Sweet Home Alabama
"Sweet Home Alabama" was written as an answer to two songs, "Southern Man" and "Alabama" by Neil Young, which dealt with themes of racism and slavery in the American South. "We thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two," said Ronnie Van Zant at the time. The following excerpt shows the Neil Young mention in the song:
In his 2012 autobiography "Waging Heavy Peace", Young commented on his role in the song's creation, writing "My own song 'Alabama' richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record. I don't like my words when I listen to it. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue".
Music of Alabama
Many artists in the realms of Rock, Country, Rhythm and Blues and pop have emerged from Alabama over the past 50 years, including Wilson Pickett, Toni Tennille, Percy Sledge, Tommy Shaw of Styx, Martha Reeves of Martha and the Vandellas, the Southern Rock/Pop/R&B band Wet Willie, the Rock band Brother Cane, the Power Pop band Hotel of Birmingham, Bill McCorvey of the Country band Pirates of the Mississippi, and songwriter/producer Walt Aldridge. The Commodores and their former front man Lionel Richie both hail from Tuskegee. Richie attended Tuskegee University. Rick Hall, founder of FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals is a well-known producer of classic R&B, pop, country music from the 1960s through the 1980s. The Birmingham area has had more than its fair share of "American Idol" contestants do well, including second season winner Ruben Studdard (who played football for Alabama A&M University), fourth season runner-up Bo Bice, and fifth season winner Taylor Hicks (who attended Auburn University).