The group had a mystery guest sitting in: Betts stood by as most of the solos were taken by a dif- fident young man who looked like the Cowardly Lion and spent most of the show staring down at his Fender guitar, blond stringy hair draped over his face. Glass and I were outraged. We had nearly
risked our lives to see and hear Betts. We couldn’t understand why Betts was letting this guy hog the solos. “We came to hear Dickey!” we heckled. “Dickey can play circles around this dude!” It would be months before we found out that this dude was Duane Allman and that he was almost famous. From Daytona Beach, about 90 miles
south of Jacksonville, Allman and his younger brother Gregg, as the Allman Joys, had been semi-regulars at a downtown-Jacksonville teen club called the Comic Book Club. Glass had men- tioned the Allman Joys to me once or twice; none the less, he didn’t recognize the mostly obscured face onstage that evening. This was not the first time Allman had sat in with one of Betts’ bands. The two had known each other since Betts’ days with the Jokers—but, Betts told Guitar World, they had not hit it off. During a July 1968 gig at the Comic Book
with the Hour Glass, Allman and Oakley met and got along famously. Allman started visiting the Green House to jam with Oakley and in Novem- ber started staying there between sessions at Muscle Shoals. His reputation burgeoning, All- man moved to Muscle Shoals and managed to talk FAME owner Rick Hall into signing him to a five-year recording contract so he could make his own album. In January 1969, he hired Oakley as his session bassist and brought him to Muscle Shoals, hoping Oakley would join the new band. Yet Oakley remained fiercely loyal to Betts and the Second Coming. After all, forming the band was his idea in the first place. Fed up with session work, wanting to do
own thing, Allman, and Missisippi-born drum- mer Johnny “Jaimoe” Johnson bolted for Jack- sonville to scout musicians. Allman was determined to recruit Oakley along with second drummer Claude “Butch” Trucks, who was living across the river in Arlington. Allman, along with Trucks, began sitting in with the Second Coming at the group’s Sunday jams. Duly impressed with
Betts’ wizardry, Allman decided to add him to the mix. This also solved the problem of Oakley’s being reluctant to walk out on Betts. On March 23, three Second Coming mem-
bers, Oakley, Betts and Wynans, augmented by Allman, Johnson and Trucks, convened for a jam session in the dining room of the Gray House. Allman was reportedly so ecstatic with the results he told participants that anyone present who did- n’t agree to be in his band would have to fight his way out the door. Allman, Betts and Oakley all sang, but
none especially well. Allman rang brother Gregg in Los Angeles—who was pursuing a fruitless solo career on Liberty Records—and told him to get his butt back to Florida because he had a smokin’ new band and a record deal and that Gregg was the only singer who could cut the gig. Gregg All- man arrived in Jacksonville on March 26. Three days later, the new band, listed in
the daily Jacksonville Journal as “the Fantastic Group,” shared the bill with the Second Coming and the Load at the Beaches Coliseum. Betts and Oakley did double duty with the Second Coming and the Fantastic Group, and at one point there was an all-star jam with three world-class gui- tarists: Allman, Betts and Reinhardt. I was pres- ent at this show as well, and I recall members of the audience booing when they played an early
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