Randy Owen: Alabama Lead Singer is on His Own

Officially, the record-setting country band Alabama retired from the music business. But don't tell former lead singer Randy Owen. He is still writing songs, promoting a new book, releasing a new CD, and raising money for charities.

Owen appeared in Birmingham during the Thanksgiving holidays at a benefit reception for the city's Children's Hospital. There he answered questions from fans while promoting the release of his memoir, Born Country, and his solo CD, One on One.

Owen grew up as the son of a sharecropper near Fort Payne, Alabama. "We weren't embarrassed to be poor," he said. "We didn't even feel poor most of the time."

He teamed with cousins Teddy Gentry and Jeff Cook to form Alabama. The band started by playing for tips at a Myrtle Beach, S.C bar and eventually became the best-selling country music band in history.

Their honors include induction in the Country Music Hall of Fame (the proudest moment in his career, Owen said), designation as the Country Music Group of the Century, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (7060 Hollywood Boulevard).

Born Country is the first memoir from any member of the group. He wrote it, he said, because "you can only get so much in a three minute song, no matter how many of them get played on country radio."

One single from his first solo CD has already been released. "Braid My Hair," written by Chris Gray and Brent Wilson, is the story of a child losing her hair because of cancer. All publishing royalties from that tune go to St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis.

Owen wrote or co-wrote eight of the 12 songs on the disc. That's to be expected. After all, he had a hand in writing many of Alabama's greatest hits. "Even when we were playing for tips, I never wanted to cover other people's songs," he said. "I always wanted to write my own."

He discussed that idea more in his book. "There's a line that's crossed when you end up recording a song that's catchy and clever, but has absolutely nothing to do with who you are, where you came from, or what you truly want to say," he wrote.

Owen and Alabama bass player Teddy Gentry co-wrote "My Home's In Alabama" during their struggling years. He went on to write or co-write a number of the groups hits, including "Tennessee River," "Lady Down on Love," and "Mountain Music." His personal favorite, he said, was Mountain Music - a tune that took three years to complete.

His writing credits on the "One on One" CD include the title cut and a post 9/11 song, "Pray Me Back Home Again." Owen was in Las Vegas when the two airplanes hit the World Trade Center. The song's title of the song comes from a comment to his wife in a telephone call later that day. "I didn't want to release it immediately after the attack," he said. "Now I think it's time."

Another solo-penned entry is "Urban's on the Country Radio," inspired by regular visits to a Subway sandwich shop in Fort Payne which had a radio that seemed to always play Keith Urban music.

Owen teamed with John Rich, of the "Big and Rich" duo, for three other tunes ("I Confess," "Let's Pretend We're Strangers for the Night," and "No One Can Love You Anymore"). Another single - "Holding Everything" - was written by country legend Dolly Parton. But the CD ultimately turns on Owen's vocals - the same talent that made Alabama popular.

Owen did not sing at the Birmingham appearance, but did interact with fans. The most touching moment came when he recognized one of the attendees - the doctor who saved the life of his wife and infant daughter Randa during childbirth. Owen, with tears in his eyes, interrupted the proceeding to introduce the lady to the rest of the crowd.

I first saw an Alabama concert in 1980. The group rolled into Columbus, Miss. in a beat-up bus they called the "Old Blue Goose." I walked past the heap and saw Teddy Gentry inside eating a sandwich. I wondered if the junk-pile-on-wheels would crank after the concert.

They played that night before a crowd of less than 100 people but gave one of the best performances I've ever attended. A year later, they returned to Starkville, Miss. and sold out a 10,000-arena.

I was in the press corps at the second concert and asked about the sparse crowd a year earlier. Drummer Mark Herndon answered for the group, saying the size of the crowd didn't matter when the group was into the music.

That focus on music was still apparent in Owen's comments in Birmingham. He noted that "My Home's in Alabama," the group's breakthrough hit, was panned by critics who said it would appeal only to people along the Alabama-Georgia state line. "That's when I stopped paying attention to the critics," Owen said. "We go to Oregon and sing that song, and they still stand up and cheer."

The financial success of the group allowed Owen to purchased the land his family used to work. He spends much of his post-group time there, maintaining the buildings in their original condition and raising Hereford and Angus cattle.

Still, he also speaks about the group eventually re-uniting. "Alabama is not through yet," he wrote. " . . . We just felt it was time to slow down, see ourselves as individuals again, reintroduce ourselves to our families, and pursue some of our own pet projects."

And he has no immediate plans to quit the music business. He made that clear at the end of his book. "There's always a new dream around every corner," he wrote. "I plan to keep on playing as long as people keep on listening"

References

Owen, Randy, w/Rucker, Allen (2008). Born country. New York: HarperOne.