Guitarist Jeff Prepare dinner, who co-launched the successful country team Alabama and steered them up the charts with this kind of hits as “Song of the South” and “Dixieland Delight,” has died. He was 73.
Cook dinner had Parkinson’s sickness and disclosed his diagnosis in 2017. He died Tuesday at his house in Destin, Florida, reported Don Murry Grubbs, a representative for the band.
Tributes poured in from state stars, which includes Travis Tritt who identified as Cook “a excellent male and one heckuva bass fisherman.”
As a guitarist, fiddle participant and vocalist, Prepare dinner — together with cousins Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry — landed 8 No. 1 songs on the region charts in between spring 1980 and summer 1982, according to the Place Songs Corridor of Fame. That operate involved the pop crossover hits “Love In The Initially Degree” and “Feels So Right,” as well as “Tennessee River” and “Mountain Music.”
“Jeff Prepare dinner, and all of the fellas in Alabama, ended up so generous with knowledge and enjoyable when I acquired to tour with them as a young artist,” Kenny Chesney reported in a assertion. “They showed a kid in a T-shirt that state tunes could be rock, could be real, could be somebody who seemed like me. Rising up in East Tennessee, that gave me the heart to chase this aspiration.”
The band had a a few-yr operate as CMA Entertainer of the Year from 1982-1985 and gained 5 ACM Award Entertainer of the 12 months trophies from 1981-1985. He stopped touring with Alabama in 2018.
Cook dinner unveiled a handful of solo initiatives and toured with his Allstar Goodtime Band. He also launched collaborations with Charlie Daniels and “Star Trek” star William Shatner. He entered the Country Audio Hall of Fame in 2005 as a member of Alabama.
Survivors include his wife, Lisa.
