![\"Hootenanny](\"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/IYB54K73AVDOJCWQMOS4XJABEI.jpg\")
Hootenanny BBQ’s Maylon Jones during filming of a Kingsford Charcoal and University of Alabama online ad. (Photo courtesy Jones family)Photo courtesy Jones family<\/p>\nMaylon Jones didn\u2019t know just exactly what he was applying for. <\/p>\n
His friend Jared Chandler, head chef with local minor league baseball team Rocket City Trash Pandas, tipped him to an online opportunity \u201clooking for chefs for a commercial.\u201d <\/p>\n
The application was mum on details. After applying, Jones, owner of Huntsville based food truck Hootenanny BBQ, got a message he\u2019d made it to the process\u2019 next phase. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn\u2019t tell me who it was for until after I got cast,\u201d Jones recalls. Turned out it was for an online ad\/paid partnership between University of Alabama and Kingsford Charcoal. <\/p>\n
The gameday themed ad is titled \u201cKingsford King of the Tailgate.\u201d It features Jones, further touted as a \u201clifelong Alabama fan and grill master.\u201d <\/p>\n
The footage was filmed four or five months ago at a family member\u2019s Ardmore home. In the video, a bearded Jones is shown decked out in Crimson Tide gear glad and cooking ribs on his custom smoker for family and friends. A few \u201cRoll Tides\u201d are involved, of course. <\/p>\n
In the ad\u2019s voiceover, Jones says, \u201cCommunity and family\u2019s everything to me. The time being spent together over the grill, watching the game, every little detail, it\u2019s a monumental moment for me. We\u2019re doing something every single game that make it feel like a family.\u201d <\/p>\n
At another point in the ad, Jones says, \u201cMan, if I was to describe the taste of Kingsford Charcoal, I\u2019d say that\u2019s America.\u201d <\/p>\n
UA\u2019s social media posting of the clip has garnered more than two million views, Jones says.<\/p>\n
Jones started grilling at the age of 15. His given name is a mashup of Merle, his dad\u2019s name, and Waylon, as in country music legend Waylon Jennings. <\/p>\n
His Hootenanny BBQ started off as a catering side hustle, back when he was employed by a pest control company. He picked the name \u201cHootenanny\u201d out of the dictionary. <\/p>\n
Jones had prior professional kitchen experience. At age 19 or so, he was sous chef at Cullman\u2019s St. Bernard Prep School. At St. Bernard, Jones cooked lamb for Easter, turkey for Thanksgiving and ham for Christmas. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne day,\u201d Jones says, \u201cI tried to cook pork, but it was awful. And then I just got the bug [for grilling] after that. I love the aspect of it\u2019s so hands on, the live fire cooking. It\u2019s a dying craft.\u201d<\/p>\n
Catering demand built to where Jones decided to segue to a food truck. He saved up for a year from his nine-to-five to buy one. <\/p>\n
Early this year, the 31-year-old Cullman native went full-time with Hootenanny BBQ. His wife Mary Jones helps with the business, including making deserts like an Oreo cheesecake cooked on the grill.<\/p>\n
Typically, the Hootenanny BBQ truck\u2019s set up Wednesday through Sunday in the parking lot of Quality First Financial, address 30105 Ardmore Ave., in Ardmore. <\/p>\n
They go from 11 a.m. to \u201cwhenever we sell out,\u201d says Jones, He adds, \u201cWe have sold out every time.\u201d On social media you can find them at facebook.com\/hootenannybbq.<\/p>\n
Salt and pepper are the only seasonings used on Hootenanny\u2019s proteins, which are smoked with oak and peach wood. <\/p>\n
\u201cOak because it burns hot,\u201d Jones says. \u201cPeach because it\u2019s a very subtle sweet smoke.\u201d <\/p>\n
Jones says for him the magic of grilling over charcoal \u201cis consistency. if you know how to use charcoal correctly. And the flavor profile that charcoal gives versus gas [grilling] is second to none. For example, Jack Daniel\u2019s Whiskey is filtered through charcoal, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
For Jones, grilling with charcoal, \u201cjust elevates the flavor profile of everything. You take a cheap hot dog, and you grill it over some charcoal, it just makes it better.\u201d <\/p>\n
In addition to ribs, go-to Hootenanny BBQ items entrees include brisket nachos. Baked beans is their signature side. <\/p>\n
What makes these beans special? Jones says, \u201cThe meat is cooked over the baked beans right on a rack, so we catch all the drippings from that fat, and we put it in our beans.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he\u2019s cooking, Jones might have some Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd or AC\/DC tunes playing. Away from the grill, his interests include deep-sea fishing and Asian cuisine. <\/p>\n
Hootenanny BBQ’s Maylon Jones during filming of a Kingsford Charcoal and University of Alabama online ad. (Photo courtesy Jones family)Photo courtesy Jones family<\/p>\n
Los Angeles venture Sawhorse Productions created the Kingsford\/Bama ad. Although it\u2019s running time is just minutes, the shoot lasted more than eight hours. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you notice, it [the finished ad] starts in the daytime and ends at night,\u201d Jones says. \u201cFilming is very repetitive, and you feel silly repeating yourself over and over, but it was pretty cool to see it all come together. I was proud of how well it turned out.\u201d <\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t Jones first brush with showbiz. He says he was a \u201ccovert backup\u201d for Netflix cooking competition show \u201cBarbecue Showdown.\u201d Now with experience from the Kingsford\/Bama ad, he hopes to make a future season of the show.<\/p>\n
On fall Saturdays, Jones can often be found cooking for the local youth football league at Ardmore\u2019s Cooper Field. \u201cI get just as much satisfaction out of that,\u201d Jones says, \u201cas I did doing the commercial.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maylon Jones didn\u2019t know just exactly what he was applying for. His friend Jared Chandler, head chef with local minor league baseball team Rocket City Trash Pandas, tipped him to an online opportunity \u201clooking for chefs for a commercial.\u201d The application was mum on details. After applying, Jones, owner of Huntsville based food truck Hootenanny<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[4247,4245,4243,4246,4244],"class_list":["post-78059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alabama","tag-alabama","tag-alabama-dining","tag-alabama-food","tag-alabama-grocery-stores","tag-alabama-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117562017217522375","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}