Citing "creative differences," The Allman Brothers Band has temporarily removed founding member Dickey Betts from the group's lineup. Betts will not be playing with be band as it begins touring this summer.

Betts' replacement for the summer tour will be Atlanta guitarist Jimmy Herring, a member of a Grateful Dead cover band called Jazz is Dead. Herring has already appeared with the Allman Brothers several times.

The band's manager, Bert Hollman, declined to offer further details about Betts' involuntary sabbatical, but Betts' wife, Donna, offered her own perspective. "They're intimating that there's a drug problem," she told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. "But it just ain't happening. It certainly is not drug or alcohol-related."

The only word from the band has been in the form of a recently released statement: "Dickey Betts will not be with The Allman Brothers Band this summer. . . . However, the band hoped that their good friend and brother will be back on the road with them in the fall."

Betts and his wife Donna are telling the group's fans that his former bandmates have taken him "down to the whipping post." Betts says he phoned Gregg Allman after receiving a fax notifying him he had been fired to ask for specifics and why, and Allman said:

"If you don't know, I can't tell you. Listen to the **** ing tapes."

"I have been in a state of shocand bewilderment," Betts said. "I sat down and listened to the tapes from the Beacon and the last tour and was impressed with the quality of the music. I thought the band sounded great and I was particularly proud of my guitar work. There was never any discussion or indication that there was any problem in the band."

I did listen to the tapes. They sound fine to me!

____________________Well 30 years of heart and soul,lord we took it further than rock and roll.
We stood together thru thick and thin,yeah we made the best of it all back then.
Then I guess time took it's toll,cut me deep,cut me cold.
Brother against brother....

I haven't really had access to any of the tapes in discussion here, but if they sound anything like the "Peakin' at the Beacon" CD, then I stand by Gregg and the rest of the band. Dickey's playing on that album is exceptionally poor, and it is the least-listened-to album in my ABB collection. I haven't heard any of his work with Great Southern since the breakup with ABB, so maybe he's gotten better. But those recordings from his last Beacon stint just sound terrible.

____________________My dreams are all dead and buried
Sometimes I wish the sun would just explode
When God comes and calls me to His Kingdom
I'll take all you sons of ****** when I go

____________________Well 30 years of heart and soul,lord we took it further than rock and roll.
We stood together thru thick and thin,yeah we made the best of it all back then.
Then I guess time took it's toll,cut me deep,cut me cold.
Brother against brother....

Yet the man dominates threads on this site as far as band members discussed. Alright maybe not dominates but permeates...how's that.

And I also love it when someone mentions Hittin the Note in a negative tone like everyone surely agrees that it's crap and obviously the worst .... just remember, music is like wine, some like it some don't:

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