Alabama founding member and bassist Teddy Gentry, 70, was arrested and booked into the Cherokee County Jail in northeast Alabama on Monday (Sept. 12) on a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge. According to the Associated Press, Gentry was released a half-hour after his booking on a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia.
A spokesperson for the group had not returned requests for comment at press time.
KTLA reported that Gentry was arrested for misdemeanor second-degree unlawful possession of marijuana and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia. According to Sheriff Jeff Shaver, Gentry was arrested during a traffic stop and booked at 10:38 a.m. and released less than 30 minutes later with no bond amount listed at press time.
A spokesperson told the AP that he was aware of the incident but had not comment.
The group was formed in Fort Payne, Alabama in 1969 by Gentry and his cousins Randy Owen and Jeff Cook. Known for such 1980s country hits as “Dixieland Delight” and “Song of the South,” the group announced that they were retiring and launched a farewell tour in 2007, but returned to the road in 2019 for a 50th anniversary tour.
Their next scheduled tour date is in Denver on Sept. 23 at Ball Arena and the band has dates listed through a Dec. 11 gig at Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Last year, the group sold its interest in its recorded music rights catalog to Reservoir Media. The catalog, including 20 albums released on RCA Nashville from 1980 to 2007, includes over two dozen No. 1 hits, including two tracks that reached high into the Billboard Hot 100 chart: “Love in the First Degree,” which reached No. 15 in 1982 and “Feels So Right” hit No. 20 in 1981. “Dixieland Delight,” one of its most-streamed tracks, reached No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart in 1983.
