Trivia
- Big Kenny owns a guitar that has "love everybody" written on it.
- Big Kenny operated several businesses before settling down into a music career including running a logging crew and selling printed shirts.
- Big Kenny's siblings are Charleene, Robert, and Wallace.
- Big Kenny's parents are Bill and Mary Alphin.
- Big Kenny spoke at the Nashville leg of the "Dream for Darfur Olympic Torch Relay."
- Big Kenny used the name Big Kenny Rocks in his solo country music career.
- Big Kenny's Alphin Development company went bankrupt during the real estate recession of 1990.
- In April 2006, Big Kenny, along with John Rich, spoke and performed at: "Save Darfur: Rally to Stop Genocide."
- Big Kenny is nicknamed the Universal Minister of Love.
- Big Kenny is 6'5".
- The Save Darfur Coalition named Big Kenny its December Darfur Hero.
- Big Kenny ran a real-estate developing company called Alphin Development in the 1980s.
- Big Kenny divorced Karen Garr.
- Big Kenny married Christiev Carothers on January 23, 2005.
- Before Alphin formed Big & Rich, he was the lead singer of the group luvjOi.
- Alphin's wife, Christiev Carothers, had two sons from a previous marriage: Christopher Carothers and Cameron Carothers, which he takes care of like his own.
- Alphin wrote "Last Dollar (Fly Away)" for Tim McGraw.
- Alphin wrote "Here For the Party" for Gretchen Wilson and "Hicktown" and "Amarillo Sky" for Jason Aldean with John Rich.
- Big Kenny recorded a solo album titled "Live A Little" in 1999.
- Big Kenny is a member of the
Muzik Mafia.
- Big Kenny met John Rich in 1998.
- Moved to Nashville in 1992 to pursue a solo career in country music.
- Big Kenny's nickname is "The Universal Minister of Love".
- Big Kenny is a part of the country duo Big & Rich.
Quotes
- Big Kenny: We love our country, and we love it loud.
- Big Kenny: We realized that there was this whole bunch of us that were making all different kinds of music in different joints in town. We were all writing songs together, no matter what kind of music we were predominantly making, and we wanted to play them more often. So we decided, why don’t we get together one night a week and find us some little place where we can make music and not have to clean up afterwards?
- Big Kenny: When you see somebody who’s got the goods, you want for them not have to go through the same mistakes we had to go through.
- Big Kenny: I watched my dad take guys in off the street. He didn’t have anything to help anybody with, but he’d do whatever he could do to help people out.
- Big Kenny: No matter what, you’re gonna come out the other end and climb a top of a mountain. I’ve definitely felt that heartache enough times that it makes me truly compassionate.
- Big Kenny: Everything that’s happened in my life has guided me to be the person I try to be now. My father’s one of the most incredible people I’ve ever met. He’s a saint by all means, always trying to help his neighbor, anybody that he could.
- Big Kenny: Between raising hell and ‘Amazing Grace’ is that fine line that we’re walking on all the time, trying to live life to its fullest and at the same time knowing that every day of our lives is a blessing. And I feel like, to those given much, much is expected. We’ve gotta reach out there and help those that need our help right now.
- Big Kenny: I think the beauty of the real us shines through, no matter what our bodies are clothed in.
- Big Kenny: (talking about his trademark hat) It’s medium, but it should be extra large, because my cranium is constantly pulsing with imagination and creativity welling up in it. It’s about to explode.
- Big Kenny: I try to put as much energy as I can into it, and I think the label realized it was an opportunity for them. We operate differently. We’re about the art, the creativity. It just so happens that we’re businessmen, too.
- Big Kenny: If I could give anybody a piece of advice, focus all your energy and time on being as great as you can possibly be, and when it gets good enough, everything you have ever wanted will come to you. The mountain will come to Mohammed.
- Big Kenny: It’s harder than I ever imagined. I’ve done nothing but work hard my whole life. I was brought up by the hardest-working man in the world, my father, but it’s even more than you can imagine. We have 65 people out here right now, nine buses, four or five tractor-trailers. It takes such a team of people to pull this off. It’s more than just me and John singing.
- Big Kenny: I just loved doing it. I really enjoy playing music, I enjoy being around creative people, and I really found a home among those kind of people. That continually inspired me. In high school, I got to go to the Virgina Governor’s School for the gifted, and it was one of the most awesome experiences of my life; it brought some of the same sort of thing to me.
- Big Kenny: In Nashville you knock on doors, make demos, and try to get someone to listen to you.
- Big Kenny: It’s 13 years since I started playing in a band, and I haven’t had a job other than that since then. The year after I got to Nashville, I got my first publishing deal, which paid me as a writer and supported me.
- Big Kenny: I’ve been through a lot in my 41 years, through the rise and fall of one career already. I built up quite a bit and then lost it all. But it taught me so much, and if it hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t be sitting here now.
- Big Kenny: I could fix anything or tear apart anything, because it’s a farm, and you have to. You have to keep everything running, everything fed. It taught me so much. It was such a blessing.
- Big Kenny: If these were our children in our neighborhoods, there is no way on earth we would tolerate such blatant abuses of humanity. One by one we’ll grow into a voice that cannot be ignored.
- Big Kenny: No matter where I am, I take advantage of every opportunity to raise awareness of the crisis in Darfur and demand action. I would spend every nickel I could get my hands on to help these people. Darfur is the worst humanitarian crisis on our earth and it is time we did something to stop it – permanently.
- Big Kenny: My parents love me as deeply as possible and have always been behind me and supported me, no matter what. Without their support, I don’t know where I’d be.
