Duane Betts sits in with the rock band Little Feat in Wyoming

Little Feat brought out Duane Betts for a surprise guest appearance on Friday night at the Center for the Arts in Jackson, Wyoming, where he joined the band for three songs: "Blue Sky," "Southbound" and set closer "Feats Don't Fail Me Now." "A couple of days ago, we got a message from a friend of ours who lives in these parts," Little Feat guitarist Scott Sharrard told the crowd, before welcoming Betts to the stage: "we did not want to miss the chance to play music with him."

Two of the three songs carry extra weight for Betts. "Blue Sky" and "Southbound" were both written by his late father, Allman Brothers Band co-founding guitarist Dickey Betts, and have become staples of the younger Betts's own sets with his current project, Palmetto Motel. Betts took the lead vocal on "Blue Sky" while Fred Tackett played acoustic guitar, then traded solos with Sharrard, who spent years in Gregg Allman's solo band before joining Little Feat.

The Wyoming set continued a pattern of Little Feat pulling in the children of rock royalty for guest spots this year. Less than a week earlier, Grahame Lesh, son of the late Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, sat in with the band in Oakland. Duane Betts and Palmetto Motel also opened a run of Little Feat shows in 2024, giving Friday's reunion a history rather than a one-off. The appearance came in the middle of Little Feat's Last Farewell Tour, its multi-year run of goodbye shows on the rock circuit.

Afterward, Betts thanked the band on his own social channels: "What a nice surprise to come off tour and find out the great Little Feat is playing!" he wrote. "Always a pleasure, gentlemen. Thanks for having me."

Little Feat closed out the night with Betts back onstage for "Feats Don't Fail Me Now," which ended in a guitar solo and a call-and-response exchange between Betts and Sharrard.