“The older I get,” mused Alan Jackson, “The more I think/You only get a minute, better live while you’re in it/’Cause it’s gone in a blink.” Sensible phrases, even when the multi-million-selling nation music hero had solely simply turned 59. “And if they found a fountain of youth,” he goes on, “I wouldn’t drink a drop and that’s the truth/Funny how it feels I’m just getting to my best years yet.”
The lyrics are on his observe “The Older I Get,” launched on October 20, 2017 and timed to mark his induction two days later into the Nation Music Corridor of Fame. The reflective sentiments may very well be autobiographical, and whereas the charmingly conventional new track was written by Adam Wright, Hailey Whitters and Sarah Allison Turner, it was Jackson who prompt a bit lyrical uplift.
“This song reflects a lot of how I feel these days,” mentioned Jackson. “It’s a good song. I really liked it, but the message was a little different when I first heard it. I thought maybe it could be a little more positive about being older and wiser and more content, so they rewrote a few things, and this is how it ended up.”
“The Older I Get” was the primary style of what would finally be Jackson’s subsequent album, 2021’s The place Have You Gone. That was the follow-up to 2015’s Angels and Alcohol, which featured the lead track, “Jim and Jack and Hank.” This was one of many seven songs Jackson wrote himself for the ten-track, Keith Stegall-produced set. Forward of that, Jackson had launched his first bluegrass set, 2013’s The Bluegrass Album, which included his personal composition “Blue Ridge Mountain Song.”
“The Older I Get,” and the induction into nation’s hallowed internal circle, had been the most recent chapters in an unimaginable profession. His many Nation Music Affiliation Awards embrace three for the style’s most prestigious title, Entertainer of the 12 months, in 1995, 2002, and 2003, and his catalog of hits contains such absolute staples of the format as “Don’t Rock The Jukebox,” “Gone Country,” and “Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning).”
As soon as Jackson hit his stride along with his subtly up to date model of nation custom, there was no stopping him. His first substantial hit was 1990’s “Here In The Real World,” and the next yr, he scored three straight No. 1s with ”I’d Love You All Over Once more,” the aforementioned “Don’t Rock The Jukebox,” and “Someday.”
These No. 1s continued via the Nineties and 2000s, and in newer years, Jackson topped the charts as a featured artist with the Zac Brown Band on 2010’s “As She’s Walking Away.” He was one of many featured legends collectively referred to as Artists of Then, Now & Endlessly on 2016”s “Forever Country,” created to mark the 50th anniversary of the CMA Awards. He carried out on the 51st awards present in November 2017, on the Bridgestone Area in Nashville.
Jackson didn’t his new Corridor of Fame induction calmly, both. Honored alongside Don Schlitz and the late Jerry Reed, he advised Rolling Stone Nation: “Even though I’ve done a lot, I still don’t feel quite worthy, but I feel like it’s an honor to qualify for what it requires to be in here with these great people.”
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