Band Info
Crediting himself as Big Kenny, he signed to Hollywood Records in 1999 and recorded the album Live a Little for the label. The album's release was delayed repeatedly, and was ultimately canceled, with Hollywood Records retaining control of the songs for five years[2] and ultimately releasing it in 2005. One of its songs, "Under the Sun", was featured in the soundtrack to the 2001 film Gun Shy.[3]

After departing the label, he founded the band luvjOi. Although luvjOi had a degree of local success, including the single "Discoball" and two albums, the band eventually broke up. By this point in his career, Big Kenny had befriended John Rich, formerly the bass guitarist and co-lead vocalist of Lonestar. The two founded Big & Rich in the early 2000s after years of collaboration, including co-writing McBride & the Ride's 2002 single "Amarillo Sky" as well as "She's a Butterfly", an album cut for Martina McBride.

Big & Rich signed to Warner Bros. Records in 2004. The duo recorded three studio albums for the label: Horse of a Different Color (2004), Comin' to Your City (2005) and Between Raising Hell and Amazing Grace (2007), as well as two EPs and ten singles, including the Number One hit "Lost in This Moment".[4]

Both halves of the duo wrote songs for other artists, in addition to co-writing most of Big & Rich's material. Big Kenny's co-writing credits include "Here for the Party" for Gretchen Wilson and "Hicktown" for Jason Aldean (who also released a cover of "Amarillo Sky"). He is also the sole writer of Tim McGraw's Number One hit "Last Dollar (Fly Away)".[5]

Big Kenny went on hiatus in 2008, as Kenny had to rehabilitate a neck injury that occurred when he was hit by a drunk driver in 2001. He launched his official online community at www.bigkenny.tv in mid-2009. There, he made his first solo single, "Long After I'm Gone", available as a free download. It was released to radio in August 2009 as the first single from his second solo album, The Quiet Times of a Rock and Roll Farm Boy, which was rated number 13 on the 30 Best Country Albums of 2009 by Roughstock. In the last year and a half, however, Kenny has sought respite from the madness surrounding Big & Rich’s meteoric rise to fame. “I’ve had a lot of time for reflection,” he says. “I’ve come through some tough places in my life. I’ve been through hell and back musically, and personally. I wanted to step beyond all of that, and just write great stuff that would mean something to people, stuff I’d want to sing for the rest of my life. I have a three-year old now,” he adds, referring to his son Lincoln William Holiday Alphin, “so I found myself really asking what it is I want to leave behind. What lessons can I impart?” Big Kenny’s current solo album, The Quiet Times of a Rock and Roll Farmboy, is replete with such lessons, from “Find A Heart” “If I could say one thing to my kid, that would be it.”