Alan Jackson

During the 1990s, when country music saw its boundaries stretch widely, Alan Jackson maintained the core traditions of the style. His focus lay on tunes suited for taverns and lively honky-tonk numbers, infusing these classic forms with subtle contemporary touches. A series of chart-topping hits followed, beginning with the 1991 release "I'd Love You All Over Again" and encompassing enduring tracks like "Don't Rock the Jukebox," "Chatahoochee," and "Gone Country." In the following decade, he expanded his range by tackling the impacts of 9/11 through "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)" and exploring relaxed tropical sounds via his collaboration with Jimmy Buffett on "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere." Having spent two decades consistently appearing in Billboard's Country Top Ten, he embraced the position of a respected veteran during the 2010s, producing projects like The Bluegrass Album and Precious Memories, Vol. 2, prior to the release of his expansive double album Where Have You Gone in 2021.

Born October 17, 1958, in the small town of Newnan, Georgia, Jackson sang gospel both at church and with relatives at home while performing as half of a local country duo in his teens. He dropped out to take jobs and wed his high school sweetheart Denise, an airline stewardess. Throughout the early 1980s he juggled varied work as a car salesman, construction laborer, and forklift operator at K-Mart, all while gigging with his band Dixie Steel and sharpening his songwriting skills. His major break came when Denise handed country-pop star Glen Campbell a copy of her husband's demo tape while he waited for a flight; Campbell supplied contact details for his publishing company, prompting the Jacksons to relocate to Nashville. The firm advised Alan to spend a year refining his craft, during which he again held miscellaneous positions, including mail-room duties at The Nashville Network and session singing, before securing staff-writer status. Nighttime club performances and a refreshed demo cut with songwriter/producer Keith Stegall led to his becoming the first signing on Arista's newly launched country division in 1989.

Issued in 1990, the debut album Here in the Real World achieved platinum status behind four Top Five singles: the title track, "Chasin' That Neon Rainbow," "Wanted," and the first of Jackson's many number ones, "I'd Love You All Over Again." Superstardom arrived with the 1991 follow-up Don't Rock the Jukebox, whose title song dominated the charts that year. Three additional number ones emerged—"Someday," "Dallas," and "Love's Got a Hold on You"—alongside the signature Top Five narrative "Midnight in Montgomery," which recounted a visit to Hank Williams' grave. Jackson also co-wrote several tracks with Randy Travis for the latter's High Lonesome album. With 1992's A Lot About Livin' (And a Little 'Bout Love), he established himself among both the era's biggest stars and its finest artists; the number one "Chattahoochee" became another signature piece, joined at the summit by "She's Got the Rhythm (And I Got the Blues)," while three further Top Five cuts helped the set claim his first country LP chart-topping position.

Late 1993 brought the stopgap holiday release Honky Tonk Christmas, which favored lesser-known material over standards. Jackson returned in 1994 with Who I Am, his second consecutive number one country album, which yielded four chart-toppers: a cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues," the music-industry satire "Gone Country," "Livin' on Love," and "I Don't Even Know Your Name." Only five years into his career, he released The Greatest Hits Collection in 1995, adding three new hits—a cover of George Jones' "Tall Tall Trees," "I'll Try" (both number ones), and "Home"—and watched the package surpass three million copies within twelve months. Everything I Love, issued in 1996, marked his fourth straight country number one and delivered five Top Ten singles, among them the number ones "Little Bitty," a Tom T. Hall cover, and "There Goes." The 1998 follow-up High Mileage also topped the country chart, reached number four on the pop side—his highest pop placement—and contained four additional Top Tens, including the chart-topping "Right on the Money."

Jackson honored past country favorites on the relaxed 1999 covers set Under the Influence, drawing from Jones, Merle Haggard, Charley Pride, Jimmy Buffett, Hank Williams, Jr., Don Williams (the number one "It Must Be Love"), and Jim Ed Brown (the Top Ten "Pop a Top"), among others. Though Under the Influence narrowly missed the summit, 2000's When Somebody Loves You returned him to number one on the country albums chart and supplied another chart-topper in "Where I Come From." That same year he joined George Strait for the duet "Murder on Music Row," a pointed defense of traditional country against emerging crossover acts.

An enormous success arrived in 2001 with "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)," a moving reflection on the aftermath of September 11; rush-released after an awards-show debut, it soared to the country summit and marked Jackson's first single to reach the pop Top 30. Drive followed in 2002, spawning the number one "Drive (For Daddy Gene)," a tribute to his late father, and became his seventh country chart-topper as well as his first to top the pop albums chart. A second greatest-hits package surfaced in 2003, featuring the crossover hit "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere," a duet with Jimmy Buffett. The well-received What I Do appeared a year later and stood as Jackson's most traditional country album in some time. Precious Memories, released in 2006, gathered fifteen hymns originally taped as a Christmas present for his mother. Later that year he issued Like Red on a Rose, a mellow Alison Krauss production. Live at Texas Stadium, a concert recording with George Strait and Jimmy Buffett, arrived in 2007.

Good Time surfaced in 2008, followed by Freight Train in 2010. After two decades Jackson departed Arista Records Nashville for a distribution arrangement with EMI through his own imprint, Alan's Country Records (ACR). His seventeenth studio album, Thirty Miles West, emerged on ACR in 2012; although it produced no major singles—"Long Way to Go" peaked at 24 and "So You Don't Have to Love Me Anymore" at 25—the set debuted at number one on the Billboard country chart and number two on the Billboard 200. Early in 2013 he delivered his second ACR release, Precious Memories, Vol. 2, a sequel to the 2006 spiritual collection. Later that year came his first bluegrass project, The Bluegrass Album. Two years afterward Jackson returned with Angels and Alcohol, an album of mostly original material produced by Keith Stegall. Following its appearance he marked his twenty-fifth anniversary via the compilation Genuine: The Alan Jackson Story and the Keepin' It Country tour.

Jackson maintained an active live schedule through the latter half of the 2010s yet waited until May 2021 to unveil new material in the form of the double-LP Where Have You Gone.