Alabama has been a major force in the country music and southern rock worlds since the band’s inception more than 50 years ago. Recently, singer Randy Owen gave an update on the band’s future.
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During this year’s Country Cares for St. Jude Kids seminar, Owen briefly spoke to Taste of Country about the future of Alabama. The singer said he hopes that he and the band will be back on the road in the coming year. However, health issues within the band make it unclear if they’ll be able to plan a tour. “I just never know,” Owen said. “I enjoy every show and thank God I get to do one more show.”
At the same time, Owen said he is healthy and ready for the road despite his age. “I’m 73 years old. I just had my tests and everything came back really good,” he told the publication. “I had my flu shot, so I’m ready to go.”
Owen presented Brothers Osborne with the Angels Among Us Award at this year’s Country Cares seminar. The award goes to artists who offer substantial support to St. Jude. The duo has been working with the hospital since 2014. “We constantly find inspiration when spending time with the patients and families of St. Jude,” John Osborne said. “It’s an incredible mission and we are grateful to be in a place to support such an amazing cause.”
Owen started the Country Cares for St. Jude Kids program in 1989 to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Two decades later, the singer received a cancer diagnosis that helped him relate to the children and their families.
Owen’s doctor diagnosed him with prostate cancer in 2010. Then, he flew to Mexico to receive high-intensity focused ultrasound treatment not available north of the border. Today, he is still cancer-free. However, his bout with the disease made him more passionate about helping the children at St. Jude.
“I can look at the sweet little children at St. Jude and their families and say, ‘I’m with you. I’m a cancer survivor. I know what it’s like to be told that I have cancer,” Owen told The Tennessean in 2019.
Photo by Jason Davis/Getty Images for St. Jude/ALSAC
