SHE SAID ONE LINE — AND IT BECAME A LOVE SONG FOR THE AGES It happened on a warm Georgia night in 1981, long after the crowd had drifted home. Randy Owen stepped outside the venue just to breathe, the air still buzzing with heat and music. Then he saw her — a girl in a denim jacket, sitting on the tailgate of a pickup, softly humming one of Alabama’s songs like it was a secret she was keeping close. She looked up, smiled, and said one simple line that stopped him in his tracks: “Your music makes falling in love feel like a crime.” Randy laughed, but something in her voice stayed with him. Hours later, somewhere on the quiet road to Birmingham, he opened his notebook and wrote: “I once thought of love as a prison…” That moment became “Love in the First Degree” — a song born not from heartbreak, but from surrender… and one stranger’s unforgettable truth. 💛
Introduction She spoke just one line—and it would eventually blossom into a love song that stood the test of time.…