For the band ALABAMA, success came in stadiums and on award show stages — but their hearts were always rooted in something far simpler: a stretch of red clay land in Fort Payne, where cotton fields once shaped their dreams long before fame ever did. And recently, in a moment both deeply emotional and full of quiet reverence, the surviving members of ALABAMA returned to the very cotton farm where it all began — and the visit left them in tears.
Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry, cousins and co-founders of the legendary group, walked the same fields where they once picked cotton as boys — the same land that gave birth to songs like “Song of the South” and “High Cotton.” For them, this was more than a homecoming. It was a step back into the roots of who they were — and who they still are.
“This is where the music came from,” Randy said softly, wiping his eyes.
“Not the sound of it — the soul of it.”
The band has long spoken about their working-class upbringing. Before the record deals, before the tour buses, there were early mornings in the fields, faith-filled Sundays, and homemade harmonies under the Alabama sun. Returning to that place — without their late bandmate Jeff Cook, who passed away in 2022 — brought a mixture of gratitude and grief.
At one point during the visit, Randy stopped to touch the side of the old family barn, now weathered with time but still standing. He looked out over the fields and said:
“This is where we learned how to work. This is where we learned how to pray. And this is where we learned how to sing.”
The band’s return to the cotton farm wasn’t for a documentary crew or fanfare. It was for themselves — to remember what truly mattered, to honor the people who raised them, and to reconnect with the soil that gave rise to one of country music’s most iconic bands.
As tears fell, memories flooded back. And in that quiet Alabama field, you could almost hear the echoes of harmony — not from the radio, but from the hearts of young boys who once sang just to feel alive.
That’s where ALABAMA was born. And that’s where they will always belong.