Mark Herndon | Photo credit: Josh Weichman

Mark Herndon Jams with ALABAMA for First Time in Over Two Decades    Photo credit: Josh Weichman

Mark Herndon with His Trademark Post-concert Jump Celebrating with ALABAMA On Stage                                           Photo credit: Josh Weichman

History was made at the Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama on Saturday night (August 23) when iconic country band ALABAMA surprised the SOLD OUT crowd with a very special guest appearance. Before the last song, lead singer Randy Owen welcomed Mark Herndon, the band’s original drummer, to the stage. 
Herndon was invited by the band to perform on “Mountain Music,” complete with his trademark drum solo, marking his first appearance with ALABAMA in over two decades.
 
“It just fell together,” ALABAMA’s Teddy Gentry explains. “The good Lord blesses us sometimes to do things that we can’t do. All we can do is kind of be in the wings and kind of hope for things. Like I said, we make plans, and he laughs. But there’s nothing he can’t do.”
 
“I felt like a little kid all day,” says Herndon. “It was so cathartic for everybody. I think it was on God’s time, I really do. It was magic all over again.”
In the late 1970s, Herndon joined ALABAMA’s Owen, Gentry and the late Jeff Cook as the band’s full-time drummer. He performed with ALABAMA for nearly 30 years before departing after the band’s Farewell Tour in 2004.
ALABAMA continues to bring its legendary sound to fans across the nation. Owen and Gentry are currently performing nationally on their Live In Concert 25 Tour with 14 more live concert dates scheduled before the year’s end. 
Visit thealabamaband.com for the full tour schedule.
About ALABAMA  Over 50 years ago, Jeff Cook, Teddy Gentry and Randy Owen left the cotton farms of Fort Payne, Alabama to spend the summer playing music in a Myrtle Beach, South Carolina bar called The Bowery. It took them six long years of tip jars and word-of-mouth to earn the major label deal they’d been dreaming of. Then, seemingly no time at all to change the face of country music. ALABAMA, country music’s first band, was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005. The group is known for hit songs including “Mountain Music,” “Roll On,” “Dixieland Delight” and “If You’re Gonna Play In Texas (You Gotta Have A Fiddle In The Band).” From humble beginnings picking cotton in the fields, to international stars, ALABAMA went on to sell 80 million albums and charted 43 No.1 hits, becoming the most successful band in the history of country music. In November 2022, ALABAMA co-founder Jeff Cook passed following a lengthy battle with Parkinson’s disease. With his prior encouragement and wishes, ALABAMA continues touring on a limited basis, keeping the iconic music they created alive for the current and future generation of fans.
For more information on ALABAMA, visit thealabamaband.com. 
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History was made at the Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama on Saturday night (August 23) when iconic country band ALABAMA surprised the SOLD OUT crowd with a very special guest appearance. Before the last song, lead singer Randy Owen welcomed Mark Herndon, the band’s original drummer, to the stage.  Herndon was invited by the band to perform on “Mountain Music,” complete with...