Alan Eugene Jackson (born October 17, 1958) is an American retired country singer-songwriter. He is known for performing a style widely regarded as "neotraditional country", as well as writing many of his own songs. Jackson has recorded twenty-one studio albums, including two Christmas albums and two gospel albums, and he released three greatest-hits albums. Jackson is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold over 75 million records worldwide, with 44 million sold in the United States alone.
He has had sixty-six songs appear on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, thirty-five of which claimed the number one spot. Out of fifteen titles to reach the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, nine have been certified multi-Platinum. He is the recipient of two Grammy Awards, sixteen Country Music Association (CMA) Awards, and seventeen Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards. He is a member of the Grand Ole Opry, and was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2001. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2017 by Loretta Lynn and into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018.
Jackson is known for songs such as "Chattahoochee", "Livin' on Love", "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)", "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere", and "Remember When". He held his final concert on June 27, 2026, because of his Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease.
Jackson was born to Joseph Eugene "Daddy Gene" Jackson (1927–2000) and Ruth Musick "Mama Ruth" Jackson (1930–2017) in Newnan, Georgia, and has four older sisters. He and his immediate family lived in a small home built around his grandfather's old toolshed. The family is primarily of English descent. His mother lived in the home until her death on January 7, 2017. He began writing music in 1983.
Growing up, Jackson listened primarily to gospel music, until a friend introduced him to Gene Watson, John Anderson, and Hank Williams Jr. Jackson attended the local Elm Street Elementary and Newnan High School, and joined the band Dixie Steel after graduation. Jackson worked as a construction worker and forklift operator while playing in small clubs across Georgia. When he was 27, Jackson and his wife of six years, Denise, moved from Newnan to Nashville, Tennessee, where he hoped to pursue music full-time. In 1987, Jackson cut a pre-debut demo album titled New Traditional at Doc's Place in Hendersonville, Tennessee, but it is extremely rare and was released only in Japan.
In Tennessee, Jackson got his first job in The Nashville Network's mailroom and would sit in the audience during tapings of TNN's You Can Be a Star, a television singing competition featuring celebrity judges. On an episode in 1986, then 27-year-old Jackson was plucked from the audience and asked to sing a song as an outro to a commercial break. Jackson sang "He Stopped Loving Her Today" by George Jones, earning a round of applause from the audience, and the attention of guest judge and singer-songwriter Keith Stegall. Stegall would eventually produce nineteen of Jackson's albums.
Around this time, Jackson's wife Denise, a flight attendant, encountered Glen Campbell on a flight, and requested advice for her husband. Campbell handed her the business card of his manager and told her to call, which further helped jumpstart his career. Jackson eventually signed with Arista, and in 1989, he became the first artist signed to the newly formed Arista Nashville branch of Arista Records. Arista released Jackson's debut single, "Blue Blooded Woman", in late 1989. Although the song failed to reach the Top 40 on the Hot Country Songs chart, he reached number 3 by early 1990 with "Here in the Real World". This song served as the title track to his debut album, Here in the Real World, which also included two more top five hits ("Wanted" and "Chasin' That Neon Rainbow") and his first number one, "I'd Love You All Over Again". Don't Rock the Jukebox was the title of Jackson's second album. Released in 1991, it included four number-one singles: the title track, "Someday", "Dallas" and "Love's Got a Hold on You", and the number three "Midnight in Montgomery". Jackson also co-wrote several songs on Randy Travis' 1991 album High Lonesome.
A Lot About Livin' (And a Little 'bout Love), his third album, accounted for the number one hits "She's Got the Rhythm (And I Got the Blues)" (which Randy Travis co-wrote) and "Chattahoochee", plus the top five hits "Tonight I Climbed the Wall", "Mercury Blues" and "(Who Says) You Can't Have It All". "Chattahoochee" also won him the 1994 Country Music Association (CMA) awards for Single and Song of the Year. In 1994, Jackson left his management company, Ten Ten Management, which had overseen his career up to that point, and switched to Gary Overton. His fourth album was titled Who I Am, and it contained four number one hits: a cover of the Eddie Cochran rockabilly standard "Summertime Blues", followed by "Livin' on Love", "Gone Country" and "I Don't Even Know Your Name". An additional track from the album, a cover of Rodney Crowell's "Song for the Life", made number six. In late 1994, Clay Walker reached number one with "If I Could Make a Living", which Jackson co-wrote. Jackson also appeared in the 1996 "When Harry Kept Delores" episode of Home Improvement, performing "Mercury Blues".
The Greatest Hits Collection was released on October 24, 1995. The disc contained seventeen hits, two newly recorded songs ("I'll Try" and "Tall, Tall Trees"), and the song "Home" from Here in the Real World that had never been released as a single. These first two songs both charted at number one. Everything I Love followed in 1996. Its first single, the Tom T. Hall-penned "Little Bitty", took Jackson to the top of the charts in late 1996. The album also included the number one hit "There Goes" and a number two cover of Charly McClain's 1980 single "Who's Cheatin' Who". The album's fifth single was "A House with No Curtains", which became his first release since 1989 to miss the top 10.
1998's High Mileage was led off by the number four "I'll Go On Loving You". After it came the album's only number one hit, "Right on the Money", co-written by Phil Vassar and Charlie Black. With Jackson's release of Under the Influence in 1999, he took the double risk on an album of covers of country classics while retaining a traditional sound when a rock- and pop-tinged sound dominated country radio. When the Country Music Association (CMA) asked George Jones to trim his act to 90 seconds for the 1999 CMA awards, Jones decided to boycott this event. In solidarity, Jackson interrupted his own song and launched into Jones's song "Choices" and then walked offstage.
Due to a shift in the sound of country music towards a more pop sound in the 1990s and 2000s, he and George Strait criticized the state of country music in the song "Murder on Music Row". The song sparked debate in the country music community about whether "traditional" country music was actually dead or not. Despite the fact that the song was not officially released as a single, it became the highest-charting nonseasonal album cut (not available in any retail single configuration or released as a promotional single to radio during a chart run) to appear on Hot Country Singles & Tracks in the Broadcast Data Systems era, beating the record previously held by Garth Brooks' "Belleau Wood." The duo were invited to open the 2000 Academy of Country Music Awards (ACMAs) with a performance of the tune. Rolling Stone commented on Jackson's style remarking, "If Garth and Shania have raised the bar for country concerts with Kiss-style production and endless costume changes, then Alan Jackson is doing his best to return the bar to a more human level." After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Jackson released "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)" as a tribute to those killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The country/soft rock song became a hit single and briefly propelled him into the mainstream spotlight; Jackson had debuted the song at the 2001 CMA Awards and his performance was generally considered the highlight of the show. Jackson's website crashed the next day from server requests. The song came to Jackson suddenly, and had not been scheduled for any official release, but the live performance began receiving radio airplay and was soon released as a single. It was included on his 2002 album Drive, both the live version from his CMA performance, and a radio version.