Alabama‘s Randy Owen and Jeff Cook told a great Merle Haggard story ahead of CMT Giants: Alabama.

In a sense, they told two of them.

The pair — along with the late Jeff Cook — started a group called Young Country in 1969 and played throughout the southeast until they were signed to RCA in the late 1970s. “Tennessee River” would become their first No. 1 hit in 1980, and dozens more would follow.

Talking to Taste of Country, the men recalled that transition from regional act to national superstars.

• CMT Giants: Alabama airs on CMT on Thursday (Aug. 15) at 7PM CT.
• The event was filmed last January at Belmont University in Nashville.
• Photos below show the performers and setlist.

“First big thing we did was at Anaheim Stadium with Merle Haggard,” Owen shares. “The stadium was actually rocking … they started cautioning people to be still, because the stadium was rocking up and down.”

Haggard was very popular in California, but Owen and co. were certainly worth arriving early for. They’d go on to define live country music for the better part of a decade. This moment was of the full-circle variety, as Gentry admits the very first song that he, Owen and Cook played together was a Merle Haggard song.

In 1969 he sent “Sing Me Back Home” to No. 1, and the boys from Alabama sat down to learn it.

Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean, Little Big Town, Luke Bryan, Old Dominion, Sam Hunt, and Jamey Johnson helped form the lineup for CMT Giants: Alabama. Owen and Gentry also took the stage to help close the show.

Billy Dukes is a Senior Editor and Executive Producer of Video Content at Taste of Country. He specializes in country music interviews, trend analysis and the Secret History of Country Music. Additionally, Billy covers Yellowstone, 1923 and related television shows through the Dutton Rules podcast. To date, he’s written more than 13,000 articles for Taste of Country and produced over 3,000 videos for the Taste of Country YouTube channel.