The morning after Bill Connell graduated from Tuscaloosa High School, class of 66, decked out in Sunday-go-to-meetin silver shark skin suit, he flew out of the Druid City at 7 a.m. on Southern Airways, and into New York City on Duane Allman s dime.
The 17-year-old musician was joining the Allman Joys, a quartet precursor to the fabled Allman Brothers Band, hired to replace Maynard Portwood, who despite being talented on the skins, was cursed with a sugar addiction that pushed him to spend intended dentistry dollars on peach sodas and pralines. Those cravings left him virtually toothless, Connell said, a visual that didn t fit Duane Skydog Allman s image of their impending stardom.
In honor of Dickey Betts’ birthday, I went back to the interview we did in August about the real Allman Brothers stories behind the film “Almost Famous” as well as past ones, including our lengthy conversation from 2014 that took place in Betts’ den over glasses of what he called “hippie wine.” One of these days, I hope to present all of the great quotes Betts has given me during the past decade as one (very) long Q&A. For now, though, let’s revisit Betts talking about five of the songs that were crucial in the Allman Brothers’ rise to stardom and the start of the Southern rock movement. For those already familiar with my numerous Betts articles, at least a couple of these quotes have never been published before in their entirety.