Johnny Neel, Former Member of the Allman Brothers Band and Dickey Betts Band Dead at 70

Singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Johnny Neel, best known for his time in the Allman Brothers Band and the Dickey Betts Band passed away yesterday (October 6) at the age of 70. No cause of death has been released at this time.

Neel’s longtime friend and collaborator Warren Haynes announced his passing in a social media post yesterday afternoon. “RIP Johnny Neel,” Haynes began. “Aside from being an amazing musician and singer, Johnny was one of the funniest people on the planet—a true character. ‘Johnny Neel stories,’ as we refer to them in our little chunk of the music world, are legendary,” he added.

Then, Haynes recalled the first time he met Neel. He had just moved to Nashville and saw Neel sitting in with a band at the Bluebird Café during a blues jam. That night, he sang and played harmonica. “The first thing I noticed, other than that he was blind, was that he sang better than their singer and played harp better than their harp player,” Haynes wrote. After the set, he introduced himself and the pair became fast friends.

“Johnny and I did a lot of playing together and a lot of songwriting together. We even did a lot, thanks to our mutual friend Kim Morrison, of background singing together when producers would hire the three of us to sing on various records,” he wrote.

Johnny Neel and the Allman Brothers

Warren Haynes went on to give his followers a rundown of his and Johnny Neel’s shared musical history. They joined the Dickey Betts Band along with Matt Abts and Marty Privette and worked on the album Pattern Disruptive. The success of that album led to Haynes and Neel joining the Allman Brothers Band.

“Mostly what I want to focus on, however, is what a musical person Johnny was,” Haynes wrote. “There was always music in his head. It was his savior. Whenever we were writing together, he was an endless fountain of ideas, and the same on stage or in the studio. His uncanny ability to draw from so many musical styles and genres was amazing and his gift for improvisation was unmatched,” he added. “Johnny’s music and his legend will live on forever. Miss you Neely,” he concluded.

Neel’s Long Musical History

Johnny Neel cut his first single with a group called The Shapes of Soul at the age of 12. It was a hit in the Philadelphia area. Later in life, he formed a band, found a following on the East Coast, and released a pair of successful independent albums. Then, in 1984, at the age of 30, he moved to Nashville. Not long after that, he would meet Haynes.

Neel was also a prolific songwriter. Outside of Dickey Betts and the Allman Brothers, artists like Keith Whitley, Montgomery Gentry, Travis Tritt, the Oak Ridge Boys, and many others recorded his songs.

Featured Image by Steve Eichner/WireImage