Draw custom Alpha buffer?

I'm working on a opengl-based gui system. I'm now trying to draw text. I realize there is a ** about this in the faq, but my approach is a bit different. I have my own custom buffer of glyphs(GL_BYTE *) that I want to use. I have considered using glDrawPixels for this, but the problem is that, according to the opengl reference, if I use GL_ALPHA it sets the R,G and B components to 0.0. I want this to be a custom color.