R.I.P.: Jeff Cook, Co-Founder Alabama, Former Radio Broadcaster

Jeff Cook (1949-2022)

✞Jeff Cook, a co-founding member of the trendsetting Country Music Hall of Fame band Alabama, died Monday at his home in Destin, Florida.  He was 73, according to The Tennessean.

For a decade, Cook battled Parkinson’s disease, a progressive disorder of the nervous system that affects movement and causes tremors. He publicly disclosed his diagnosis in 2017.

As a guitarist, fiddle player and vocalist in Alabama, Cook — alongside cousins Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry — helped sketch a blueprint for what a hitmaking band can achieve in country music. He and the band filled in that sketch with a slew of hits now considered by many to be essential country music listening: "Song of the South," "Mountain Music," "I'm In A Hurry," "Cheap Seats," and "My Home's In Alabama," among many others.

A native of small-town Fort Payne, Alabama, Cook began chasing his love of music on radio airwaves as a disc jockey in his hometown. In 1969, he co-founded the band Young Country alongside Owen and Gentry — planting the seeds for what later grew into Alabama. By the mid-1970s, the cousins performed as Wildcountry, cutting their teeth in nearby cities — like Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where the band embraced a balance of country songwriting and Southern rock sensibilities on long nights inside local club the Bowery.

The band adopted a new name in 1977: Alabama. Two years later — after a run of modest radio success and adopting full-time drummer Mark Herndon — Cook, Owen and Gentry accepted an invitation to play the "New Faces" showcase at the annual Country Radio Seminar in Nashville.

The band inked a deal later that year with RCA, beginning a remarkable run on the country radio charts. Alabama landed eight No. 1 songs on the country charts between spring 1980 and summer 1982, according to the Country Music Hall of Fame. That run included pop crossover hits "Love In The First Degree" and "Feels So Right," as well as "Tennessee River" and "Mountain Music" — staple Alabama songs that the group continued playing for decades to come.

Between 1980 and 1993, at least one Alabama song topped the country charts every year. The band earned a slew of awards in that time, including a three-year run at CMA Entertainer of the Year from 1982-1984 and five ACM Award Entertainer of the Year trophies from '81-'85.