Dickey Betts Arrested for Battery
Dickey Betts was arrested in Osprey, Florida on August 11th and hit with a misdemeanor charge of domestic battery. The ousted Allman Brothers Band guitarist posted $2,000 bail the following day, after his wife alleged that he punched her in the face while she was driving on U.S. 41 near Sarasota.
Betts was arrested last June after attacking his wife in their Florida home, just days after his dismissal from the ABB. “I was so depressed that my wife was worried about the whole thing. She’d never seen me cry before,” he told Rolling Stone last year. “We got into a domestic thing, and she called a friend of ours who’s a police officer, one of my best friends . . . As it ended up, I was admitted to a hospital for mental evaluation and care. The doctors talked to me and released me the next day and told me to take it easy. It hit the damn papers that I was being chased through the woods with dogs and choppers. I mean, who the hell are we after here, John Dillinger? For Chrissakes, I’m just a lowly guitar player.”
In January Betts was convicted on a charge of domestic battery.
This year, Betts seemed to have put the split with the band behind him. In addition to touring with a new ensemble, the Dickey Betts Band, he also recorded a new solo album, Let’s Get Together, his first in thirteen years.