Few country artists can boast a resume as impressive as Alan Jackson’s. In addition to selling more than 75 million records and nabbing 35 No. 1 hits, the “Chattahoochee” crooner has also written hits for other artists like Randy Travis, Clay Walker, and Faith Hill. On June 14, 2018, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame welcomed Jackson into their ranks.
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2018 was a banner year for the Grand Ole Opry member, as he had joined the Country Music Hall of Fame just months earlier.
Why Did Alan Jackson Start Writing Songs?
Playing in small clubs around his home state of Georgia by night, Alan Jackson worked as a forklift operator and construction worker. At age 27, he and wife Denise moved to Nashville so that the country legend could pursue a music career full-time.
The three-time CMA Entertainer of the Year said he first put pen to paper “because somebody told me I needed some original material.”
“I’d never even thought about writing or studied songwriting,” Jackson said. “There are different aspects of your career, and they all bring different rewards and feelings…but the songwriting is very fulfilling. Songwriting is definitely the most creative part.”
“I Just Write What I Like”
Of his 35 chart-topping hits, the 16-time CMA Award winner had a hand in writing 26, including 1991’s “Don’t Rock the Jukebox” and 2001’s “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning.)”
“I’ve always just written things that I feel or remember about home or family, or having a good time or whatever,” Alan Jackson said last year. “I just write what I like, and when you write songs that are real like that, people connect with it.”
He continued, “I learned early on with ‘Chattahoochee.’ When they wanted to release the single, I thought, ‘Well, that’s stupid. Nobody’s heard of Chattahoochee that didn’t live down in Georgia.’ And you think that’s just a Southern thing.”
Today, the three-time platinum record is one of Jackson’s best-known songs, nabbing CMA awards for Single of the Year and Song of the Year.
“We never thought it would be as big as it’s become,” he wrote in the liner notes for his 1995 Greatest Hits compilation.
Featured image by Amiee Stubbs/imageSPACE/Shutterstock)
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