Most Hated Songs #6: "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynryd

At the top of the Rock and Roll Hell category is my most-hated song #6, "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynryd Skynyrd. This song is the Redneck National Anthem and the pinnacle of hillbilly rock music. It gets played at least once an hour on classic rock stations, and it is guaranteed to be included on the soundtrack of any movie set in the American south.

I've lived in southeast Missouri all my life, which is a strange place geographically. It's not technically "The South," but it has a lot of the elements you would expect. At the same time, I was raised by a mother from St. Louis via Nebraska, so I've always had a Yankee mentality. Having said that, just about everything Southern Rock celebrates about the South is repugnant to me, so I not only hate this song, I hate the entire genre and the hillbilly culture it represents.

I'd rather: break up a bar fight between Alabama and Auburn fans the night before the Iron Bowl than ever have to listen to this song again (although practically speaking, it's what's playing at the bar during the fight).

Dante's Inferno Level Seven: eternity running a hot dog cart in the Bronx for these good ole southern boys.

Listen instead to: Third Day, contemporary Christian music's answer to southern rock.