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

Dickey Betts

Categorized in : About Playing Then Ukulele

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.

good you man sky

I have so many great memories of the Allman Brothers early days. It was an incredible time.

great great-memories time memories

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.

me moment you hero

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.

bad you nature work

I don't have to do Gregg Allman songs.

songs

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.

question say like band

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

rock playing florida guitar

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.

back construction dad family

Ramblin' was in my blood.

blood

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.

him child ukulele music

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.

then king rock cool

I grew up in South Florida, and my family was pretty poor. We weren't your upper-class whites by any means.

your pretty family poor

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.

never me weekend night

'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.

because up tough broken

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.

thoughts makeup music together

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

understand hard together people

I wouldn't call myself a jazz player or a blues player.

blues call myself jazz

As far as the music goes, I like melody.

far like melody music

Everything comes to an end.

end everything

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.

person you organization today