Dickey Betts

“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.”

“As far as the music goes, I like melody.”

“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.”

“You can't play music and be mad at anybody. It'll show in your heart!”

“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.”

“'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.”

“I had a ukulele when I was about seven. Then I started playing around with the mandolin and the banjo.”

“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.”

“Our tunes aren't just sing-along tunes: they're very complex. After a few days of that, you gotta take a break.”

“All musicians and artists - we all got quirks that have to be put up with at certain times.”

“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.”

“Blues players are around for 50 years, and that's just fine.”

“It's hard for people to understand that when five or six guys are together working intensely, they can really get into some duels.”

“My guitar has, like, become part of me, you know.”

“In 1969, I was playing guitar in several rock bands that toured central Florida.”

“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.”