Legendary country music star Jeff Cook, the co-founder of the country band Alabama, has died at 73, according to the band.
Jeff Cook, who played the guitar, had announced he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2017.
Cook started the band with cousins Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry, landing “eight No. 1 songs on the country charts between spring 1980 and summer 1982 … that rung included the pop crossover hits “Love In The First Degree” and “Feels So Right,” as well as “Tennessee River” and “Mountain Music,” the Associated Press reports.
Cook played the guitar, along with the fiddle. He was also a vocalist.
Other hits from the band include “Song of the South” and “Dixieland Delight.”
The band won Country Music Award’s Entertainer of the Year for three consecutive years in the 190s and won five ACM Award Entertainer of the Year Awards in the same timeframe.
In a statement, Teddy Gentry, Cook’s cousin and another co-founder of “Alabama,” said:
"Closer than brothers, we lived together more than with our immediate families. Don’t think I’ve known anyone who loved playing more.
“Jeff, along with me and Randy, experienced the highs of undreamed success, as well as some very tough earl years. None of us were perfect, but together we had something so special it will never die.
“No other guitar player I’ve known had the range of styles Jeff had. No one can take your place. Ever. Rest in peace till we get to jam again.”
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