Songfacts®:

• Written by Charley Stefl, Tony Ramey, Skip Sasser and Trent Tomlinson, this is one of two new tracks (with "All American") included on Alabama & Friends, an album of the band's classics performed with contemporary country artists. "That's How I Was Raised" is a celebration of traditional values that see the narrator through tough times:
  
  I've read the Bible, I've cursed the land
  Done the worst and the best I can
  But I get up when I fall from grace
  'cause that's how I was raised.
• Randy Owen considers this a special song because it reminds him of his own upbringing. He told Tempus magazine: "My Grandma and Pap Paw Teague sang gospel music, and that side of my family always sang in church. My daddy's side sang in church, too, but they also sang country music and bluegrass. It was a little bit different style of living on my daddy's side, but my daddy taught me he was a lot better person than I'll ever be."
• Owen couldn't resist putting a few of his own touches on the lyrics. He said in a No Depression interview "I put a couple lines in there. Hopefully the writer didn't get mad. 'The old rugged Cross and college football, that's how I was raised.' I don't remember what they had in there to start with, but… You sing that song to an audience no matter where you are, they get it right off. College football is part of the fiber of our country and it's certainly part of our fiber. We're from Alabama, that's all we know how to do is play football and we're pretty good at it."