Sweet Home Alabama is a short film that was written in reply to Neil Young's song Alabama.
`` Sweet Home Alabama '' is a song by Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd that first appeared in 1974 on their second album , Second Helping . The song was written in reply to `` Southern Man '' and `` Alabama '' by Neil Young ; Young is name-checked in the song 's lyrics . Sweet Home Alabama is a 2002 American romantic comedy film directed by Andy Tennant , starring Reese Witherspoon , Josh Lucas , Patrick Dempsey and Candice Bergen .