In Birmingham, they love the governor.
And in Montgomery, they love the song enough to dish out some big bucks to use it to promote the state.
In a move raising some eyebrows, Alabama has agreed to a five-year deal to pay $75,000 to Universal Music to use Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” song title on state line and welcome center signs, according to the Associated Press.
Alabama will pay an additional $61,000 to make the signs.
Not everyone in the cash-strapped state is thrilled by the expenditure.
It’s amazing how we magically have the $$ for this crap,but not to give our Educators a pay raise . Alabama pays… http://t.co/Lv7fARm8Ob
— Michele (@seachele420) July 25, 2014
And one Alabama radio host raises a fair question about Universal Music, which owns the trademark.
Why don’t we charge Universal Records 75K for using the word Alabama and call it even? http://t.co/ZvLeH0hiie
— Sean Sullivan (@fmtalk1065) July 23, 2014