When he was 15, Devon Allman was watching MTV after school when a video by the Allman Brothers Band came on.
It inspired him to write a letter to one of the men on the screen: Gregg Allman, a luminary in the firmament of rock 'n' roll.
"Dear Gregg, I’m your son,” Devon wrote.
The letter sparked a long process of relationship-building with someone who became a father before he was ready but was now prepared to start catching up.
Devon Allman and another heir to rock royalty, Duane Betts — son of longtime Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts — now lead an annual tribute to their families’ music.
The Allman Betts Family Revival begins a three-week national tour on Nov. 29 at the Factory in Chesterfield.
“There are moments when I can't believe we get to do this. I think back to when I didn't even know my dad. [Who thought] I'd be singing ‘Melissa’ to 3,000 fans at the Beacon Theatre — when I was the forgotten kid, man? It's a trip. It's heavy,” Devon Allman said, sitting by his record collection at home in St. Charles.
Allman, 53, is a man of many bands.
He’s led rock outfits the Dark Horses and Honeytribe and was a member of Royal Southern Brotherhood. He released his fourth solo album last year on Create Records, the independent label he runs out of an office in St. Charles. Allman augmented his regular band with blues specialists for “Blues Summit,” an album he recorded at Sawhorse Studios in St. Louis and released in July.
The discography continues with Allman’s collaborations with Duane Betts. They’ve released two albums of original material as the Allman Betts Band and are frontmen for the Allman Betts Family Revival, which plays selections from the Allman Brothers Band’s catalog with rotating special guests.
“Just because you follow in the footsteps doesn't mean you can't create your own,” said Betts, 47.
'What took so long?'
Gregg Allman married his first wife, Shelley Winters, as the band was approaching superstar status and as several members developed issues with substance abuse. Then one of the band’s titular siblings, Duane Allman, died at 24 in a motorcycle crash.
“It really sent my dad into quite a bit of a tailspin that my mom didn't want to raise a kid around,” said the kid in question.
Winters was determined to raise her child away from the rock 'n' roll circus. So she went home to Texas, had Devon and built a very different life from what was available on the road.
A few years later, Allman married Cher.
Winters married a pilot, moved around and eventually landed in Lake St. Louis when her husband got a job with TWA based out of St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
A week or two after Devon wrote the short letter to his father, Gregg Allman called him up. They spoke for hours. The elder Allman taught his son a guitar chord over the phone and suggested they meet at an upcoming Allman Brothers Band show.
Some months later, Devon stood in the parking lot of the Fabulous Fox Theatre and waited for the band’s tour bus to arrive.
The two enjoyed a friendly hang before and after the concert. Before saying goodnight, the younger Allman asked his dad a question: “What took so long?”
The rock legend opened his wallet and pulled out a piece of paper. As he unfolded it, Devon recognized his own handwriting.
“I was waiting for this,” Gregg Allman said.
Back where it all begins
The Allman Betts Family Revival grew out of a tribute concert Devon organized a few months after Gregg’s death in 2017, on what would have been his 70th birthday. Tours have become an annual tradition in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Planned guests for the tour kickoff at the Factory will be Robert Randolph, Amanda Shires, Richard Fortus, Judith Hill, Jimmy Hall, Cody Dickinson, Luther Dickinson, Alex Orbison, Mattie Schell and Abigail Stahlschmidt.
Members of the Allman Betts Band form the core of the tribute group. The Revival plays faithful arrangements of the original tunes while leaving space for core members and special guests to flex their instrumental chops. During a show last December at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Slash of Guns N’ Roses let loose on songs including “Dreams” and “Whipping Post.”
Guests take turns on vocals, but Betts sings a few of his father’s songs, including “Blue Sky” and “Back Where It All Begins.” He said his goal isn’t to play the greatest-ever version of every classic song but simply to celebrate them.
“When you're singing your dad's song, what are you going to do? Sing it better? You’re never going to make ‘Blue Sky’ better or more sweet than the original version. I just love singing it. I feel really connected to it,” Betts said.
His bandmate has his own shadow to contend with.
Gregg Allman played some guitar but was known primarily as a keyboardist and vocalist.
“It's a pretty unique situation to be in when you're trying to be a singer and your dad's considered the best white blues singer,” Devon said. “But I'm not going to stop doing it because somebody in my family was highly revered for it. I think it pushes you to just be the most honest version of yourself you can be.”
Learning to play dad rock
After Devon and Gregg Allman met at the Fabulous Fox Theatre, the two spent more time together during Allman Brothers tours.
Devon attended Wentzville Holt High School for his junior year, then spent a year on the road with the band. He performed odd tasks like slipping copies of the day's itinerary under band members' hotel room doors. They'd reward him with the occasional $100 bill.
"I'd run off and buy records, which I considered my new textbooks. It was a magical time," he said.
In his 20s, Devon established himself as a professional musician playing around St. Louis.
His empathy for his father deepened when he became a dad himself at 27.
“Any anger or sadness that I had was really replaced by pity,” he said, “just thinking, ‘Dude, you missed this!’ Being a father is the best thing in the world. I just felt so horrible for him that he missed out on that.”
But as a child, didn’t he miss out too?
“I kind of got it back by being a dad myself,” he said. “It filled my cup.”
His son Orion Allman, 25, is now a keyboard player — like his grandfather.
Someone left to run with
Devon Allman and Duane Betts met as teenagers on the road with the Allman Brothers Band as it made its way toward eventual induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Betts traveled with the band full-time for years, with a tutor. Later he played guitar in his father’s solo band.
“Music and family go together. That's just sacred, playing music with your family. It's a really special thing,” Betts said.
There was a slight age difference between Duane and Devon, but they sparked a long friendship and creative partnership.
Their fathers’ relationship had a more complicated arc. Dicky Betts’ guitar was a pillar of the Allman Brothers’ sound, and he wrote some of the band’s core songs: “Ramblin’ Man,” “Jessica,” “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.” But he split from the group in 2000, in a dispute that turned ugly.
He died in 2024. With both bandleaders’ fathers now gone, Allman Betts Family Revival shows are even more poignant.
Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts eventually reconciled as friends, Duane said, but were never again bandmates.
“They made up. They got on the phone and made peace. But our fathers didn’t get to play again together. So it felt good to kind of bring the two families back together,” Betts said.
It’s particularly emotional for the bandleaders of the Allman Betts Family Revival when they play the Beacon Theatre, where the Allman Brothers Band kept an annual residency for many years.
“Sometimes when we're onstage, I'm looking over at Duane Betts playing ‘Blue Sky,’ looking just like his dad — seeing 3,000 people go nuts. Grown men crying, hearing it,” Allman said. “Sometimes I got to fight tears back. Ultimately, we would just love to be on those chairs on the side of the stage watching his dad do ‘Blue Sky’ and watching my dad do ‘Melissa.’ We're literally doing this because they can't.”
An unusual inheritance
It’s no accident that Allman mentioned the chairs on the side of the stage. That’s where he was during an Allman Brothers concert in 1989, when Dickey Betts surprised him with a prophecy that proved accurate.
The band was mid-song, the crowd was going wild, and during a drum solo Betts crouched behind his Marshall amplifier. He pulled out a Marlboro Red cigarette and had a smoke. Then he pointed right at Devon.
The wide-eyed teenager looked around, wondering who Betts was pointing to. Yeah, it was him. So he scurried out nervously and asked Betts what he needed.
The elder statesman pointed at the audience, which was whipped into a frenzy.
“You see that? Someday,” Betts said, “that’s going to be you and Duane’s crowd.”
