A Tennessee football fan favorite and the source of exhaustion for opponents, the song ‘Rocky Top’ is a staple at Vol football games. The song features the phrase “down in the Tennessee hills” and features the word “Tennessee” eight times, while mentioning no other state. So, obviously, it’s a song written about the Volunteer State. Right?
According to an Alabama radio show, The Next Round, they somehow don’t believe that’s the case. Their source on the matter is a summit in North Carolina along the border of Tennessee that is named ‘Rocky Top’. There’s no mention or insinuation in the song that it’s about any specific location, though.
“Good Ol’ Rocky Top is not even in freaking Tennessee!,” a host said on The Next Round. “… Take your Dixieland Delight and smoke that.”
The origin of the song, written by Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, dates back to 1967 when the married couple was working at The Gatlinburg Inn in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
For the Tennessee fans who want to claim the right to sing “Dixieland Delight”…
ROCKY TOP ISN’T EVEN IN TENNESSEE! pic.twitter.com/tefXoPEF2C
— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) October 15, 2025
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The subject on The Next Round that brought this up was the Alabama-based show defending ‘Dixieland Delight’ as a song about Alabama and not Tennessee, like Vol fans like to claim. The song ‘Dixieland Delight’ mentions “Tennessee” five times and never once says anything about “Alabama”. Tide fans claim the song because the band that wrote it is titled ‘Alabama’, though.
Ronnie Rogers, who wrote the song, said in an interview that it was inspired by the town of Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee, and the idea came to him while driving on U.S. Route 11W within the state of Tennessee.
“For those that don’t know, Tennessee fans claim that Dixieland Delight is a ‘Tennessee Saturday night’, they think it’s a Tennessee song,” a host said on The Next Round. “It was sung by the band Alabama. There’s a river called the Tennessee River that runs through Alabama that those guys were growing up on. It’s a Tennessee Saturday night on the river. Whatever you want to do fighting for the rights of Dixieland Delight. Other teams love to sing it at Alabama after they – especially Tennessee after they beat Alabama. They don’t get the chance to sing it in Tuscaloosa; they just get to do it in Knoxville every now and then. Not as many times as they would like.”
Tennessee and Alabama will meet on the football field this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC. The Vols are looking for their first win in Tuscaloosa under Josh Heupel, though he is 2-2 all-time against the Tide. He is also 1-0 against current Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer.
