Song:Redneck Games
Album:The Best Of Jeff Foxworthy: Double Wide, Single Minded
Jeff Foxworthy didn't invent southern humor but he certainly did well with it in the 90s. In an attempt to broaden Foxworthy's appeal, Warner Bros. set his comedy to music. It did OK as Redneck Games charted. But it didn't do as well as his previous comedy albums. He was born Sept. 6, 1958 in Atlanta. His dad was an executive at IBM. Foxworthy attended Georgia Tech. He left before graduating and he worked at IBM. Apparently his co-workers were so entertained by him that Foxworthy entered and won a laugh off at Atlanta's Punchline comedy club. He worked on his act and started releasing albums on Laughing Hyena. The 1993 album You Might Be A Redneck If... got him a deal at Warner Bros. Of course that became his signature shtick. His first two albums did particularly well in the south. Both were certified 3XPlatinum. ABC attempted a sitcom that was canceled after one season. NBC picked it up and it was also canceled after one season. Foxworthy says they didn't know how to sell him. Inspired by southern comedy legend Dickie Goodman, Warner exec Doug Grau wanted to set Foxworthy's comedy to music. That resulted in the 1996 album Crank It Up: The Music Album. Most of the album was written and produced by Scott Rouse of the bluegrass group The GrooveGrass Boyz. Redneck Games features Alan Jackson. His presence got the song enough radio play to chart. And also the music video did well. Other guests on the album included Little Texas, Del McCourey, Mac Wiseman, The Beach Boys and Cooter Brown. Redneck Games is available on the DVD of this CD/DVD comp from Rhino. When the album didn't perform to expectations, Warner returned to a more traditional way of promoting comedy albums. The 1998 album Totally Committed came with an HBO special and it was successful. Foxworthy left Warner for DreamWorks for the 2000 album Big Funny. He also started the Blue Collar Comedy tour. When DreamWorks closed, he returned to Warner Bros. and he produced the Blue Collar TV series for the WB. In recent years, he hosted Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader among other things. Most recently, Foxworthy and Larry The Cable Guy produced the live comedy show We've Been Thinking for Netflix. It's also available on CD. And he is currently on tour. Here's the video for Redneck Games by Jeff Foxworthy featuring Alan Jackson.
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