Alabama Fiddler, Guitarist, and Co-Founder Jeff Cook Has Died

If you’re gonna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band. But Heaven requires fiddle players too apparently, and Jeff Cook’s been called home.
The country music community is mourning the loss of a titan, and a terribly influential member of its community as it has been confirmed that Jeff Cook, an original founding member of famed Country Music Hall of Fame band Alabama, has died at the age of 73. The guitarist, fiddler, and singer died Monday, November 7th at his home in Destin, Florida, with his family and close friends by his side.
What country music sounds like would be radically different if it wasn’t for the formidable influence Alabama brought to the genre, especially in the early 80s when they landed a string of monster hits such as “Tennessee River,” “Mountain Music,” and so many more.
Alabama brought a Southern rock attitude to country, but unlike many of their Southern rock contemporaries, they kept it more country than rock. The work of Jeff Cook was seminal to that sound, and it’s success. It was Cook’s guitar work that brought that more sweaty and aggressive attitude to country music regularly resigned to the rock world. But when he picked up the fiddle, he grounded the music right back in the country roots.
Alabama became one of the biggest bands in country music in the 80s, and one of the biggest in history. But it didn’t happen overnight. Jeffrey Alan Cook was born in Fort Payne, Alabama on August 27th, 1949, and began playing music when he was 13. Radio was Cook’s first passion, securing his own broadcast license at the age of 14, and working at a local Fort Payne radio station. After graduating high school, he received a degree in Electronic Technology at a local community college.
But Jeff Cook’s destiny was not to be behind the radio, but on it. Forming Alabama with his cousins Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry, they first called themselves Wild Country, which reflected their Southern rock roots to go along with their country influences. But it took a while for the sound of Alabama to catch on. The band started playing all summer at a bar called The Bowery in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and six years later, they were still slogging it out on the bar and honky tonk circuit in the South, looking for a big break.
The band played some 300 shows a year, signed to the small GRT Records, released their debut album Wild Country in 1976, a handful of radio singles promoted and funded all by themselves, and all to little or no success. Finally when the song “My Home’s in Alabama” started to find some traction and ended up at #17 on the country charts, they were invited to Nashville and the Country Radio Seminar, where they made a big impression. Soon they were signed to RCA Records, and it was off to the races.
30 of the bands next 32 singles all landed at #1, stretching from early 1980 into 1991, with the band continuing to mint #1s and Top 10s into the late 90s. Alabama became one of the most successful acts in country music history, and the most successful band from a commercial standpoint. Jeff Cook was a significant part of that, playing the signature guitar licks that cemented songs as radio hits. One of the band’s signature songs, “If You’re Gonna Play in Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band)” would have never come about if Alabama didn’t have a fiddle player right there on the front line to play the role so perfectly.
Versatile as a musician, Jeff Cook could also play mandolin, banjo, keys, bass, and other instruments. He is given credit for being the first to introduce the double neck guitar in country. But in 2018, Cook was forced to leave Alabama due to Parkinson’s Disease. First diagnosed in 2012, Jeff Cook fought as long as he could to remain functional in Alabama, then gave his blessing for the band to continue without him. His work had been done though. 43 #1 hits and over 80 million albums sold all featuring Jeff Cook of guitar and fiddle, the legacy of Alabama was secured in history.
Jeff Cook also owned a studio, aka “Cook Castle” where he combined his passion for electronics and music together once again. He was also an avid angler, being named the official “Fishing Ambassador” for the state of Alabama by five consecutive governors.
Now Jeff Cook gets to sit beside that great placid lake in the sky, throwing a line out, or sawing on the fiddle whenever he feels, free from his early burdens. He’s survived in this life by his wife of 27 years, Lisa Cook, and their puppies, Blazer and Blakely.
Some believe Alabama is next to Heaven, and now that’s where Jeff Cook will be forever as all country fans enjoy the little bit of Alabama Jeff Cook and his cousins brought alive for people around the world through their music.
November 8, 2022 @ 3:04 pm
RIP.
Didn’t consider myself a Alabama fan but re listening to their greatest hits a couple years back and became a fan after replaying it
January 2, 2023 @ 3:18 pm
Jeff Cook was one of the friend anyone could have are want I got to know him during the days of June Jams I asked him about his guitar picking he said grab a guitar I will show you I still play the songs he taught me the whole group a great bunch of guys Alabama music will live on FOREVER
November 8, 2022 @ 3:26 pm
Wikipedia’s got it but Alabama’s own website is still in the dark on this.
November 8, 2022 @ 3:41 pm
I got confirmation for the band’s reps, so I’m not worried this is another Jerry Lee Lewis situation.
November 8, 2022 @ 3:34 pm
Great band… and they sounded amazing live, sounded like themselves.
The soundtrack to my life growing up, they were everywhere.
RIP Mr. Cook, thanks for all of the great songs.
November 8, 2022 @ 3:37 pm
Sad to see. I wasn’t a big fan of Alabama but I did like some of their songs. My ex wife was a huge fan though, kind of how I got to know some of their lesser stuff which I liked better than most of their big records. A very good write up. Was sad to see he had to suffer through parkinson’s. May he rest in peace.
November 8, 2022 @ 4:21 pm
Sorry to inform you but Jeff did not introduce the double neck guitar to the Country stage. That would be Joe Maphis aka King of the Strings. Joe was routinely shredding on a double neck Mosrite in the 50s. He had a young kid apprentice in one Larry Collins. The two would trade lightning links onstage at the old Town Hall Party in California. It was nationally televised. Lots of YouTube clips showing Joe and Larry doing their magic.
As for Jeff Cook, loved his tasteful melodies such as the solo on Why Lady Why, so achingly beautiful, you sing it in your head. My Homes in Alabama is their masterpiece. It changes time signatures, keys, got a ripping tasty solo in it to boot. Man oh man, love some Jeff Cook picking. He will be missed for sure.
November 8, 2022 @ 4:56 pm
The double neck guitar tidbit is from the official press release on his passing, though that doesn’t make your point less valid.
https://www.facebook.com/TheAlabamaBand/posts/719210532899719
November 8, 2022 @ 5:27 pm
I looked sideways at this little factoid when it came through as part of the announcement of his death, remembered all the double necked guitars I have seen in country music history books and museums dating back to before the formation of Alabama, and decided to include it as a claim that some make, because it’s true that people are making that claim, and that is why I worded it like I did. There are many types of double necked guitars. Some use it so they can have a 12-string handy, or what’s basically an electric mandolin, or like Junior Brown, a lap steel. Maybe he was the first to use a certain type of double necked guitar, or the first to do so in the modern era. I don’t know, that would take deeper research than what I had time for trying to compile an obituary in a timely manner. But when Jeff Cook used the double necked guitar, it was seen as significant. I will look deeper into it when I have an opportunity.
November 12, 2022 @ 8:12 am
Very sad news. Jeff was an incredible multi-talent. Had the chance to speak with him at several Alabama shows in the 80’s and he was always warm, approachable and a VERY funny guy with a wicked sense of humor.
I’ve seen that erroneous double-neck guitar reference posted in numerous stories about Jeff’s passing. Seems that most journalists did not question or research that statement. Suppose it says more about the lack of the depth of knowledge of the writers than anything else. Too many of those writing about country music today possess little historical knowledge of the genre before they were born. Truth and accuracy does matter. But sadly that false statement about Jeff has now been repeated in so many articles that it will be accepted as part of his legacy going forward. As we’ve seen too often in recent years lies and misinformation on the internet lasts forever.
However that misstatement should not detract from Jeff’s great talent nor that his use of a double-neck guitar brought that instrument to a new generation of country music fans.
For those interested in the history of the double-neck guitar this article offers an excellent primer:
https://www.premierguitar.com/gear/reviews/those-daring-young-men-and-their-doubleneck-guitars-a-brief-history-of-multi-neck-players
November 8, 2022 @ 4:51 pm
Out of all of the CDs I listened to during my youth, Alabama’s “For the Record” double album is the one I played again and again and again. Jeff’s fiddle is what set Alabama apart from their contemporaries in the “country band” heydays of the ’80s and ’90s, and aside from Charlie Daniels, Jeff Cook’s fiddle playing is the best known and most listened in my generation. It was heartbreaking to see his decline even before he officially announced his diagnosis, but he stuck with the band until he absolutely could not. My prayers and condolences go to his family, friends, bandmates, and fans.
November 10, 2022 @ 1:15 pm
I think Mark O’Connor might have something to say about whose fiddle playing is the best known in that generation, but point taken. I agree that Jeff Cook was a primary reason for Alabama’s unique sound, and I love most of the 1980s and early 90s output of the band.
November 8, 2022 @ 5:10 pm
Great write up R.I.P.
November 8, 2022 @ 5:48 pm
Born and raised in Alabama, a fan of the band since my early childhood, and this is a sad night. My prayers go out to Jeff’s family and bandmates.
These losses seem to hit me harder with each passing year. I’m only 49, and so many of my famly members, good friends, and favorite musicians have died in the last ten years alone. I’m hanging in there, and glad to still be here, but it’s definitely not easy having more deceased family members, more deceased close friends, and more deceased artistic heroes, it seems at times, than ones who are actually still here in this life. RIP, Jeff Cook.
March 18, 2023 @ 1:58 am
I’m 45 and living through the same tough realities. My godmother/aunt passed away in April 2020(non covid) from some odd medical condition that should have been confronted and recovered from with progressive action at the Texas Med Center here in Houston. But her daughter, my 1st cousin, didn’t do crap. My uncle died unexpectedly from a massive heart attack in June 2021 despite having a pristine lipid panel. No doubt it was vaccine related. So within 11 years, I lost both sets of grandparents, both great aunts, uncle and aunt whom I was very close to.. And lost my father in ‘08 at the age of 58.. Oh yeah I bet on the wrong horse twice during the heart of my prime. Our family gatherings were frequent use to be 30 person gatherings now down to 8..Kinda scary. Combine it the 2016 rash of deaths across music has me living life much more in solitude. I love Cash, Merle and Waylon, but as an 80’s kid, they were on the last leg of their active career. I was 5 when I attended my 1st concert which was Alabama. Jeff’s unique riffs and transition to fiddle was my biggest attraction to Alabama which ironically tops my Spotify metrics. Jeff Cook’s passing is hitting differently and hope his legacy will forever live on with this current pivot back to more authentic country being produced.
November 8, 2022 @ 5:50 pm
Play some back-home come home music
That comes from the heart
Play something with lots of feeling
Because that’s where music has to start
RIP and I’m shocked text predictions got this right
November 8, 2022 @ 6:19 pm
Them Texans raised the roof
When Jeff opened up his case
November 8, 2022 @ 7:06 pm
Preach, Brother, preach.
November 8, 2022 @ 7:56 pm
You say y’all all want to two-step, you say ya want to doe-si-doe
Well, here’s a fiddlin’ song before we go
Doesn’t get better than that!
November 9, 2022 @ 8:44 pm
He said ya’ll want a two step
Ya say ya want want a dosie do
Here’s a fiddlin’ song before we go
November 8, 2022 @ 7:49 pm
I think Jeff’s and ultimately Alabama’s major success was the sound he created for them, guitar and fiddle. It wasn’t forced on them by a producer or the studio musicians. Mountain Music is one of their few songs, maybe the only, where all 4 primary members (at that time) played that track with only a few overdubs. They were by no means the first successful country band but they were one of the most identifiable band in any genre. The guitar solo in dixieland delight isn’t complex or Van Halen-ish by a long shot. But Jeff’s simplistic groove gives that song everything it needed. No doubt one of the greatest but most underrated guitarists ever.
November 8, 2022 @ 8:14 pm
With most country “bands” in the mainstream, it’s really just a collection of front people/singers. That what we see with Little Big Town, Lady A, Midland, etc. Alabama was a real band. I’ve been watching old videos from them today. There may be a keyboard player or an extra player or two. But it really was Jeff Cook, Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry, and Mark Herndon out there making the music. That’s what made it seem so callous when they kind of shunned Mark Herndon as a permanent member. All the members felt like primary members, and none of them felt like props or auxilliary players in Alabama.
November 8, 2022 @ 9:18 pm
The handling of the Mark Herndon situation has been my one sore spot with Alabama in the years since their “farewell tour” in 2003. Mark is featured in all of the album art, all of the music videos, all of the promotional photos, all of the awards shows, throughout the older iterations of the band’s website, is listed as an equal member on their Country Music Hall of Fame page (which is already updated with Jeff Cook’s death, so Mark has not been retroactively removed), and has a life-size statue in Fort Payne alongside Randy, Teddy, and Jeff. For Randy to treat Mark like he was never a member, to claim that the record label execs were the ones pushing Mark upon them, and to have Mark’s image Photoshopped out of old pictures of the band is totally disingenuous and disrespectful to Mark’s legacy with them. At least Mark has carved out his own living in the years since as a commercial pilot and music producer in his own right.
November 9, 2022 @ 9:04 am
Educate yourselves on Herndon. The record company wanted Alabama to be the Beatles of country. It was never the 3’s intention to do that. It was not so much of a shunning as one might think. Mark knew this ging in.
Yes, it could havem been handled differently, but in no way does this leave a stain on Alabama as far as I am concerned.
Jeff Cook was a masterful musician and good tenor singer.
November 9, 2022 @ 9:24 am
Thank you for your reply! I am afraid I don’t post without being educated on what I am posting; I read the same interview with Randy stating the “Beatles of country” claim, but Randy’s statement has not been corroborated by anyone outside of Randy. The claims made in Mark’s book, “The High Road”, are quite eye-opening regarding his behind-the-scenes treatment (which he willingly admits he endured by his own choice). However, at the end of the day, the Mark debacle is a “he said, he said” as so many falling outs tend to be, and Mark’s legacy with the band cannot be wiped out any more than Jeff’s legacy can be (no matter how badly Randy wishes it could).
November 9, 2022 @ 10:53 am
NPC,
I read but also watch. I prefer to hear it myself. I watched two different interviews with Mark and he basically said what my comments indicated. He was not a founding member, and he knew that he was basically a touring musician. He said himself that is why he tended to hang out with the other touring members instead of the threesome. He had no ownership in the band nor its decisions, etc. And he confirmed that was the way it was when he joined.
I think the record label using his likeness to promote a 4-piece band was his contention. I honestly agree with that. But that is on the label and the marketing minions. Yes, I do think he is entitled to something for that.
I do wish the whole thing was handled better, but I put myself in someone like Randy’s shoes. Knowing all along that the band itself was the three but putting on a marketing front that it was four, that can probably wear on one a bit.
Nonetheless, the high road is always best. It very well may be that the others took the highest road they could in light of the circumstances.
I am a fan of them from the very beginning. Have nothing but respect for them.
November 8, 2022 @ 11:35 pm
I have a versian thats 8 minutes long of that version song its pierley amazing
November 8, 2022 @ 8:16 pm
This saddens me Loretta Lynn, Jerry Lee Lewis, & now Jeff Cook I never really was a Alabama fan there are a few songs of their’s I enjoy such Old Flame, When we make love, & Dixie Land Delight to name a few. We are loosing the true legends of Country Music rapidly of course we got the records to remember them & they will live on through their music but we need to cherish what few we have left of them they are disappearing fast. R.I.P. Jeff Cook.
November 8, 2022 @ 11:27 pm
My dad gave me there cd dancing on the boulvard and that was the day i got iddicted to alabama in 2016 a year before a diagnoses i saw alabama live im so glad i did cause i couldnt see them without jeff cook
November 9, 2022 @ 7:08 am
RIP Jeff Cook.
Having grown up in the East in the 60’s-70’s, it was hard to find much Country Music onthe radio.
Besides listening to McGuffey Lane, CDB, Pure Prairie League, and Marshall Tucker while in college in Ohio, Alabama was the first real Country group I listened to and saw, and I especially liked the fiddle parts. Mountain Music, Old Flame, and If Your Gonna Play In Texas are my favorites.
And last summer, our local NH summer collegiate baseball team had a player from Texas who always used If Your Gonna Play In Texas as his walkup song!
Great music and God bless you Jeff!
November 9, 2022 @ 8:44 am
Oh yeah, this one stings – growing up in rural, western Minnesota in the 1980’s, Alabama was EVERYWHERE. The soundtrack to my youth for sure…
November 9, 2022 @ 9:38 am
RIP Jeff Cook, an absolute amazing talent! Like many others on here, Alabama was a major soundtrack to my youth. I think one of the coolest things was something Trig mentioned in the comments, the the founding members of this band are who created the whole sound, they were not just front people while others created the music. It is crazy to think three cousins started a band, paid their dues and then became the biggest selling band in country music history. If you just think about you favorite local Texas band or wherever you are, none of them probably started that organically. It just goes to show how talented they were.
One other thing I remember is years ago watching the behind the music on Alabama and it talked about how poor they all were growing up as kids. I mean dirt poor. After seeing that it always made me appreciate songs like “High Cotton”, because it really was a song about their lives.
November 9, 2022 @ 5:47 pm
Been a Alabama fan since the day I heard them. This one is hard. I tend to forget that as I get older so do my heroes and idols. Jeff leaves a incredible track record with one of the most popular band in any genre. Alabama will always be the best. RIP Jeff.
November 9, 2022 @ 8:55 pm
That bit with loveless and Stapleton was off the chain amazing, wow… that was some damn country music right there.
November 10, 2022 @ 1:41 pm
Jeff Cook will be sadly miss especially myself as I grew up listening to their music and have favorites that I still listen to now. RIP Jeff an old friend
November 11, 2022 @ 3:15 pm
In 1981 I returned to the USA after living in South America for 7 years. Alabama’s album “Feels So Right” had just been released, and was lighting up the radio charts. Great memories of listening to their songs while on the road from Florida all the way to California. At this moment it’s playing on my Bluetooth speakers.