By Richard Lee

When I was covering rock’n’roll in the early 1980s, I scheduled a phone interview with Dickey Betts, but he never called.

A few hours after the interview was to have taken place, Dickey’s publicist called to ask how things went. When I told him Dickey never called, the publicist said, “Let me find out what happened.” He called me later that day laughing and said Dickey had the lamest excuse, but it must be true because if he was going to make up an excuse, he would have made up a better one.

Keep in mind that this story took place when most families had one phone – a landline at home. It turned out that Dickey’s wife was using their only phone when our interview was to have taken place.

Fortunately, it was Dickey’s turn to use the phone the next day, and we had a good conversation, which I turned into a short feature story that I unearthed today after I learned he had died at the age of 80.

Richard Lee, executive director of the Jandoli Institute, is a former music journalist who often writes about the intersection of music and current events. A copy of his story on Dickey Betts is below. Apologies for the poor quality of the images, which are about 40 years old.

Categories: Jandoli Institute, Media, Pop Culture