Friends drive themselves nuts playing ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ for 7 hours on road trip
By Lauren Victory
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CHICAGO (WBBM) — Summer break is finally here. No more essays or exams. Yet there’s one task some Illinois students were eager to complete.
CBS 2 Morning Insider Lauren Victory takes us inside their extra special group project.
Masking tape in hand, Robert Carpenter worried about his dashboard cameras falling.
“Sam, be careful bro!!! We got the setup,” he says with his cell phone and a Go Pro rolling.
Kids these days like to record the crazy things they do.
“We were intending to do a road trip regardless, and I figured might as well do something with YouTube and social media while we do the road trip,” said Carpenter, 20.
He announced his plan in a recent YouTube video.
“Alright guys, we are about to be starting the challenge where we literally drive from Illinois to Alabama listening to ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ the entire way,” he says in the recording posted to his more than 1,000 followers.
The popular Lynyrd Skynyrd song played for seven hours on repeat.
“I figured it out. It was around 94 times,” said Jacob Hove of the total amount of times they heard those lyrics. “Probably about the last two hours, I started getting a headache, and then I just starting losing it. I couldn’t comprehend that I’m still doing this.”
Carpenter added, “It’s just such a ridiculous thing. No one would do that in their right mind. It makes zero sense.”
So why do it? To capture on video and share hilarious moments like when Hove spotted the sign at the Alabama border.
“Yes!” He screams on the video. “Turn it off! Push the button! Turn it all off!”
The boys ended by posing with the actual “Sweet Home Alabama” sign.
“Everyone said it was stupid, and it was, but we did it,” Carpenter said in the video.
Some snippets of their trip are posted to TikTok, where Carpenter has 165,000 followers.
“It was very interesting. I probably won’t do it again,” driver Sam Frankovich told CBS 2.
What Frankovich would repeat: a trip with his old Boy Scout buddies. The childhood friends hit Texas and few other spots before heading home to Illinois.
Hove banned his comrades from playing “Sweet Home Alabama” on the way back.
Our CBS 2 story was supposed to end there, but we reached out to the Lynyrd Skynyrd to see what they thought about the Alabama adventure on repeat and we heard back.
“Oh my God. Seven hours?! Seven hours of Sweet Home Alabama?! I don’t think I could do that. Guys, Johnny Van Zant from Lynyrd Skynyrd. You guys are nuts,” said the band’s singer in a video sent to CBS 2 for the boys.
Lynyrd Skynyrd is officially back on tour and invited Carpenter, Hove and Frankovich to a show with a promise.
“We only play ‘Sweet Home Alabama once a night,” Van Zant said.
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