If there is one tradition at UT that usurps the Power T, checkerboard overalls and bright orange Solo cups, it is the catchy chorus of “Rocky Top.”
The words are unmistakable — especially when they soar over Neyland Stadium at every game guided by the band’s brassy tempo and brought to life by 100,000 fans belting the lyrics at the top of their lungs.
But before the Pride of the Southland played a single note, “Rocky Top” was nothing but a feel-good, “fluke” tune, written on the floor of Room 388 at the Gatlinburg Inn by songwriting pioneers Boudleaux and Felice Bryant.
The year was 1967 and the husband and wife duo had slammed headfirst into a classic case of writer’s block. Confined to their tiny hotel room, Felice finally decided to break from the original assignment, a “Golden Years” album for the hit television comedy “Hee Haw.”
“My mother was feeling so depressed, because all the songs were about old people, and she wanted something upbeat,” said Del Bryant, son of the songwriting pair and grand marshal of this year’s homecoming parade.
What emerged is now the stuff of musical legend.
In approximately 10 minutes, the lyrics had been penned and blended into a melody which became a calling card for any and all Volunteers.
Weeks later at the Bryants’ home in Hendersonville, Tennessee, Sonny Osborne of the Osborne Brothers picked up the song mid-performance, interrupting Boudleaux halfway through.
“I don’t need to hear anymore. I’ll take it!” Osborne exclaimed.
On Christmas Day of 1967, the Osborne Brothers debuted “Rocky Top” as a bluegrass hit on the radio, launching the song into international fame.
Forty-seven years later, Bryant has heard his parents’ song covered in an array of genres including pop, reggae, country and hip-hop.
But when Brian Hardy, director of development at UT, asked if Del Bryant, the former CEO and President of Broadcast Music Inc., would be the grand marshal at the 2014 Homecoming Parade, it was clear “Rocky Top” was not only an anthem to rally game-day morale.
“Somehow it has lent itself into the very heart of the university’s experience. I don’t know how that happened,” Bryant said. “It’s alchemy. It’s magic. They are few and far between, but there are certain experiences like that, and this is one of them. And my family was so proud to be a part of it and to be part of something bigger than them.
“It’s now part of the ethos, the spirit and the heart of the school.”
This “magic” was first introduced to campus on Oct. 21, 1972, by the Pride of the Southland Band as part of a medley of songs during a home game against the University of Alabama.
“Once that happened, Del’s family and the University of Tennessee became forever linked,” Hardy said. “And then one of the things his dad was most proud of in his career was the fact that ‘Rocky Top’ meant as much as it did to the state of Tennessee and the citizens of Tennessee and then obviously the university.”
With the support of legendary UT band director W.J. Julian and then-governor Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee General Assembly voted to adopt “Rocky Top” as the fifth official state song on Feb. 15, 1982.
“It was a very close vote because many people in Tennessee are either Vanderbilt or UT fans,” Del Bryant said. “Some people thought it was just promoting the university, some thought it was a song bootlegging, some thought it was a drinking song.”
Despite initial reservations about the lyrical message, Del Bryant celebrated at the party that night as the governor and his parents sang an acoustic version of “Rocky Top” in celebration of the song’s ascension to official status.
But the song wouldn’t confine its legacy to the musical realm.
House of Bryant, a publishing company owned by Del and brother Dane, struck a contractual partnership with UT in 2005 to extend the copyright use of “Rocky Top” to UT merchandise and to an organization known as the Rocky Top Institute under the Department of Retail, Hospitality, and Tourism Management.
“The value is that it provides an educational opportunity for our students,” Hardy said. “They are able to do real work in terms of being able to market research on what kinds of products to develop, and then figure a product they want to have produced and bring to market and actually see it get on the shelves of a store.”
In addition to these applicable business skills, the Rocky Top Institute’s profits are funneled into three benefactors: House of Bryant, retail, hospitality and tourism management and discretionary dollars for UT Band Scholarships.
In this way, “Rocky Top” has adopted its own spirit of volunteerism in giving back to its fan base.
“I think ‘Rocky Top’ is as synonymous with the University of Tennessee as Peyton Manning is,” Hardy said. “And maybe even more so, just wherever you go, anywhere in the world and you say ‘University of Tennessee,’ people think of the orange, the checkerboard and they think ‘Rocky Top.’ That’s what we’re known for.”
Robert Ridge, freshman in math and physics, is one band member who revels in the “Rocky Top” legacy as a “slice of history” and looks forward to the impending celebration Friday.
“[It] reminds us of our longing for our Tennessee home and that alone is quite special to us,” Ridge said. “Knowing the grand marshal has a personal connection to the song will bring a lot of meaning to the parade. Every note of the song will be a reflection on history and even more so for the man who lived it. I think it’s really important to honor that history this year more than ever.”
Yet Del Bryant insists the heart of “Rocky Top” lies in its third verse, often forgotten by UT’s orange-clad crowds: “I’ve had years of cramped-up city life/ Trapped like a duck in a pen/ All I know is it’s a pity life/ Can’t be simple again.”
“It’s the nostalgic plea for simple times that really resonates with everybody,” Del Bryant said. “There’s a longing there that is not quite sad, still a happy tempo, but that is what resonates with people and what the core of the song is about.”
