"My Home's In Alabama" Documentary About Randy Owen To Premiere On Alabama Public Television

The lead singer of the country music group, "Alabama", is the subject of a documentary entitled, "My Home's In Alabama The Randy Owen Story" that will be premiering on Alabama Public Television on Saturday, August 08th, at seven o'clock in the evening. The title of the documentary derives from the title of Alabama's fourth studio album which was released on May 20th, 1980. Randy Owen was the lead singer for the song on that album, "My Home's In Alabama", with Randy Owen also co-writing the song with Teddy Gentry. "My Home's In Alabama" is considered to be the song that paved the way for Alabama to become the first superstar band in modern country music.

The lyrics to "My Home's In Alabama" clearly reflect Randy Owen's upbringing as someone who was born in Fort Payne, Alabama as they start off with, "Drinkin' was forbidden in my Christian country home". With the chrous to the song stating that, "Home's in Alabama, No matter where I lay my head. My home's in Alabama, Southern born and Southern bred." The words to the song also reflect a cute anecdote about Southern speech as they say, "Oh I'll speak my Southern English just as natural as I please."

While Randy Owen originally dropped out of high school in his freshman year, he did return and finish his high school degree at Fort Payne High School in 1969. With Owen also studying English at Jacksonville State University after graduating from high school. Owen and his three cousins moved into an apartment in Anniston after Randy graduated from JSU to pursue music, full-time. Owen is now 76 years of age as he was born on December 13th, 1949, but he has been playing music since he was six years old. Randy Owen plays by ear. His hobbies when he isn't on tour with Alabama include watching sports, writing short stories, and poetry.

Randy Owen also operates a 3,000 acre working cattle ranch in his hometown of Fort Payne called the Tennessee River Music, Inc. He raises Hereford and Angus cattle on his ranch. The name for his ranch derives from Alabama's first number one song on the Billboard Magazine's Hot Country Singles chart, "Tennessee River". Which was written by Randy Owen and began the band's string of 21 consecutive number one singles from 1980 through 1987.

The documentary, "My Home's In Alabama: The Randy Owen Story" features conversations with none other than Randy Owen, himself. Along with conversations with Teddy Genty and other big names in the field of country music. The documentary chronicles Randy Owen's "birth and upbringing in rural north Alabama" with an emphasis on his "quest for a college education to his amazing success as the leader of the band." It is produced by Jacksonville State University. With Randy Owen expressing his love of music in the documentary as the documentary describes him as, "The quiet soul behind Alabama's timeless sound . . ."

Luisa Reyes is a Tuscaloosa attorney, piano instructor, vocalist, poet, reporter, and columnist who writes on politics, current affairs and the arts.