Randy Yeuell Owen grew up on a farm near Fort Payne, Alabama. He is of English and Native American ancestry. He dropped out of high school in the ninth grade, but he returned and graduated from Fort Payne High in 1969.\n', 'In the late 1960s, Owen and his cousin, Teddy Gentry, began playing music together. They recruited another cousin, Jeff Cook, to form a band, which they called Wildcountry. Their first public performance was at a high school talent show, which they won.\n', '

Owen\'s music career was put on hiatus as he earned a degree from Jacksonville State University. Upon his graduation, however, the three cousins moved into an apartment in Anniston, Alabama and by 1973 were pursuing a full-time music career. In 1980, the band, now called Alabama, were signed to a recording contract by RCA Records and quickly reached country superstardom. For the next twenty-two years, Alabama had a tremendous impact on country music, attracting a younger group of listeners, crossing over into pop radio, and paving the way for groups to be successful on country radio.\n', '

Alabama released 21 gold, platinum, and multi-platinum albums, 42 singles that topped the charts at #1, and sold over 75 million records in total. They have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and were named the Academy of Country Music\'s Artist of the Decade in 1989, and the Recording Industry Association of America\'s Country Group of the Century in 1999.\n', '

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