After a slow start in the 1980s Alan Jackson achieved huge critical and commercial success in the 1990s by blending a traditional, honky-tonk style with more contemporary influences. One of country music’s most acclaimed performers and songwriters, he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2001.
Alan Eugene Jackson was born October 17, 1958, in Newnan to Ruth and Eugene Jackson. When he was sixteen his parents bought him a $50 guitar, and at seventeen he made his first public performance in a high school production of Oklahoma. After dropping out of school, he worked a series of blue-collar jobs, started his own band, Dixie Steel, and became a frequent performer at local clubs. He and his wife, Denise, were married in 1979 and have three children, Mattie, Alexandra, and Dani.
In 1985 a chance encounter proved to be a turning point in Jackson’s career. His wife, a flight attendant, met country star Glen Campbell at an airport. He listened to Jackson’s tape and suggested a move to Nashville, Tennessee, where Jackson became a staff songwriter at Glen Campbell Music.
Jackson then had a string of number-one hit songs and country music awards. His 1992 album A Lot about Livin’ (And a Little ’bout Love) generated five hit singles, including “Chattahoochee” and “Mercury Blues.” He released Honky Tonk Christmas in 1993, Who I Am in 1994, and greatest-hits collections in 1995 and in 2003. His other albums include,s Everything I Love (1996), High Mileage (1998), Under the Influence (1999), When Somebody Loves You (2000), Let It Be Christmas (2002), and What I Do (2004). Jackson also contributed to Crank It Up (1996), a comedy album by Georgia native Jeff Foxworthy.
Since then Jackson has had a string of number-one hit songs and country music awards. His 1992 album A Lot about Livin’ (And a Little ’bout Love) generated five hit singles, including “Chattahoochee” and “Mercury Blues.” He released Honky Tonk Christmas in 1993, Who I Am in 1994, and greatest-hits collections in 1995 and in 2003. His other albums include, Everything I Love (1996), High Mileage (1998), Under the Influence (1999), When Somebody Loves You (2000), Let It Be Christmas (2002), and What I Do (2004). Jackson also contributed to Crank It Up (1996), a comedy album by Georgia native Jeff Foxworthy.
After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., Jackson penned “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning),” which became his twenty-ninth number-one song and a poignant anthem of the times, spending five weeks at the top of the charts and winning Jackson three Academy of Country Music awards as well as a Grammy Award for Best Country Song. Its lyrics were entered into the U.S. Congressional Record, and it was featured on his eleventh album, Drive (2002).
In 2010 Jackson released his sixteenth studio album, Freight Train, and a compilation album entitled 34 Number Ones, celebrating the twentieth anniversary of his debut album. The 2010 albums were the last two produced under his partnership with Arista Nashville. In early 2011 Jackson announced a joint deal between his own production company, Alan’s Country Records, and Capitol Records. Under that partnership Jackson went on to release Thirty Miles West (2012), Precious Memories Volume II (2013), The Bluegrass Album (2013), and Angels and Alcohol (2015), his twentieth studio album. He released his twenty-first studio album, Where Have You Gone, six years later.
Jackson’s musical achievements have since been honored in many ways, including additional anniversary records, numerous nominations and awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
