Hinton had joined some former FAME players known as the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (or 'the Swampers') who split off from Hall and started their own studio, Muscle Shoals Sound, in Sheffield.
Hornsby and Sandlin worked at Rick Hall's FAME Studios (Florence Alabama Music Enterprises) and from there went to Capricorn Records in Macon, Ga. Hinton, Sandlin and Hornsby all spent time working as session players in Muscle Shoals. Two of the members of the group, drummer Johnny Sandlin and keyboardist Paul Hornsby, would join Duane and Gregg Allman in the Hour Glass and later go on to success as record producers. He formed the Five Minutes, also known as Five Men-Its, who quickly garnered regional recognition. Hinton's parents divorced in 1949, and he and his mother moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where his mother later remarried. Hinton was born in Jacksonville, Florida, on June 15, 1944, to Laura Deanie and Horton C.
