Jeff Foxworthy headlines his ‘sacred place’

Legendary Alpharetta stand-up comic Jeff Foxworthy has a deep, abiding love for the Fabulous Fox Theatre, a sacred place where he saw Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers, Jimmy Buffett and Harry Chapin in concert as a teenager and young man.

And since he became a big star in the 1980s, he has also headlined the Fox himself at least 10 times and will return again April 18 as part of the 40th anniversary of the “Save the Fox” campaign. At the time, the theater was in bad financial shape and Southern Bell was ready to raze it when the Atlanta community united to buy the Fox back and reopen it.

“I try not to do too many shows there because it’s so special to me,” said Foxworthy, who was a teenager at the time of the “Save the Fox” campaign. “Every time I’m there, I get excited. It’s like my Fenway Park, a sacred place. It’s my favorite theater.”

The last time he performed there, Foxworthy said he purchased a whopping 600 tickets out of his own pocket for friends and family. “I’m losing twice,” he said. “I’m not only not selling the seat but I’m paying for it! And I still had people mad at me who didn’t make the cut.”

His wife, Pamela Gregg, persuaded him to scale back his generosity. This time around, he’s buying only 200 tickets for his kin and buddies.

Foxworthy said he’s been on a creative roll the past year after he was sidelined for several months with a bad disc in his neck. He came up with a concept that is along the lines of his classic “You might be a redneck if …” jokes.

In this case, it’s how technology has made his daughters think they don’t have to know anything because they could just Google it. So he now has so-called “facts of life” that his kids cannot Google.

For instance:

“Your wife can have long, beautiful hair or you can be on time. You can’t have both!”

“If you’re trying to go to the bathroom in an emergency situation, it’s not a wise idea to unbutton your pants before you get there to save a couple of seconds because the muscles might interpret that as a signal to abandon all posts. Two seconds of time savings turns into an hour and a half of mopping and laundry.”

If those types of jokes don’t excite you, Foxworthy said he always does a few “redneck” jokes, his comedic equivalent of “Freebird.” “There might be a coup if I didn’t,” he said.

The good news is he has literally thousands of “redneck” jokes to choose from in his brain. For 25 years, he has sold a daily “redneck” joke calendar and has compiled a database to ensure he never repeats the same joke. That’s more than 9,000 redneck cracks. “It’s bottomless!” he said.

On another “Fox” topic, Foxworthy is also thrilled that Fox Network has revived “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader,” a hit game show from 2007 to 2011 (including a brief run in syndication.). It returns this summer and Foxworthy was relieved when Fox asked him to host again. “That’s my show,” he said with pride. “That’s my baby.”

For more of Rodney Ho’s interview with Jeff Foxworthy, go to the Radio and TV Talk blog on ajc.com.