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Allman Brothers Will Tour Without Dickey Betts
Dickey Betts, a founding member of Allman Brothers Band, won’t join the group’s summer tour because of “creative differences,” the band said in a statement. Taking Betts’ place on guitar will be Jimmy Herring, who has played with Gov’t Mule and Col. Bruce Hampton & the Aquarium Rescue Unit.
“There will be no changes in the schedule of the band's upcoming tour, which begins on June 16th in Virginia Beach, Va.,” the statement said. “However, the band hopes that their good friend and brother will be back on the road with them in the fall."
A report earlier this week on Entertainment Weekly’s EW Online, citing a source close to Betts, said that Betts recently received a fax from the band informing him that his services were no longer required. The guitarist appeared with the band on May 7, when it played Atlanta’s Midtown Music Festival.
The relationship between Betts and the other Allmans has been on-again, off-again for many years. The band has split and reunited at least three times since its birth in the late ‘60s, and line-up changes within the group have been commonplace. In the mid-1990s, longtime Allmans Warren Haynes and Allen Woody split from the band and formed Gov't Mule .
Betts wrote the Allmans’ biggest hit, “Rambin’ Man, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard pop charts in 1973.
The Allman Brothers’ summer itinerary includes festival and amphitheater appearances through early September.
