Cook explained his issue in a 2017 statement, stating that it “robs you of your coordination, your balance, and creates tremors.” Alabama’s supergroup was co-founded by Jeff Cook, who has since passed away. Aged 73, he was.
Cook passed away on Monday at his home in Destin, Florida, surrounded by family and close friends, according to a press release issued by his reps. Cook was a famous guitarist and a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Cook had Parkinson’s disease, which was first identified in him in 2012, however, it is unknown what exactly caused his death. Announcing his condition and that he would be postponing his tour with Alabama owing to its effects, he made the announcement in a statement five years later.
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On August 27, 1949, Cook was born in Fort Payne, Alabama, and began playing the guitar and keyboards while he was just a youngster. Before graduating from high school, he also worked as a local radio DJ and eventually owned radio and TV stations.
He later enrolled at Gadsden State Community College to study electrical technology because, according to the news release, he liked how working in radio brought together his passions for music and electronics.
Jeffrey Alan Cook: 1949 – 2022 ♥️https://t.co/9SI0dLSWXl pic.twitter.com/SU14Unj3jc
— ALABAMA (@TheAlabamaBand) November 8, 2022
Before officially co-founding Alabama a decade later, Cook and his cousins Teddy Gentry and Randy Owen started a band in the late 1960s. Before joining RCA Records to create their 1980 album My Home’s in Alabama, their major label debut, they issued three albums in the 1970s that largely went unnoticed: Wild Country, Deuces Wild, and Alabama Band No. 3.
The band amassed 36 No. 1 singles during their career, including “Mountain Music,” “Dixieland Delight,” “Song of the South,” “Jukebox in My Mind,” and “I’m in a Hurry (And Don’t Know Why),” among others, which peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 1982, 1983, and 1992, respectively.
With Owen telling The Tennesseean in 2011, Alabama went on a farewell tour in 2003 and 2004 “Just a moment, I thought—everyone needed it. Following the previous performance… Oh my goodness, I was so exhausted.”
Alabama, however, discovered they missed playing together when they got back together for a benefit concert in 2011 after a tornado devastated the band’s home state, which helped raise over $2 million for the cause.
“Maybe we realized that we had missed the playing after all. five or six years had passed, and we had the thought, “Maybe that wasn’t as horrible as we remember it being,” “The Tennesseean was informed at the time by Gentry.
In 2013, the band started touring once more, and two years later, they put out Southern Drawl, their most recent album and first since 2007. Due to his struggle with Parkinson’s illness, Cook declared in 2017 that he will be playing less.
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Cook said at the time in a statement that the illness “robs you of your coordination, your balance, and produces tremors.” “Playing the guitar, fiddle, or singing has become incredibly frustrating for me as a result.
Because I don’t want the music to stop or the celebration to end, and that won’t change no matter what, I’ve tried not to bother people with the specifics of my condition. Let me clarify that I’m not giving up; rather, I’m just saying that sometimes our bodies tell us what to do, and mine is telling me that it’s time to rest and recover.”
To honor Cook, Jason Aldean posted a message on Twitter. “That Jeff Cook has passed away is very sad. He had a distinctive guitar tone, which I listened to for a large portion of my life “he wrote. “I had several opportunities over the years to perform with him, and I will never forget it.”
Aldean said in a subsequent tweet: “RIP Mr. Jeff, you are a legend to many of us and your influence will be felt forever in country music.”
Also posting a touching message about Cook on Twitter was the late Charlie Daniels’ wife and son. “Another fiddle/guitar player has joined Heaven today.
Jeff Cook of @TheAlabamaBand lost his battle with Parkinson’s disease and passed away, which pained my mother and me. prayers for his family and a lot of admirers “He tweeted.
Jeff Cook, a founding member and lead guitarist of the country group Alabama, has died. He was 73. https://t.co/J746dY3MWk
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) November 8, 2022
In a tweet in honor of Cook, Grammy winner Travis Tritt praised his non-musical abilities, saying, “To Jeff Cook’s family, friends, and fellow members of @TheAlabamaBand, I’m sending my sympathies. The best bass fisherman ever, and such a nice guy. Definitely going to miss him.”
The Oak Ridge Boys, other inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame, also tweeted about Cook. “tragic information There has been a passing of Jeff Cook, a friend, and brother of @TheAlabamaBand. I’ll miss you, Jeff. Take care. The combat is over… #RIPJeffCook, “the team wrote.