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Alabama (Jeff Cook, Randy Owens, Teddy Gentry) perform at the Music Builds: CMT Disaster Relief Concert at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville in May 2011 to raise awareness and funds for those affected by devastating storms, floods and tornadoes. PHOTOGRAPH BY RICK DIAMOND/GET T Y IMAGES (LEFT) that side of my family always sang in church. My daddy's side sang in church, too, but they also sang country music and bluegrass. It was a little bit different style of living on my daddy's side, but my daddy taught me he was a lot better person than I'll ever be." Well, Owen is probably coming real close. The Country Cares for St. Jude Kids program he helped found in 1989 has raised more than $365 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and the members of Alabama are dedicated philanthropists for programs like scholarships and disaster relief. Owen's father passed away in 1980, but his mother is eighty-one now, and she must fnd a thrill in knowing that the Fort Payne, Alabama, land that her husband used to plow the felds of as a sharecropper is the same land her very famous son now owns, including its lakes full of bass and bream with Canada geese (too damn many, if you ask Owen), and the fve golden retrievers that he and his wife of thirty-nine years, Kelly, have. It was on a 1953 red Ford Jubilee tractor that Owen would ride this land when he was a little boy, and pick cotton and corn with his daddy—the very same model that he has now, which Kelly got him for his 50th birthday. For all the fame, fortune, and continued accolades and adventures, Owen hasn't ever lost the place in his heart for where he came from and what he has now. "Never take it for granted," he says. "Enjoy every day as best as you can. I don't always do that, but I try." After all, that's just how he was raised. Alabama's harmonious, straight-up 'n' strong country music propelled the band to superstar status with over 73 million records sold Fall 2013 . Tempus-Magazine.com 23