Back during their first reunion in 1990, then-syndicated music critic Nestor Aparicio had a chance to chat with guitarist Dickey Betts about The Allman Brothes. “You know, we worked together with 20 years, and we had our differences, and they don’t amount to that much,” Betts said about Gregg Allman.
In this conversation, Nestor Aparicio interviews Dickie Betts of the Allman Brothers Band about their reunion and new album. Betts explains that the band reunited to create new music, as they had no new material the previous year. They aimed to avoid the disco-rock trend of the 80s and focus on their blues-oriented rock roots. The new album was recorded live with all band members, capturing their signature sound. Betts notes that the band’s reunion was not forced and that they were ready to collaborate again. They are now seeing a mix of old and new fans at their shows, with a significant number of younger attendees.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Allman Brothers, new album, tour success, reunited band, blues rock, solo careers, fan base, live recording, Tom Dowd, new fans, old fans, band dynamics, record company, studio sessions, concert experience
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Dickey Betts
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
8
Welcome home. We are wnst am 1570 Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive. I am presenting my Almost Famous chats from the late 1980s and early 1990s I was a music critic at the Baltimore news American and then at the Baltimore Evening Sun when I was a teenager, and interviewed many, many legends then and legends now, and presenting all of them, almost 100 Rock and Roll Hall of Famers in totality. At it music classic at our Baltimore positive mothership, at Baltimore positive.com you can check it out. This is Dickie Betts of the Allman Brothers Band, one of the several, or in many cases, some of my interviews are better than others, and I knew or cared more about certain artists. This was one of the things I was just doing, advancing a show. Did not know a lot about the Allman Brothers. Know a lot more about them now than I did then, and I apologized to the late great Dickie Betts for my ignorance, but he was kind. He spent 10 minutes trying to educate me, and that’s all we can ask for in life. Dickie Betts, from the legendary Allman Brothers Band. How you doing? All right, you got everything together there.
Dickey Betts 01:10
Yeah, I didn’t know he was calling. He kind of surprised
Nestor Aparicio 01:14
me. Are you in a talkative mood or not? We’ll see what happened. How’s the tour going? It’s going great, or is it going as good as last year’s winners? A little more spontaneity
Dickey Betts 01:25
on another plane from last year, we have the new album out. Everything. We’re doing a lot of new stuff, and the crowds appreciate that. Were
8Nestor Aparicio 01:38
you doing any new music last year? Was it all just like the Greatest Hits kind of show it was real
Dickey Betts 01:43
safe thing. Last year we didn’t have a new new record, so we didn’t want to just bring things that we had written on the on the audiences that they hadn’t heard on the radio or didn’t have at home, you know, right? So we played a few things from Greg’s albums last year, and then some from my pattern disruptive album, and then played a lot of the Allman Brothers standards. You know
Nestor Aparicio 02:13
why? When you reunited, it was just for the tour at that point, right? No,
Dickey Betts 02:17
8it wasn’t. It was to we reunited to get ready to make an album, because epic could ask us to make a record, and actually they wanted us to go in the studio then and make an album and then tour. And we didn’t want to go in the studio without playing together for a while. So, you know, we did the tour, and coincidentally and very luckily on our parts, the Polygram decided at least release that dreams package right just about that time. So that gave us a little little bit of something to go out on.
Nestor Aparicio 02:55
Why you reunited? Because epic asked you to or because, I mean, had you and Greg been speaking over all the years, been
Dickey Betts 03:00
asked to reunite by a lot of different people at a lot of different times, and we just didn’t think it would work because the tune of the music, and there was really no area for us to move into with the 1980s disco rock kind of thing. And so we just reluctantly turned down a lot of deals, but with with the blues oriented rock and roll coming making a comeback, it seemed obvious to everybody by that time, we decided to go ahead and reunite, because we saw an area ahead that We could move into both your solo careers.
Nestor Aparicio 03:42
They weren’t flogging were they? I mean, they were they were doing okay. I heard your song on the radio, and I surely heard great stuff. Greg
8Dickey Betts 03:48
and I both made very, very respectable records. But, you know, our stuff is never what the Allman Brothers can do if the Allman Brothers have the area to work in, you know, so everything looked good, and Greg’s record was behind him. He had the choice of either starting an Allman Brothers project or starting a new one of his own. And I was in the same position. My record was, you know, I’d finished it and did the touring, and it was coming down off the charts, and was, obviously the whole thing was over. And so we were open to a new project. So we jumped on safe
Nestor Aparicio 04:23
to say, you guys have had your differences over the years. No, that’s not safe to say at all what happened that broke the band up back in 1980
Dickey Betts 04:34
you know, I’m so tired of going into all this, you know, I don’t even know why you want to ask that, because it’s been done, redone and overdone? Well, I don’t know. I just don’t know the reason you know. I mean, let me put it to you this way. You know you can’t work together for 20 years without having differences. If you’ve ever known anybody that did that. I mean, Jesus, Christ had differences with His disciples. I mean. That didn’t even enter into it. You know, we worked together with 20 years, and we had our differences, and they don’t amount to that much. The thing is, we’re back together now.
Nestor Aparicio 05:10
8So what did trucks and Jamo do during this period of time that you guys were so I don’t
Dickey Betts 05:15
What did JMO and Butch? Yeah, what were they doing? Was playing with a jazz band in Atlanta and doing a lot of sessions during the 80s. And Butch had a studio and had his own band in Tallahassee. And, you know, Tallahassee is a big college town, so they played a lot of college things around and stayed very active in that area. So there’s
Nestor Aparicio 05:38
really no arm twisting going on here to get everybody back together. Then there was what, no arms wasting going on. Everybody was all for it. And really easy. We
Dickey Betts 05:48
were all ready to do the thing, you know, like I say, we had financially, we would have benefited by coming together a long time ago, but we just thank goodness had enough foresight to see that would be a detriment to the Allman Brothers Band name. If we did, it was, it would have been like a last two rock kind of deal, you know, we didn’t want to do that. So this looks very positive, and it’s turning out to be very positive. And so we, everybody’s happy that we did get back together, including the people that’s coming to see us,
8Nestor Aparicio 06:24
even after all these years, and any thoughts as Dwayne or a lot of static
Dickey Betts 06:29
Nestor, I’m having trouble hearing you here. Okay, just a minute, sure we can do something about it. Let us get through this toll booth, and will will
Nestor Aparicio 06:44
continue. Yeah, I’m here. Okay,
Dickey Betts 06:45
8it seems to calm down a little bit. Okay. On seven
Nestor Aparicio 06:49
turns, what were you trying to do with it? Trying to sound like an old you know, like the old stuff, or trying to keep the old fans happy. Or you think you’re broadening out a little bit with this, what
Dickey Betts 06:58
we were doing is just trying to sound like the Allman Brothers Band. We had the record preceding that, back in 1981 we were all very disappointed with the only record we ever made that we were absolutely disappointed with. And the reason was, is we had a lot of input from the record company to sound different than the Allman Brothers Band sound to try and fit this trend, which we didn’t, we didn’t really see too much in any way, which is the disco rock kind of thing. So that’s really why we broke up at that point, is to keep from having to make another record that like that. So we went back in the studio this time with the idea of, if we can play Allman Brothers music and do what we want to do, and, you know, without being dictated to by what might make the top 10 or something, we will do it. And so we got Tom Dowd, who is, you know, he’s a cornerstone of the Allman Brothers Band, and he’s he’s been in the middle of everything since we began and went back in. The record company left us alone. In fact, they were tickled to death with the results of the recordings, and everybody’s happy. So as far as trying to make an old Allen brothers record, or a new one or anything? No, we were just very innocently writing songs that we thought were good and going in and doing the very best we could. And it came out. It came out to be very good album. Did
Nestor Aparicio 08:33
it come easy? Pardon me, Did it come easy after being on the road for a couple months last summer? It
8Dickey Betts 08:38
came very easy. Yeah, because we did 10 or 12 weeks out on the road, and we rode a lot together, and the gears were well oiled, and we knew going into the studio exactly what we were going to do. Seemed
Nestor Aparicio 08:57
like there’s a lot of sharing going on with the vocals and the leads and the riffs and all that, you know, lot of piano and stuff like that. It’s just, it seems like it’s a well balanced kind of album. It’s not all guitar music or whatever. Yeah, well,
Dickey Betts 09:07
all the tracks were cut basically live. I mean, there were, there’s seven players in the band. And when you when the track goes down, there seven players out there. And, you know, we don’t do this kind of drums and bass track and then add to it. And so that is where the power of this band is, is more or less playing live. So we try to recreate that live thing in the studio, which is very difficult.
Nestor Aparicio 09:36
8Hello, hello. Hold on. I think we’re gonna get it. Hello, hello, yeah, I’m just barely getting you here. Yeah. This traveling
Dickey Betts 10:04
to these tunnels and bridges and stuff is
Nestor Aparicio 10:06
tearing this remote anyway. As far as reaching a new audience, are you seeing new fans of these shows? Yeah, we’re seeing
Dickey Betts 10:11
a lot of 17 year old head bangers. They always make it to the front of the stage. But there’s a lot of 3035 year old people out there that we can tell, you know, experience to the band and earlier, you know. And it’s a nice, nice day, all right.
Nestor Aparicio 10:31
Well, I really appreciate it. We’ll get going before the remote gets us going. Thank you for talking to me today. Yeah. And I hope see you Saturday. Thank you.
