Story Behind the Song: Alabama, ‘Mountain Music’

"Mountain Music" became one of superstar group Alabama's most beloved hits after its release in 1982. According to band frontman Randy Owen, the song took him years to write, and encapsulates some of his childhood memories.

As popular as the song eventually became, though, Alabama originally received from pushback from their label about whether or not "Mountain Music" would succeed as a radio hit. For one thing, the track includes a drum solo, which was virtually unheard of for a country or bluegrass single at the time.

However, Owen says, when he was writing the song, he had an important reason for including a drum solo. To learn what that reason was, and more about the story behind "Mountain Music," in Owen's own words, read on.

I had written this song, and I was so excited about it. I told the folks at RCA, "I've written a song, and it's got a drum solo in it!" They were like, "Radio'll never play that."

The reason that I wrote the drum solo part of it was so that Jeff [Cook] would have time to put the guitar down and pick up the fiddle.

I got a little trouble out of this song, too, because some of the lyrics were not discernible. "Skinnin' cats," to me, when I was growing up, was an exercise that me and the other boys did on hickory trees: We'd bend 'em [the trees] over, and then we'd chin ourselves and turn ourselves inside out, because we didn't have the kind of playground equipment that you folks see today.

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