rock bands that toured central Florida.
I kind of question whether to say this or not, but it's almost like the Allman Brothers turned into an Allman Brothers tribute band.
Our main thing we'd have to entertain us: All my uncles would come over, and we'd sit around the living room on a weekend night, and we'd play. That was a big event for me, getting to play. We never did have any percussion.
I had a ukulele when I was about seven. Then I started playing around with the mandolin and the banjo.
'Seven Turns' was a tough album because we knew that the critics would use it to determine whether or not we should have remained broken up.
As far as the music goes, I like melody.
If you've got a corporation, and you throw out one of the founding partners that is responsible in part for making the organization what it is today, you have to compensate that person. You have to come to a settlement.
Sometimes arguments get publicized so much that it gets blown all the hell out of proportion.
I'm sure you have arguments with your friends, but they don't get printed up and magnified in the papers.
In rock n' roll music, you almost have to apologize for being around more than four or five years. I don't know why.
Blues players are around for 50 years, and that's just fine.
The thing with Berry and Duane and the rest of us in the original Allman Brothers seemed to be a once-in-a-lifetime thing. When Duane was killed, we knew we lost a great part of that, but we still managed to play some great music.
All musicians and artists - we all got quirks that have to be put up with at certain times.
