In 1978, The Swampers moved from the building at 3614 Jackson Highway to a larger sound studio. By the 1990s, the small building where huge hits were created became dilapidated.
Dick Cooper, former curator for the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, who was also once an assistant to Swampers keyboardist Barry Beckett, told the Alabama Newscenter, "There really is nothing else like it, anywhere. The fact that a studio this small turned out so much great music is phenomenal, and it's all because of the people who were involved. This is the most amazingly creative workshop atmosphere I've seen. This building is so special. It really needed to be preserved."
Luckily, music moguls Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine felt the same way. According to David Hood's wife, Judy Hood, who is the chairperson of the Muscle Shoals Music Foundation, Iovine and Dr. Dre saw the "Muscle Shoals" documentary and called that very night to say they were so "captivated by the story." Judy Hood told the Alabama Newscenter that they formed a philanthropic sect of their company Beats Electronics, which would restore run-down yet iconic music studios to their former glory.
Their first project was the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, which is now refurbished with much of the original instruments and made to look the way it did in The Swampers heyday. "We will be forever indebted to Beats Electronics because they made it possible for The Swampers to come home again," Judy Hood said.
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