Co-Founder Of Famous person Nation Band Alabama Was 73 – Deadline

Jeff Cook dinner, the Grammy-winning founding guitarist, keyboardist and fiddler of Alabama — some of the profitable nation teams of all time, with had 33 No. 1 nation hits, together with 21 in a row — died Tuesday at his residence in Destin, FL, a band rep to the Related Press. He was 73.

Cook dinner had been identified with Parkinson’s illness in 2017.

Born on August 27, 1949, in Fort Payne, AL, Cook dinner co-founded the band as within the early Nineteen Seventies together with his cousins — singer-guitarist Randy Owen and bassist Teddy Gentry — and drummer Bennett Vartanian. The group spent a number of summers enjoying in a Myrtle Seaside, SC, bar referred to as The Bowery and renamed Alabama in 1977, the group broke by means of with “My House’s in Alabama,” which peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard Scorching Nation Songs in 1980. That preliminary success launched the quartet to superstardom: Its subsequent 21 singles all topped that that chart, save for a 1982 Christmas tune.

“Greater than something,” Cook dinner is quoted on the band’s web site, “our longevity is a tribute to the exhausting work we did in choosing songs — as a result of it’s the songs that folks bear in mind.”

Total, the group with a Southern rock edge racked up greater than 50 Prime 10 nation singles, together with such enduring classics as “Music of the South” and “Jukebox in My Thoughts,” and 20 platinum albums from 1980-2011. They’ve offered almost 50 million albums within the U.S., per the RIAA — which ranks the group because the thirty first best-selling act of all time.

Billboard lists the group because the No. 5 nation act of the Nineteen Eighties and No. 6 of the ’90s. As of 2012, it ranked because the No. 17 act within the Scorching Nation Songs’ 68-year historical past to that time.

Its greatest crossover single was “Love within the First Diploma,” which hit No. 15 on the Billboard Scorching 100 in 1981.

Alabama additionally received back-to-back Grammys for Greatest Nation Efficiency by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1982 and 1983 with the LPs Mountain Music and The Nearer You Get…, respectively. It amassed extra a dozen Academy of Nation Music Awards, together with a pair of profession nods, two Entertainer of the Yr wins and Artist of the Decade for the Nineteen Eighties. The group additionally received 17 American Music Awards, together with 12 for Favourite Nation Band/Duo/Group; it received that class eight consecutive instances from 1991-99.

Mountain Music stays Alabama’s best-selling studio album, licensed 5 instances platinum, however two of its hits compilation discs even have offered 5 million-plus.

In 1985, Cook dinner, Albert Lee and Steve Morse have been named the highest three guitarists by Guitar Participant journal’s reader ballot. 

The group’s 2013 album and video, recorded reside on the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, options covers of their songs by such stars as Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, Eli Younger Band, Florida Georgia Line, Jamey Johnson, Toby Keith, Rascal Flatts and Trisha Yearwood.

The group was inducted into the Nation Music Corridor of Fame in 2005 and has a star on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame.

Cook dinner went on to launch Cook dinner Sound Studios as a method to assist native musicians share their music. ” In Jeff’s phrases, “This space “[DeKalb County] has its share of gifted musicians,” stated stated on the band’s web site, “and now the chance is there for every of them to chop demos, data, and so on., at an inexpensive worth. Plus, it’s good to share your goals with others.”

After Alabama give up the in 2004, Cook dinner recorded eight albums and toured with the Allstar Goodtime Band. However Alabama reunited for a fiftieth anniversary jaunt this yr.

Cook dinner is survived by his spouse of 27 yr, Lisa Williams.