Alabama’s Teddy Gentry joins I Miss…90s Country Radio with Nick Hoffman to talk about his career, the Alabama band, and more. Tune in and listen on-demand here.
Teddy Gentry on how Alabama got together
Me and Randy [Owen] were raised on Lookout Mountain on adjoining cotton farms there, and Jeff [Cook] was our city cousin, we called him. And Jeff was already famous, by the time we got to high school Jeff was famous with the local bands as a guitar player, as a singer, and he had equipment. Me and Randy had no equipment. So, we stopped by Jeff’s house one day, and knocked on the door, and Jeff came to the door and said, “Hey guys, come in.” So, we actually sat around that day and sang a little bit and said, “Hey, this sounds pretty good. Maybe we should start a band.”
Teddy Gentry on the band’s first performance
We were called Young Country on that particular show. So we did a Merle Haggard song. We’re supposed to done two songs. So we had “Sing Me Back Home” and “Silver Wings” worked up, two Merle Haggard songs. We went out and there was so many entries. I think we only got to do one song. So we did “Sing Me Back Home” and won the contest out of twenty-something entries. We won first place. And so we won a trip to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and that was the start of the whole thing.
Teddy Gentry on Alabama’s “Tennessee River”
They put all their guns on “Tennessee River.” They said, “We got a band called Alabama and a song called ‘Tennessee River.’” The president of the label said, “What are we going to do with this song called ‘Tennessee River’ and a band called Alabama?” And said one of the southeastern regional promotion guys, slapped the table and said, “Well, hell, let’s see if we can’t get it played.”
Teddy Gentry on the key to Alabama’s success
It was a work in progress, but I think our vocals were there from the start. It was a matter of refining them and then finding the right material, the right platform, to feature those vocals on.
Teddy Gentry on “Angels Among Us”
“Angels Among Us,” to me is a song that’s got its own life. It’s touched more people in more positive ways and got more people through tough times than any other song I think that we’ve ever recorded. And I guess if there’s one song I had to pick out, people said, “You only had one song that Alabama would be remembered for,” that would be it.
Teddy Gentry on working with NSYNC on “God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You”
I got to be honest with you, at the time, I didn’t know who the hell NSYNC was. I mean, I heard the song. I loved the song. But here I am in there with NSYNC, these guys are rock idols. I’m in there arranging their songs, telling them where to sing, and they’re listening to me. They’re doing it.They were all so nice and so respectful, and tried everything that we suggested on their song. But it was great. It was fun working with them. And they were fun. It was fun. Neat song.
