The Alabama Heathens Load the Merch and Drive Anyway
Zach Taylor
Jun 29, 2026
A young Southern rock band on songs, touring, Huntsville, and the faith to keep going.
A few weeks ago, Bud Gambrell asked if I wanted to tag along for a promo shoot with Mike Roberts of 5ive O’clock Charlie at the Orion Amphitheater. Afterward, Bud wanted to interview me for this magazine. Wait. Let’s back up even more.
On January 13, 2026, I published my first novel, Rockstar: Echoes. One thing that came from publishing my first book was the desire to make the second one better. More realistic. More lived-in. I am not part of the music industry, but I am a massive fan, and it became important to me to immerse myself in the world I was writing about. I just didn’t know how. I just kept loading the merch and driving anyway. Enter Bud.
We met at Rocket City Reading Festival, exchanged books, and stayed in touch. That eventually led to the Orion shoot, which led to the three of us hanging around afterward, talking about life, kids, and music. That was when Bud and Mike started talking about Mike’s son, Jude Roberts, and his up-and-coming band, The Alabama Heathens.
More specifically, they were talking about Jude’s technique. His slide guitar playing. His feel. His ability to play with a kind of touch and confidence that seems unusual for someone his age. Okay. Now I was listening. Literally.
On the way home, I cued them up. “Here for the Whiskey.” “On the Run.” Then “99 Miles” jumped out at me. There is something about Southern grit and a slide guitar that gives me goosebumps.
Fast forward a few weeks. Bud asked if I wanted to interview The Alabama Heathens at Moonpie John’s. Of course I did. Not only is it less than a mile from my house, but it is also an incredible store that serves excellent food. Oh, and my uncle Jeff and aunt Cori own it.
So, there I was on Father’s Day, sitting at my dad’s pool, jotting down questions for my first music interview. Important note: this was my first interview ever. It was also my first article for this magazine. I am a published writer. I have been a blogger. I have covered bass fishing and Auburn sports. But never music. So, I decided to ask different questions.
Part of that came from my own experience with Rockstar: Echoes. When you do interviews or podcasts, you learn pretty quickly what it feels like to be asked the same questions over and over. I assumed a band would appreciate something a little different.
What I did not consider was whether the Alabama Heathens had actually been interviewed a lot.
Whoops.
But that ended up being the best part.
Because instead of getting polished answers from a band that had already learned how to talk about itself, I got something better. I got musicians who were still close enough to the beginning of the story to be honest, funny, slightly unsure what to expect, and completely themselves, and that matters.
The Alabama Heathens are not a band built out of marketing language. They are not trying to sound like a press release. They are young, Southern, talented, and still figuring out exactly what they are becoming. Even when they question why they put up with all those hard miles and small checks, if they get checks at all. But when they talk about music, the seriousness comes through fast.
Before we started rolling, I asked if there were any questions they wanted me to ask. Jude shot back immediately: “Guitars. Equipment. Stuff like that.” Well, we didn’t get to much of that in our first session because I spent the first conversation chasing the story instead of the gear, but we’ll get there.
Oh, and I should mention that this interview happened before I had seen them play live. Watching them perform at Huntsville’s Mars Music Hall on June 26, 2026, quickly made me realize that an interview is one thing. A performance is another, and it deserves its own story. From hanging out backstage with the band, to celebrating the event with their friends and family, to the awe I felt watching them perform, there is more to come, so stay tuned.
*The following conversation has been edited lightly for clarity.
MaM: When you put songs into the world, you open yourself up to appreciation, but also criticism. What has that experience been like for you?
Dylan Johnson: I’ve pretty much only written about stuff I’ve experienced. One of the biggest things is that some people have negative stuff to say about the recordings sometimes.
MaM: There is a difference between a recording and a live performance, though. A recording is permanent. A live show can change from night to night. How do you think about that difference?
Jude Roberts: Sometimes we do play things differently live. We are a rock band, so we want to keep jamming. If we want to play the solo completely differently tonight, then that is what we will do. That feels honest.
If the audience does not like something, we can take that and think, “Maybe I should not do that,” or “Maybe I should keep doing this.” That kind of adds to it.
MaM: With lyrics, it feels even more personal. You are putting part of yourself into the songs. Do you think about the way people respond to the words?
Dylan: When people sing the songs back to you, it is a pretty wild experience. I remember writing a song in my bedroom, and then a couple of years later, it's out, and you're playing to a crowd, and those people are singing it back to you.
I wrote this new song called ‘Thick as Thieves,’ and I have been getting hard compliments on that one. Somebody came up to me and said it reminded them of one of their best friends they lost. That is why people listen to music. It makes us feel. It makes us remember. So being able to do that, coming from where we come from, it means something. I just try to write about my experiences.
MaM: Some of your lyrics feel like they are always moving. There is this sense of being on the road, running, pushing forward, trying to get somewhere. Is that part of the band’s mindset?
Dylan: Maybe. I want to figure it out a lot faster than we probably will. But I hope so. One time, I drove all the way from St. Augustine, Florida, to Nashville. I am not proud of this, but I had barely slept for two days, and I drove seven and a half hours to make a show that was basically a cover show. But I loved the idea of it. If I can do that, then I can do this. I can play sixteen hours away if I need to. I love the idea of that. I feel like we have what it takes in that aspect. A lot of people are not down for that.
MaM: That sounds like more than just wanting to play music. What are the Alabama Heathens seeking? What puts you on the run like that?
Dylan: Leaving a legacy, I believe. Sometimes I think that if some of my old choices had sent me somewhere, then I could at least look back and say I did it. I have hobbies, but I am a musician. This band is a brand, and I do not want to look back and think, “I wish I had done more.” I do not want to feel like I stayed stagnant.
MaM: So, part of it is not wanting to stand still?
Alabama Heathens: Yeah. Exactly.
MaM: That makes sense, especially because you guys are young. You have the energy. You are seeking your fortune out there.
Jude: But nobody does this because it is easy. Why go to Raleigh, North Carolina, and play for nobody? Why play for no money? Why load the merch just to have it stolen? Why drive the miles and do it anyway? We do not know why, but we do it anyway.
MaM: Since we are talking about getting on the road, doing the shows, and playing wherever you have to play, let’s go to the rider question. What is on The Alabama Heathens’ rider?
Jude: A 24-pack of water and a 24-pack of Miller Lite. And if you throw in three cheese pizzas and a vegan cheese pizza? Then we will play for free. Probably.
MaM: That is a great answer because it is honest. What does a 24-pack of water and a 24-pack of Miller Lite say about the Heathens?
Dylan: That we are alcoholics. No.
(laughter)
Jude: So, here’s the thing. In Alabama, you drink beer, water, sweet tea, SunDrop, or RC Cola. We aren’t that fancy, so our rider isn’t that fancy.
MaM: Not to get off into an economics case study, but Muscle Shoals became what it became partly because of industry and geography. I have had this epiphany from fishing the Tennessee River, the Coosa, and the Alabama River. Huntsville has not always embraced the Tennessee River the way some other places have. Every city on the Tennessee River seems to have this relationship with it, and now Huntsville is finally building more of that venue and river culture.
Do you think something similar is true with music? Muscle Shoals is so important musically, and Huntsville has grown so much, but sometimes it feels like the infrastructure for live music has lagged behind the talent.
Jude: I do not think the music is behind. There are a lot of great musicians here. Some of the best musicians in the world, I think. But when you start looking at the structure around musicians, you go to Muscle Shoals, you go to Nashville, you go to places where there are managers and people who can guide musicians. The raw talent has always been here.
I do not think it is a lack of talent. I think it is a lack of infrastructure. As you said, it is interesting how Huntsville has kind of lagged behind in that sense. Huntsville is a different city than it was in the past. We have NASA. We have a lot of stuff. I cannot tell you why it is like that, but I know it is not for lack of talent.
I have to admit, some of these questions came from the perspective of the old man in the room, which was not lost on me. Three of the four members of The Alabama Heathens are in their early twenties, and while I was asking about rivers, regional music infrastructure, and legacy, Tim Humlicek—who introduced himself as “the old guy in the band”—is far more than that.
For a band still early in its own story, The Alabama Heathens already seem to understand that talent is only part of the equation. A scene needs places to play. It needs people willing to listen. It needs elders, weirdos, lifers, historians, and Tuesday-night legends. It needs infrastructure. Most of all, though, it needs bands young enough, hungry enough, and maybe crazy enough to keep showing up anyway.
MaM: Your band has been described as high-energy, gritty, and raw. We have talked about how a recording is one thing, but a live show can be something else. You may decide to jam. You may decide to play the solo differently. So, what does live performance mean to you? Why does it matter?
William O’Rear: You want to be up there on that stage making people feel the way artists have made you feel. It is energy. It is adrenaline. Being able to play and perform, whether you are playing originals or covers, it does not really matter. It is the fact that you are up there doing it.
There are different flavors of a lot of music. You could hear a Bob Dylan song one way, then hear someone else play it, and it has a different energy. You can see a metal band, or another band, and it hits differently. At the end of the day, it makes you feel.
MaM: With AI, virtual reality, and the way technology is moving, there is a science-fiction part of me that wonders what live performance will look like twenty years from now. Maybe somebody can put on a headset and be fully immersed in some AI-generated show. But there is no human element in that.
Tim Humlicek: That’s the thing. It’s got to have the human capability about it. I had a great quote from a guy I talked to a long time ago. He said, “Any art. Any great art I dig is always uncomfortable.”
I think that's a lot of it. There has always been a possibility that something could go severely wrong. But if you can walk that rope and get through it in a way where you connect with people, there is no way a machine is capable of duplicating that. That is why it is honest. That is why it happens the way it happens.
You can make anything sound polished at home now, thanks to technology. But that is not the same as being there and doing it. You can never capture that the same way as a live band.
MaM: Has a crowd’s response ever changed your perception of one of your own songs?
Dylan: Sometimes it changes my perspective when people respond to something. It takes a crowd that is loud and into it.
MaM: That actually brings me to “99 Miles.” I like that song. It jumped out at me when I first started listening to you guys. But you seem to have a different relationship with it.
Jude: He hates it.
MaM: Why does he hate it?
Jude: Why doesn’t Kurt Cobain like “Smells Like Teen Spirit”? We had to write another song just to transition into that song.
Dylan: I do not think it is really that good. I wrote it in about ten minutes. I do not know. It just gives me PTSD. I wrote it in the thoughts of David Allan Coe. I am trying to get there before the demons take me back.
MaM: So, ten years from now, where do you see the greatest area of growth for The Alabama Heathens? And what does success look like?
Jude: Success is still doing what we are doing, but on a larger scale, and hopefully being able to eat and pay the bills.
Dylan: Being able to tour full-time. Not just playing music, but touring. Being on the road every weekend. Leaving on Thursday, coming home on Sunday on a bus. Being able to take care of all that and play shows where we can sell tickets, where people are there who love us and what we do.
From a songwriter’s standpoint, I’d like to have a couple of studio albums out and be in a place where we can sell merch.
MaM: What about growth? Where do you think the band has the most room to grow?
Tim Humlicek: Being the old guy in the band, these guys have incredible musical maturity and taste. When I first played with them, they were playing songs like “Up on Cripple Creek.” All this great stuff. And they are fearless when we play live. It’s like jumping off a cliff and hoping to God you land in the water.
If we do grow, I do not want to lose that fearless capability. If we can keep growing there, if we can keep learning how to take a song and make it what it needs to be, that is where we can grow.
That was the version of The Alabama Heathens I met in conversation. Young, funny, restless, honest—still figuring out how to explain themselves, yet already serious about the road, the songs, the scene, and the strange faith it takes to keep showing up when nobody has promised you anything. At that point, I had heard the recordings. I had heard the answers. I had heard the ambition. But I had not yet heard the band. That changed a few days later at Mars Music Hall, and that is where this story becomes something else. More to come.
*All photos by Bud Gambrell Photography
Where to find Zach Taylor:
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Where to find The Alabama Heathens:
The Alabama Heathens (@thealabamaheathens) • Instagram photos and videos
The Alabama Heathens - Topic - YouTube
Where to find Bud:
Email:
the_budgambrell@mixedaltmag.com
Website:
https://bgambrellphotography.com
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