Alan Jackson is the quintessential laid-back country boy and his music reflects it. Since the late 80’s he has nestled himself into the domain of traditional country artists in Nashville by combining both honky tonk and mainstream country. It is a sound that has earned him major industry recognition, winning seven ACM’s, thirteen CMA’s and one lone Grammy.
Alan Jackson's Early Years
On October 17, 1958 Alan was born in Newnan, Georgia to Eugene Jackson and Ruth Musick. Alan was their fifth child, having four older sisters. Growing up he listened to gospel music until a friend introduced him to the music of Gene Watson, John Anderson and Hank Williams Jr. He got married on December 15, 1979 to his high school sweetheart Denise.
They are the proud parents of three daughters, Mattie, Alexandra (Ali), and Dani. After six years of working several different jobs, including as a car salesman, construction worker and a forklift operator at K-Mart, he and Denise moved to Nashville.
Alan Jackson's Music Career
His first job in Nashville was in the mailroom of The Nashville Network. He caught his big break when Denise met Glen Campbell while he was waiting for a flight and gave him Alan’s demo. In 1987 he released his first album on Americana Records called "New Traditional" but the album got hardly any recognition and soon drifted into obscurity.
In 1989 he was the first artist to sign to Arista’s country division and later that year he released his second album "Here In the Real World". Throughout the 90’s Alan released another eight albums including a greatest hits album in 1995. In this time he also gained his reputation as a songwriter, writing songs for Randy Travis, Clay Walker, Chely Wright and Faith Hill.
Standing Up For Traditional Country Music
In 2000 Alan and George Strait fought back against the change to pop infused country by recording the song "Murder on Music Row." The song was never released but it became the highest charting album cut to appear on the Hot Country singles charts in the Broadcast Data Systems era and later that year they opened the ACM awards with the song.
Where Were You
The next year at the CMA’s Alan Jackson debuted his biggest song yet, the September 11th tribute "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)". The song was never meant to be released but after the live performance gained plenty of airplay, the song was released to radio and became and anthem for a mourning nation. Because of the success of the song Alan set a record for the most nominations in a single year with ten.
The Past Decade
Since 2000 he has released another seven studio albums including a live album with George Strait and Jimmy Buffet. The latest album "Good Time" was released in March of 2008 and went to number one on the Billboard Country Album charts. The album produced three number one singles, "Small Town Southern Man", "Good Time" and "Country Boy" as well as "Sissy's Song" which peaked at number nine and "I Still Like Bologna" which only made it to number thirty-two.
He is also the subject of Denise’s best selling book "It’s All About Him: Finding the Love of My Life" (2007) that tells of their relationship together. He is already working on his next album that will be released in March 2010 and the first single from the album will be a track called "It's Just That Way".
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