JoleneHost:: Thank you very much for agreeing to talk with us today. I’m with countrymusic @ About.com, which is a website with lots of country content. We do CD reviews, interviews, bios. Anything related to country music. Plus we have a fan message board.
Jeff Cook: Thanks for having us.
JoleneHost:: In checking out your website a little bit, it looks like you have a lot going on. You may be retired from one place, but can you tell us what kind of projects you have going right now?
Jeff Cook: When Alabama quit, I started working with an eight piece group that I call the Alabama All Star Good Time Band. And Mitch was working with his band up in the Carolinas. He called and asked if I’d come sing a part on “Shining Star.” Well I get to the studio and there were no other parts on it, it’s just his part. I said I can’t leave it like this and within 2.5 hours I put all the harmony parts on it and I think we’re both satisfied with it. And we did a few live shows. I went up and worked with him and his band. This other song came down the pike and he came to my room after a show and asked me if I’d like to be a part of it. And I thought that this might be better than what each of us was doing separately, so we teamed up to be a duo. We still have the AGB backing us and we’re right now talking to some labels and we’re still 5 to 7 songs short of an album.
JoleneHost:: How are you finding songs for your album?
Jeff Cook: Well, A couple of things that we’ve done so far are covers. And the thing is that there’s a whole new generation that hears it and says, “Man, that’s great. What is that? Where did you find that?” and they have no idea that the Doobie Brothers did “China Grove.”
Mitch Glenn: Plus, with all his connections from over the years, he’s finding people to send songs.
Jeff Cook: Some suppliers of songs for Alabama. Or just songwriters in general because of my connections with Alabama are willing to give us songs.
JoleneHost:: Great. Originally one of your thoughts seemed to be that you were going to be a mentor to different artists. Is that still a thought, or are you just going to pretty much be with Mitch?
Jeff Cook: I think whatever the objective was when I started, right now it’s just me and Mitch and we’re trying to make this duo thing work. He’s very talented and has a lot of stage charisma and everything. I’ve got a lot of experience, so maybe between the two of us it will work.
JoleneHost:: Sounds like a good deal. Do you have a catchy name for your duo?
Jeff Cook: Just Cook & Glenn
JoleneHost:: That works. AGB is your band. Do they do back up harmonies as well or are they just instrumental?
Jeff Cook: Oh yeah, all the guys are multi-talented. They play several instruments. They all sing, do harmonies. I think we really have a good combination here, a good support team.
JoleneHost:: Are you planning on doing a tour?
Jeff Cook: Oh yes.
JoleneHost:: What sort of tour do you have in mind?
Jeff Cook: Well, we have some sporadic dates right now. And we’re actually concentrating on getting the CD done. We’re just trying to play enough to support our habit. That would be the music habit.
JoleneHost:: What sort of venues do you look for right now?
Jeff Cook: well, I put the AGB together in the hopes of playing casino showrooms. Because I think we hit the demographics. As I said, the guys are all talented. They all sing, they all play multi instruments, and with the onset of Mitch and I together, there’s places that have oohs and ahhhs of three guys that ain’t doing anything they can do or not while the rest of us do the harmonies. We used to have a term for that. Instead of oohs and ahhs, it was screech and hee haws. *laughing*
