'Thank you to all drivers everywhere': Part 2 on the road with Alabama and tour hauler Josh Gentry

Overdrive Radio

More, today, from Overdrive Editor Todd Dills's run with Josh Gentry. Gentry’s the son of country music titan Alabama’s founding member and bassist Teddy Gentry. Today, we dive into the history of the band with some of the hands at its headquarters in Ft. Payne, Alabama, around which all three founding members -- Gentry, lead vocalist Randy Owen, and the late guitarist Jeff Cook -- all grew up and kept ties to over all the years of chart-toppers, touring, and all the trucking involved with the operation. Part 1 of the podcast: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-radio/podcast/15680069/roll-on-alabama-ft-paynenashville-with-trucker-josh-gentry As noted in Part 1, the Kenworth company is sponsoring Alabama’s current tour -- the "Roll On II North America Tour," using the name of Alabama's trucking-song classic "Roll On (18 Wheeler)." Kenworth’s sponsorship rekindles an old relationship between the band and the truck company. Founding member Teddy Gentry called the original relationship a product of necessity back during the height of the band’s popularity, when he said the tour was supported by as many as five tractor-trailers full to the gills with equipment the band’s operation toted from place to place. He can’t recall just how it started, but “we needed trucks," he said, "and we were exploding on the scene as far as the music goes." Teddy Gentry called it certainly a “good promotion for them,” Kenworth, too, with Alabama trailers festooned with band insignia pulled across North America by Kenworth. It was good for the band, too, recalled Teddy Gentry, leading to Alabama featuring in the driver-tribute show year after year at the Mid-America Trucking Show through the late 1980s up through an official farewell tour in the early 2000s. This rekindled sponsorship, Gentry added, has been great to “reunite a relationship that works, and especially that my son’s involved,” he said. For Josh Gentry, his father felt, trucking with the band and family is like “a dream come true” in some ways. Josh’s own words underscore that, to an extent, reflecting during our run in the single 2021 Kenworth T680 that powers the Alabama-controlled portion of the tour today that, like so many an owner-operator and driver the nation over, he takes pride in doing what he does. If you missed last week’s podcast, you’re going to hear Josh Gentry today speaking on the Thursday ahead of Alabama’s Friday, July 19, show at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The bulk of the talk was recorded in-cab with Gentry on the haul up to Nashville from band headquarters in Ft. Payne, where we also spoke with staff about their longevity working for the group and memories of the past supporting their relationship with their fans and the many, many tours. And we’ll drop in at the load site in Nashville where Alabama’s gear is housed, and where the Josh Gentry hauled into to fill the wrapped 48-foot Great Dane show trailer to stage that Thursday night at Bridgestone. Tour operations managers and crew there spoke to all manner of aspects of Josh Gentry’s and their own work for the band, and the tight relationship between father and son Gentry as well. Dive into this on-highway portrait of country music titans Alabama, with destination a show that would see something you don’t see every day, that’s sure. It opened with a Kenworth video that, in essence, is a tribute to the importance of American trucking. That video ended with a message, in this case sent out to 20,000 people all in one very, very big room: “Thank you to drivers everywhere,” it read. “Roll On.” Also as noted in the podcast. Find where you can register for our live August 22 roundtable session detailing how to survive, even thrive through trucking down cycles: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15680141/how-owneroperators-can-build-business-for-truckings-down-cycles