Alan Jackson

Jackson sang in church as a child. He, his father, mother, and four sisters lived in a small home. At one point, his bed was in the hallway for lack of room. His mother lives in the home to this day. His first job, at 12, was in a shoe store. He wrote his first song in 1983.

In Tennessee, Jackson got a job in The Nashville Networks mailroom. Denise got him connected to Glen Campbell, who helped him jumpstart his career. Jackson eventually signed with Arista.

His first album, 1989s Here in the Real World, was a major hit, as was his second (1991) album, Dont Rock the Jukebox. His 1992 album, A Lot About Livin (And a Little Bout Love) was a success, spawning five major singles. Also in 1992, Randy Travis charted three singles co-written by Jackson: "Forever Together", "Better Class of Losers", and "Id Surrender All". Conversely, Travis co-wrote Jacksons single "Shes Got the Rhythm (And I Got the Blues)".

In 1994 Jackson left his management company, Ten Ten Management, which had overseen his career up to that point, and switched to Gary Overton.

It was around this time that Jackson began also gaining fame for his song-writing skills. Other country music artists who have charted with songs co-written by Jackson, including Clay Walker ("If I Could Make a Living"), Chely Wright ("Till I Was Loved By You")[5] and Faith Hill ("I Cant Do That Anymore").

His first album, 1990s Here in the Real World, was a major hit, as was his second (1991) album, Dont Rock the Jukebox. His 1992 release, A Lot About Livin (And a Little Bout Love) was a smash success, spawning five major singles with "Chattahoochee" being the most enduring and successful. After a few more hit albums, Jackson again rocketed to fame with "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)," a song about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, which became a hit single and briefly propelled him into the mainstream spotlight; the song was even the subject of parody on the popular animated series South Park, in the episode A Ladder To Heaven.

The Long Way To Go Songfacts states that on January 20, 2011 Alan Jackson and his record label, Sony, parted ways after over 20 years. Three months later a new joint venture between Capitols EMI Records Nashville and ACR (Alans Country Records) was announced. His debut single from the new deal was Long Way To Go, which was shipped to Country radio on June 13, 2011.

Although Jackson has been characterized as a "hat act", his influences go deep into the roots of country music and his songs have been recorded by some of the greats like Charley Pride, who recorded "Here In The Real World". He has sung with George Jones on the award-winning "I Dont Need Your Rockin Chair". His sense of humor comes through in "Gone Country" with the satirical description of the wannabes who cynically jumped on the country music bandwagon in the 1990s: "Everybodys gone country/Yeah weve gone country/The whole worlds gone country."

He has been credited for popularizing a Neotraditional Country sound. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.