Southern Man (song)
Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd wrote their song "Sweet Home Alabama" in response to "Southern Man" and "Alabama" from Young's 1972 album "Harvest". Young has said that he is a fan of both "Sweet Home Alabama" and Ronnie Van Zant, the lead vocalist for Lynyrd Skynyrd. "They play like they mean it," Young said in 1976. "I'm proud to have my name in a song like theirs." Young has also been known to play "Sweet Home Alabama" in concert occasionally. To demonstrate this camaraderie, Van Zant frequently wore a Neil Young "Tonight's the Night" T-shirt while performing "Sweet Home Alabama". Crazy Horse bassist Billy Talbot can often be seen reciprocating by wearing a Jack Daniel's-styled Lynyrd Skynyrd T-shirt (including at the "Live Rust" concert).
Adrianna Freeman
Like many singers just starting out, Freeman performed in many small clubs and struggled to get noticed. One day, while recording in a Nashville studio, she met Teddy Gentry, co-founder of the Grammy-winning country music super-group Alabama, who happened to be at the studio on other business. Impressed with Freeman’s singing, Gentry invited her to record a song for "Teddy Gentry’s Best New Nashville", an album that he was producing for Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, a restaurant chain that is popular in the South and the Midwest. Cracker Barrel customers who purchased the album voted Freeman’s song, "Run Baby Run", as their favorite selection on the album.