He’s just a singer of simple songs who is now an inductee to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Newnan Georgia’s favorite son Alan Jackson was introduced as one of the 3 men who will join the Hall later this year, along with the late Jerry Reed, and songwriter Don Schlitz. Alan has made some of the most memorable country songs ever to be introduced to the format–35 of them reaching number-one. Alan is a 16 time CMA Award winner, including 3 Entertainer Of The Year trophies, and 18 ACM Awards, including 3 Album Of The Year, and 3 Male Vocalist Of The Year awards, plus he was the Top New Male Vocalist for 1990 at the ACMs.   Of his music, Alan says  “I’ve always had that mixture of songs. From love songs to heartaches to family type songs and the fun party songs, drinking songs. I played in the bar for years and you had to play that stuff and I liked it anyway.” Alan also realized with every song he sang he was building upon a tradition of music “Hank Williams Sr. would write a party song, then write a crying song, and then he’d have a gospel song out. I think it’s all the themes that represent country music, and I’ve had my share of all of them.” Whether it was singing autobiographical songs like “Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow,” or “Drive (For Daddy Gene)” or summer time anthems like “Chattahoochee,” or “It’s Five O’ Clock Somewhere,” or a song that helped many make sense of a senseless situation like he did with “Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)” Alan was always one to make sure the past, present and future of country music was well tended to “To me, my albums and what I write and sing about has always been kinda from this side of country music to the other. That’s what country music to me is. It’s all those things. It’s hurting songs, cheatin’ songs, drinking songs, almost religious type songs and just everything fits right in there. It’s the way country music has always been.” Congratulations to Alan Jackson, and the other 2017 country music inductees…it’s time to sit back and have a drink…cause it’s Five O’ Clock somewhere.

  Alan Jackson talks about his music. (:62)
“I’ve always had that mixture of songs. From love songs to heartaches to family type songs and the fun party songs, drinking songs. I played in the bar for years and you had to play that stuff and I liked it anyway. I grew up on Hank Jr. stuff and that was the ultimate party country stuff and that’s what I loved. To me, my albums and what I write and sing about has always been kinda from this side of country music to the other. That’s what country music to me is. It’s all those things. It’s hurting songs, cheatin’ songs, drinking songs, almost religious type songs and just everything fits right in there. It’s the way country music has always been. Hank Williams Sr. would write a party song then write a crying song and then he’d have a gospel song out. I think it’s all the themes that represent country music and I’ve had my share of all of them.”

  Alan Jackson talks about “Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)” (:47)
“At the time it was very meaningful to people and I felt really good about contributing something and I thought it would just fade away and lease it out of the show. Now, I see people out there that I feel like are waiting on that song. I think it’s more than just the 9/11 connection. I mean the real hook in it is just quotes out of the bible, anyway. It’s one of my biggest songs in the show and it’s hard to follow it. I see so many that are holding up them lighters and are glad to hear it and I think are moved by it and glad I did it. I’ve heard so many stories back during that time that it was happening where people say ‘Oh, they quit their job and they changed their lifestyles and started going to church and found somebody marry’ . . . (laughs). It’s just like all these things that effect . . . big changes.”

  Alan Jackson says that “Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow” has a lot of autobiographical elements in it. (:37)
“You’re always chasing that but, I think I’ve caught a hold of the tail of it.  That was written before I had a record deal. Jim McBride and I wrote that and we took a lot of that stuff right out of my life. That’s all that is. The opening line is ‘Daddy won a radio.’ When I was about 5 he worked for the Pepsi-Cola plant, where they bottled Pepsi. They had an employee thing and he won a radio. It was an old, big wooden . . . I think it was a Filco radio or whatever it was. When that sing was a hit, he dug that ol’ radio up and gave it to me. Anyway, that whole song is just the struggles of trying to get started and the dream . . . chasing that dream.”

  Alan Jackson shares the story of how one of his biggest hits, “Don’t Rock The Jukebox,” was inspired. (:68)
“We were just playing bars and things . . . playing in a truck stop. They always had a lounge and they would book a band in there. I used to play some of the truck stop lounge and we would play up in Virginia. It was the first night and you always get load in and play and then you take a break and then you just kinda checking things out there in the club. We were kinda . . . I walked over to the jukebox and my bass player, Roger Wills, he was over there looking to see what they had on the jukebox and I walked over there and leaned up on the edge of that thing and one of the legs wasn’t broken off but there was something wrong with it so things thing was kinda wobblin’ around and Roger said ‘Don’t rock the jukebox’ and I said ‘Bam! There’s that song’. That’s where it came from. You never know where those song ideas will pop up. Always loved the video, had George Jones in it because it mentions him in the song and then we got one of my favorite Andy Griffith characters in it, Otis. Hal Smith played Otis the drunk on Andy Griffith and came and played his part on that video. That was such a big deal for me to have him there. He wore the same jacket and hat that he wore in those episodes in the 60’s. That’s always been a fun song.”

  Alan Jackson’s number-one hit “Drive (For Daddy Gene)” touched on Alan’s past, and his present, and still impacts him today. (:31)
“When I sing that thing at night on stage and I talk about that boat and that truck . . . I’m a very visual person. I visualize everything. And every time I’m singing that I’m visualizing driving that boat on Lake Martin in Alabama because that was just such a big part of my childhood. Us going over there. That boat was the one that I spent most of my young years in and it made such an impression on me.  Then the same way when I get to that last verse and I’m singing about my daughters and that song is always gonna have a special place there, forever.”

  Alan Jackson talks about his duet with Jimmy Buffett, “It’s Five O’ Clock Somewhere.” (:18)
“Another one as soon as you kick it off, everybody’s ready to have a good time. We had talked about doing a song together but we had run in to each other and as soon as I heard it I thought ‘Man . . . that song you gotta do with Jimmy if he wants to do it’. That’d be perfect and can’t believe it hadn’t already been at hit. It’s five o’clock somewhere. Everybody’s said that a million times, you know.”