Jeffrey Alan Cook



Born and reared in Fort Payne, Alabama. Jeff has been playing lead guitar and keyboard in bands since the age of thirteen. Securing a broadcast license three days after his fourteen birthday, Jeff went to work as a disc jockey at a local radio station. The “broadcast bug” got into Jeff’s blood and later resulted in his owning a radio and TV stations. After graduating from High School, Jeff received a degree in electronic technology from Gadsden State Committee College in Gadsden, Alabama and was recently named the outstanding Alumni by the American Association of Community Colleges. In 1985 Jeff along with Albert Lee and Steve Morse were named the top three guitarist by Guitar Player Magazine’s Readers poll. As one of the founding fathers of the group, “ALABAMA” Jeff and his band mates has been named entertainer of the year eight times. They have sold more recordings than anyone else has in any field of music, followed by Michael Jackson and the Beatles. They currently have a string of 42 #1 singles spanning two decades. They have also received many other awards including Recording International Artist Association’s “Country Group of the Century” and the prestigious “Minnie Pearl Humanitarian Award”.

He married former Delta flight attendant, Lisa Williams on June 9, 1995. They live in “The Castle”, a fifteen thousand square foot home, atop Lookout Mountain overlooking Fort Payne. The “Castle” was the very first projects of Jeff’s construction company Bass Builders. They have no children but are quite content with their three Shelty dogs, Barkley, Barney & Binki, which they refer to as “the furry boys”.

When asked if a country boy or city boy, Jeff replies, “I’m as city as you can get… being from Fort Payne, Alabama.” Jeff and his younger brother, David were raised in the city of Fort Payne, at the foot of Lookout Mountain. Jeff enjoys Japanese food, country cooking, The Beatles, The Eagles and all the 60’s and 70’s rock he played as a disc jockey. Jeff “likes the color red because it is exciting, green and blues because they’re soothing.”

In his time off the road, Jeff enjoys coming home to Fort Payne, spending time with Lisa & the “furry boys”, working on electronic projects, bass fishing, camping, watching TV and working in his recording studio, Cook Sound Studios.

One of the life-long dreams for Jeff was Cook Sound Studio. The studio is a way for Jeff to help other musicians share their music with others, just as ALABAMA has had the opportunity to do. In Jeff’s words, “This area has it’s share of talented people and the opportunity is there for each of them to cut demos, records, etc. at an affordable price, plus its nice to share your dreams with others.”

Jeff plays an electrifying lead guitar, and all of those “hot licks” on the fiddle you hear are Jeff. Between the guitar and fiddle you would think Jeff stays pretty busy, well “Mr. Energy” also plays keyboard, bass, banjo, mandolin, and drums.

One of Jeff’s favorite cities is Myrtle Beach, South Carolina where they spent seven summers, six months at a time playing, their music for varied crowds. His favorite states, outside of Alabama of course, are Florida and parts of California. Jeff has been playing music “since three days before dirt”. Some of his songs have been recorded on the band’s albums. Jeff’s message to the fans is “Thank you for all your support of ALABAMA. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.