Like an 18-wheeler, Alabama’s connection to trucking (and me) rolls on

I grew up in a religious family; my mom rarely let us hear music that wasn’t contemporary Christian music or good ole southern gospel. However, her rule had an exception one day of the year.  

On Christmas mornings growing up, we never opened a single gift until my dad pressed ‘Play’ on our old stereo, and we could hear Randy Owen belt out the first line of “Santa Claus (I Still Believe in You)”—the first track on the “Alabama Christmas” album. Because it became such an important part of our childhood, my sisters and I took to nicknaming Alabama’s lead singer “Uncle Randy.” (Embarrassing, right?) 

When I moved to Tuscaloosa to attend college, I was still singing along to Uncle Randy’s songs, except this time, I sang with my friends and strangers anytime we were within earshot of the song “Dixieland Delight.” 

After I went away for college, my parents moved back to my mom’s hometown in Fort Payne, Alabama, which also happens to be the hometown of the band’s three founding members: Randy Owen, Jeff Cook, and Teddy Gentry. When I visit my parents in Fort Payne, I’ve found it’s nearly impossible to escape the Alabama boys’ influence. 

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The Alabama band logo is plastered all over the town’s light post banners, Alabama has its own star on Fort Payne’s Hollywood-style Walk of Fame, and across the street, each band member has a statue. I’m also greeted by the Alabama Fan Club as soon as I pull onto the town’s main street, which is where my mom loaded boxes of T-shirts and band memorabilia onto the Alabama-branded trailers hauled by Kenworth trucks while working at the fan club in the ‘80s.

Since moving up North, I can’t recall hearing a single Alabama song that wasn’t played from my own speakers. I guess Detroit has less of a connection to the Alabama band than Small Town, Alabama. And though I don’t hear the band’s music very often, when I do, their songs tend to make me a bit homesick. (Don’t play “My Home’s in Alabama” unless you’re ready to see a grown woman cry.) 

Though the band’s songs provided the soundtrack of many life moments growing up, I didn’t think they’d play a significant role in my life anymore.

Then, I started writing about trucks. 

Alabama and trucking 

While Alabama’s hits could easily serve as the soundtrack to my biopic, at least one of the band’s hits would likely be on the biopic of truckers and their families, too. 

Alabama released “Roll On (18 Wheeler)” in 1984, which became the band’s 12th straight No. 1 single on the Hot Country Singles chart by Billboard Magazine. This song, telling the story of a family waiting to hear good news about their dad whose truck jackknifed in a snowstorm, usually places high on trucking playlists (Knight Transportation listed the song as No. 2 in its Top 10 trucker song list; Road Legends listed the song as its No.1). 

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I was reminded of this song once when my coworkers and I began to ask ourselves what the average American calls a tractor-trailer. “Roll on, 18-wheeler, roll on!” rang in my head, and I offered up my answer. 

Though we concluded that there is no official term for the semi truck as it varies by region—not only do I remember singing “18-wheeler,” but that’s also what I grew up calling the big rigs—I found it funny that Alabama songs had wandered into my professional life, as well. 

Fast-forward to more than a year later, the band has popped back into my professional life. This time, courtesy of the Kenworth announcement.  

Accompanying the band through its tour of the Kenworth facility was Josh Gentry, the son of band co-founder Teddy Gentry. 

Josh found his love for trucking as a boy in 1988 when his dad let him tag along to the Mid-America Trucking Show (Alabama attended the show with Kenworth that year and played a free concert for truckers in Louisville a few nights later). While at the show, Josh sat in the seat of a Kenworth Special Edition W900L “James Bond” truck.

“I was in awe,” Josh told Kenworth. “I wanted that truck so badly. That started my love affair with trucks.” 

From that day forward, whenever Josh accompanied his dad and the band on the road, he always requested to ride in one of the Kenworths.

“Riding with the truck drivers was like a vacation for me,” Josh said. “It was absolutely amazing. Riding in the passenger seat, truckers would pull up beside us and wave, and say on the CB – ‘Roll on Alabama!’ Those childhood memories became adult realities.”

Today, Josh drives the Kenworth that hauls Alabama’s tour equipment, a T680 with a 76-in. mid-roof sleeper and Paccar MX-13 engine.

“I’m riding in style,” Josh said in a press release. “I still remember riding in T600s and having so much fun when I was a boy. But now, getting to drive the latest model from Kenworth—it doesn’t get any better than this.” 

While I may feel personally connected to the band, I have no real connection to its members. But I do have a connection to trucking. 

I believe that no matter what your job, your choice of entertainment, or your background, trucking has its connections with every aspect of our lives—from the more obvious trips to the grocery store to our favorite bands and even to our childhoods.