Dickey Betts (Allman Brothers Band)

Dickey Betts (b. West Palm Beach, December 12, 1943 - ) – Guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Famous for his guitar work and songwriting with the Allman Brothers Band, Dickey Betts’s career took off in his native Florida, where he met Duane Allman. Earlier in his career, however, he played in an Indiana-based band called the Jokers, the same name that he later used for one of his Florida bands. In any event, Rick Derringer, who straddled Ohio and Indiana as a youth, immortalized Betts and the Jokers in the first verse of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Hoochie Coo” (1974) by stating, “at the old town hall there was a band called the Jokers; they were laying it down.” While the Jokers evidently left an impression on Derringer, Betts fondly remembers first discovering Hoosier Lonnie Mack during his time with the Indiana Jokers.