Alabama
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92
Ranking
Hall of Famer
Alabama are a Fort Payne, Alabama-born country-rock institution founded by cousins Randy Owen (born December 13, 1949, lead vocals and rhythm guitar), Teddy Gentry (born January 22, 1952, bass and vocals), and the late Jeff Cook (born August 27, 1949, lead guitar, fiddle, keyboards, who passed away November 7, 2022), joined by drummer Mark Herndon (born May 11, 1955) who rejoin in 2025, who went from earning $5.37 a night at an American Legion hall and grinding tip-jar sets at The Bowery in Myrtle Beach to selling over 75 million albums, recording 34 number-one singles including an unprecedented streak of 21 consecutive chart-toppers, and earning a Country Music Hall of Fame induction as the band that permanently proved a self-contained country group writing its own songs could conquer the world.
Current Tour & Setlist
Alabama is actively touring in 2026 with confirmed dates at F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville, Tennessee on June 11 with The Gatlin Brothers as support, Radians Amphitheater in Memphis on June 13, The Pavilion at Montage Mountain in Scranton, Pennsylvania on July 12, Hertz Arena in Estero, Florida on August 13, Pensacola Bay Center in Pensacola on August 15, Iowa State Fair in Des Moines on August 21 with Exile in support, Ravinia in Highland Park, Illinois on August 28, Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City on August 30, and St. Augustine Amphitheatre in Florida on October 17. Fans can expect a career-spanning setlist including "Tennessee River," "Mountain Music," "Dixieland Delight," "Song of the South," "Love in the First Degree," "If You're Gonna Play in Texas," and "Forever's As Far As I'll Go."
Early Life
Randy Yeuell Owen (born December 13, 1949), Teddy Wayne Gentry (born January 22, 1952), and Jeffrey Alan Cook (born August 27, 1949) were all born and raised around Fort Payne, Alabama, in the shadow of Lookout Mountain on the northeastern edge of the state, with Owen and Gentry growing up on separate cotton farms where they learned guitar and sang together in the Lookout Mountain Holiness Church before they were six years old. Cook's path was equally musical but more technical, he earned his broadcast engineer's license three days after his fourteenth birthday, took a job as a local radio disc jockey, and would eventually own radio and television stations, while all three boys absorbed the gospel harmonies, bluegrass picking, and rockabilly swagger that defined the musical culture of northeastern Alabama throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Their first paying gig came at an American Legion hall where they each earned $5.37, and when they won a local talent show playing a Merle Haggard song as Young Country in 1969 the prize was tickets to the Grand Ole Opry, a destination that would one day feel very familiar.
Career Highlights
After years of day jobs ranging from hanging drywall and picking cotton to running a theater and bagging groceries, the three cousins quit everything in 1973, changed their name to Wildcountry, moved into a $56-a-month apartment, and landed a residency six nights a week at a bar called The Bowery in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where they played tip-jar sets covering Merle Haggard and Lynyrd Skynyrd to pay the bills while writing original songs on the side. After signing with GRT Records as The Alabama Band in 1977 and shortening the name to Alabama, they played the New Faces showcase at Nashville's Country Radio Seminar in early 1980 and were offered a deal with RCA Records, releasing "Tennessee River" that year and beginning an unprecedented run of 21 consecutive number-one singles on the country chart that has never been matched in any genre. Over a career spanning more than five decades, Alabama sold over 75 million albums, earned 34 number-one singles total, won two Grammys, multiple CMA and ACM awards including the ACM Artist of the Decade for the 1980s, received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 1998, were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005, and permanently changed country music by proving that a self-contained band writing its own songs and playing its own instruments could become the biggest act in the genre.
Family & Personal Life
Randy Owen is married to Kelly Owen and has three children, all while continuing to live in and around Fort Payne on a cattle ranch just outside his hometown. Teddy Gentry is also married with a son and a daughter and four grandchildren, and has spent decades operating Bent Tree Farms, purchasing his late grandfather's original Lookout Mountain cotton farm with his first RCA royalty check in 1980. Original drummer Mark Herndon (born May 11, 1955, in Springfield, Massachusetts) rejoined the band in 2025 after years away, a reunion that deeply moved longtime fans, while the band continues to honor the memory of Jeff Cook, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2017, stepped back from performing, and passed away on November 7, 2022, at age 73, in Destin, Florida.
Awards
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