Randy Owen has been the frontman and lead vocalist of the legendary group, Alabama, the most successful and awarded band in country music history for nearly 50 years. They have 53 gold, platinum, and multi-platinum albums, and 43 #1 singles, with over 80 million records sold.
Alabama has received more than 250 industry awards and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2006. Owen was inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 2013.
When he’s not on the road performing or writing songs, Owen stays busy operating his 3,000-acre working cattle ranch, Tennessee River Music, Inc., and raising 500 head of Hereford and Angus cattle on land acquired from many of his relatives and family friends.
Much of the acreage that composes the ranch was once sharecropped and rented by his family for row crops. In his youth, Owen plowed and worked those fields and picked cotton. He was also involved in 4H and FFA. The ranch, where Owen calls home, is in the Fort Payne vicinity. He grew up not far away in the community of Adamsburg in DeKalb County.
Much of his time is spent helping others through his humanitarian efforts such as launching the St. Jude Country Cares for Kids, an annual radiothon fundraising event that has raised more than $800 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, among numerous other charity events throughout the years. He received the Ellis Island Award for his charity work with St. Jude’s.
He has played a key role in disaster relief initiatives, including organizing and playing concerts to support rebuilding efforts from the tornadoes that struck Tuscaloosa in 2011 and the one that hit the city of Jacksonville and Jacksonville State University, his alma mater, in March of 2018.
Owen is a proud graduate of Jacksonville State University where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. He and his wife Kelly have been married for 43 years. Their children include daughters Alison Owen, who graduated from Jacksonville State University, and Randa Owen Starnes who graduated from Auburn University.
Their son Heath graduated from Samford University. The Owens have a total of six grandchildren.
