Alan Jackson’s Under-Reported Speech at The Country Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
The legendary and Hall of Fame country music career of Alan Jackson has been marked by two underlying things: his ability to write and sing songs that stay true to country’s roots and ultimately become mega-hits (he had 26 #1’s overall), and his propensity to step up at critical moments and say or do whatever he can to help preserve the integrity and history of the genre.
Just as much as Alan Jackson is known for songs like “Don’t Rock the Jukebox,” “Livin’ on Love,” and “Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning),” he’s also known for the 1994 ACM Awards episode where he instructed his drummer to play without sticks when producers insisted his band mimic playing to a backing track, the 1999 CMA Awards where Jackson notoriously stopped down his rendition of “Pop A Top” to break into George Jones’ “Choices” after the producers told Jones he couldn’t play a full version of the song, or the time in 2016 when Jackson left the audience when Beyoncé came out to perform.
Some wondered if these legendary protestations were the reason Alan Jackson had to wait a few years after officially becoming eligible before he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. After all, with 80 million records sold, and three CMA Entertainer of the Year awards, Jackson should have been a shoo-in. But in 2017 it finally happened. And at the private induction ceremony held on October 28, 2017, Alan Jackson was asked to speak, along with all of the other inductees. And like he’s done so many times over his legendary career, Alan Jackson spoke his mind.
Perhaps it’s because unlike the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductions, the Country Hall of Fame Medallion ceremony is very exclusive, and very private. Perhaps it was because the room was partly full of industry who really didn’t want Jackson’s words to be re-broadcast. Or many it’s because Jackson’s moment was overshadowed by the re-emergence of Loretta Lynn, who after suffering a stroke earlier in in 2017, showed up to the ceremony in her first public appearance in months to help honor Alan Jackson.
But there is a part of Alan Jackson’s acceptance speech that has gone virtually unnoticed, and definitely bears repeating. Though perhaps not as bold and overt as switching songs in the middle of an awards show performance or walking out on another artist, it shows how Alan Jackson never shies away from speaking his mind, or standing up for what he believes in, no matter what the forum or the reverence that surrounds it.
“I just love real country music,” Jackson said from the Hall of Fame podium. “And George Jones, he told me that the first time I met him. [He said] ‘Keep it country’ and that stuck with me. And I would have done it anyway, but it just meant so much coming from him. And I just hope that there’s going to be some young people coming along that will really care about it as much as I have and try to keep it alive. It’s going to be hard today. You know, you won’t hear it on the radio probably anymore, but there’s still a lot of people out there young and old that want to hear what I call real country music.”
You could tell by the way Alan Jackson said these words (they can be seen in the video below at the 2:12 mark), he was doing his level best to choke back not just tears, but push back anger in his heart for what country music has become today, yet was doing his best to not make a scene given the circumstances. But he said all that needed to be, and maybe by carefully choosing his words, and the delivery, it was able to have a greater effect.
One thing’s for sure, the round of applause Alan Jackson received shows that many in attendance were in agreement with him. And when you talk to country music fans and hear how many say they hate much of the new stuff and wish the older stuff would return, it’s not hard to fathom that there is just as many, if not more fans of country music who would love to see the music return to its roots as opposed to keep on its current path.
But for that to occur, it’s going to take artists, fans, and members of the industry—including some, if not many who heard Jackson’s words in that distinguished audience at the Hall of Fame and applauded loudly—to do like Jackson has done throughout his career, which is put their foot down, and stand up for the preservation and continuance of true country music.
January 22, 2018 @ 10:58 am
I’ve never understood why people lumped Alan Jackson and Vince Gill in with Garth Brooks and the like, as being pop-Country that was destroying tradition. Alan has never been pop. At the very worst, he could be considered traditional Country with a modern twist, but never pop.
January 22, 2018 @ 11:43 am
The only reason is because he put out songs like Chattahoochee, Country Boy, and Pop a Top. Some people are so bitter about country music that they think the fun songs can’t be made anymore.
January 22, 2018 @ 12:35 pm
But “Pop A Top” was a cover of a country classic, and Alan’s reading of it was in turn about as country as it gets. Shuffle beat, fiddle and steel guitar front and center…I mean, mainstream country music in 1999 just was not better than that. And THAT was damn good.
Not bitching at you, just my observations.
January 22, 2018 @ 12:42 pm
Oh I completely understand. I love most of his upbeat songs. I’m just saying that that’s why people lump him in with the pop country of the time. It’s because his happier songs were successful in the mainstream.
January 22, 2018 @ 5:10 pm
Pop a Top was put out years ago, and is absolutely country…Jim Ed Browns’ song !!
January 22, 2018 @ 11:46 am
The only criticism I had/have of Alan is that towards the end of his radio run, he put out some pretty bad singles (Country Boy) that were clearly designed to try and extend his relevance at Country radio. But Alan Jackson is far, far, far from the first or only aging artist who either willingly or is forced to submit to the desires of label executives in order to try and extend their radio run. George Strait had a couple of those songs as well IMO.
Alan Jackson was never my favorite artist during his run, but he was also never someone I turned off or refused to listen to. He was pretty much always solid and he deserves credit for being a part of the only Zac Brown Band song I have ever really enjoyed.
January 23, 2018 @ 6:35 pm
If anyone lumps Alan Jackson with pop country…they are uninformed or an idiot.
May 19, 2019 @ 11:27 am
How can a marginally talented performer like Alan Jackson be in the hall of fame when bocephus isn’t
January 22, 2018 @ 11:01 am
Alan is genuine. I had placed hope in Jon Pardi as one of the new hopefuls. But after seeing him open for Miranda over the weekend, all hope is gone. He came out to Foreigners Juke Box Hero and I dare anyone to watch his first 15 mins & tell me he’s any different than Aldean etc. Big power chords & a floor tom mic’d so high it sounded like a cannon. The fiddle & steel we more like props as they were buried so far down in the mix. The saddest part is that, in introducing She Ain’t In It, he almost apologetically said, ‘OK folks, now I’m about to get real country here, alright?’ It was an ugly bro show
January 22, 2018 @ 11:24 am
I’m sorry to hear that. I’m not a huge Jon Pardi fan, but I saw him at a rodeo last fall and thought he put on a good show. Maybe as an opening act he feels like he has to play to the crowd.
January 22, 2018 @ 11:37 am
Yea I don’t understand all the Jon Pardi hoopla. He sounds awful from what I heard and far removed from anything traditional sounding.
January 22, 2018 @ 11:52 am
Pardi looks/dresses the part and has put out one or two songs on each album that give those desperate for more “traditional sounding” Country music at radio hope, but in the end he is entirely unremarkable IMO. He’s another Easton Corbin if you ask me, someone who on the surface looks and sounds the part, but doesn’t have the songwriting talent or freedom to really stick around long term or make a huge dent at Country radio.
I can count on a couple fingers the songs of Pardi’s that I have liked off his two albums & EP. I would like him more if he played a game of releasing mediocre/bad radio songs, but packing his album cuts with strong, neo-traditional Country songs, but that simply hasn’t happened much.
January 22, 2018 @ 1:08 pm
“but doesn’t have the songwriting talent or freedom to really stick around long term or make a huge dent at Country radio.”
He’s got two #1’s, a #3, and “She Ain’t In It” which is a great song and country as hell just cracked the Top 30 and is probably heading for the Top 5. Granted, those #1’s are literally his worst songs, but they were still better than the competition. I agree Pardi is not some country savior, but he is a much healthier alternative who the mainstream is actually giving a chance, an is having a huge impact on radio. Rome wasn’t built in a week. Pardi could help open doors. He’s also the CMA New Artist of the Year. He’s well on the way to becoming a superstar.
January 23, 2018 @ 8:10 am
Literally shaking my head here. Why would anyone spout country music industry numbers to support Jon Pardi being ‘better than the competition’? It’d be like getting your heart health information from the American Tobacco Industry.
“This cancer brought to you be the smooth taste of Marlboro. Marlboro’s taste is unique and distinctive, rich, smooth, and satisfying. Like a man’s tumor should be.”
January 23, 2018 @ 11:14 am
You’re conflating two things here. The previous comment was how Pardi would never have traction on radio. I “spouted” the numbers to prove he already has, and to a big degree.
January 22, 2018 @ 11:50 am
I saw Pardi a couple months ago, and that was not my experience at all. Maybe the mix was much better at our venue. When he introduced “She Ain’t In It,” he talked about how much he loved it and was so happy that it was his new single. He wasn’t apologetic at all — in fact, very much the opposite.
January 22, 2018 @ 12:20 pm
I watched Pardi headline back to back sold out nights here in a small venue and a larger one and he wasn’t anything like your describing. Nothing “bro” about it. Totally professional with perfect sound. No Jukebox Hero intro. Only too happy to be playing a 4th single from his album. Jon Pardi is NOT part of the problem with Country music today. He’s part of the solution.
January 22, 2018 @ 8:39 pm
The difference is that Alan Jackson has a really nice warm tone to his voice. Jon Pardi’s tone is like scraping fingernails down a chalkboard. I will be really surprised if he is relevant 5 years fro now.
January 22, 2018 @ 11:22 am
I didn’t really start listening country of any sort until I was in college in 2013, around the peak of the Bro-Country era, so you can imagine what I listened to while I was discovering the genre. Alan Jackson was the first tradionalist I really got into and helped veer me towards the right side of the Country spectrum. It’s awesome to see him rewarded for everything he’s done and continues to do for the genre.
January 22, 2018 @ 12:28 pm
Welcome to the genre, it’s nice to see that you gravitated to truer artists that made this genre so great. If you like Alan Jackson then you may like other artists from the neo-traditional era of Country Music including ,of course George Strait, Clint Black, Keith Whitley, Randy Travis, Mark Chestnut, Lee Ann Wommack, Patty Loveless but a warning in advance, you will probably trash anything that was produced by a “country singer” after 2000 and never turn on a radio again.
January 22, 2018 @ 12:29 pm
Forgot to add John Anderson and Tracey Lawrence to that list as well.
January 22, 2018 @ 12:59 pm
I have to add on Don Williams. There – that should be a good summary list.
January 22, 2018 @ 1:15 pm
It’s a start. 😉
January 22, 2018 @ 1:49 pm
Tom T. Hall
Red Sovine
Cowboy Copas
Stonewall Jackson
It’s a long, long list that could keep a new listener busy for years.
January 22, 2018 @ 5:15 pm
Add Gene Watson to that list…His shows are straight out country and he never fails to give you two hours of solid country when you go to see him !!
January 22, 2018 @ 2:26 pm
I didn’t want to detail the timeline but I got into Jackson about the same time as everything else, in ’13, and have since branched out a lot into those other 90s Neo-Traditionalists, the 70s Outlaws, the Texas Red Dirt scene, etc. I only listened to the modern stuff for a year or two, but we all make mistakes when we’re 19
January 23, 2018 @ 6:56 am
Check out my nephew Randall King Band. “Another Bullet” He is up am coming solid traditional country and a great songwriter.
January 22, 2018 @ 2:27 pm
Then he changed his entire show for the Miranda crowd which is strange
January 22, 2018 @ 1:09 pm
Compared to what is out there now Alan Jackson is fantastic. But he is not from my favorite era of country music by any stretch of the imagination. It seemed to me like he was trying to come off as a cute and funny version of Dwight Yoakam. The look of that era with the skin tight jeans, cowboy boots and hat; uh-uh. And that 1980’s molester mustache, and duet with Jimmy Buffet.
But I always enjoyed the hot Nashville session musicians he had on his records.
January 22, 2018 @ 1:14 pm
One of the true LEGENDS of Country Music.
He knew how to choose ’em, how to sing ’em, and how to write ’em, and did each as well as anybody.
And he’s still doing it, just not on the radio anymore.
January 22, 2018 @ 1:22 pm
I think Alan Jackson’s career trajectory shows that the country industry is just like every other music industry; once you’re done, they don’t want you anymore. He’s tremendously lucky that he got to spend not one, but nearly two decades on top as one of the biggest acts in country music. He had all the hits, all the awards, all the endorsement deals; he was everywhere. Now he can barely even break the singles charts. I remember reading about when George Jones cut “I Don’t Need Your Rockin’ Chair” in ’92 and how angry he was that it only peaked in the mid-20’s on the singles charts; he said that country radio had never been more disrespectful to its elders than at that point in history. Amazing now how 1992 country seems like a utopian fantasy compared to now…sure, “hat acts” eventually wore out, but at least many of them still held a reverence for the traditional aspects of the genre. “Murder on Music Row” came out twenty years too early.
January 23, 2018 @ 1:19 am
You would think that the artists that kept the traditions alive for decades ( Jones , Jackson , Strait ) , kept the industry alive , kept radio alive , kept writers , musicans , labels , PR people , venues all working and generating HUGE revenues would deserve so much more respect from radio and the industry .
In a just world , artists like these guys would tell YOU when they’re done ….not the other way around. You wouldn’t think they’d have to suffer the total disrespect of an industry after all they’ve done to ensure that industry’s survival and all of the artists they’ve inspired . Radio casting these artists aside goes beyond a disrespect for the artists, though . Its a complete disrespect for the millions of fans who’ve loved , been moved by , and supported them by purchasing their music , attending their shows and yes …listening to the radio stations that played them and the advertisers who bought time on those stations. As we’ve seen here at SCM , fans of those artists and REAL country music no longer listen to radio stations who’ve chosen to dispose of them and real country .
January 23, 2018 @ 8:02 pm
“Murder on Music Row” came out twenty years too early.
I had always said that song was just as relevant now as it was then, if not more so — but I think this is a better way of putting it.
January 22, 2018 @ 1:45 pm
Look at how they love and care for old people. That’s how you do it right. Does that warm anyone else’s heart? Because it sure does mine.
January 22, 2018 @ 1:52 pm
Who is they?
I’ll agree with your sentiment on heart warming but clarification about “they” would help.
January 22, 2018 @ 2:24 pm
George Strait and Patsy Lynn Russell.
January 22, 2018 @ 2:22 pm
Very ironic this article surfaced because i just caught an Alan Jackson show at Rupp in Lexington, KY and the guy absolutely floored me! Alan is the real deal without a doubt and seein him live you can see how much he truly cares for traditional country music. Early on during the show, he said that hes gonna be playing REAL country music tonight, like it was a warning to all the youngsters. He talked about his admiration for the steel guitar, mandolin, and fiddle among other things and let his band showcase each. I was already a fan and i respect him even more now. His shows are nothing fancy, but he comes through with his promises and pours his heart out to his songs. He is a living legend without a doubt!
January 22, 2018 @ 5:13 pm
I also need to add that if his new song The Older I Get is any indication of direction for his next album, then we are all in for a treat!
January 22, 2018 @ 2:51 pm
Interesting. I usually listen to the local folk/roots music university station and the local country station. Recently I quit listening to the country station and instead listen to the other university station that does jazz/classical. Never would I have thought I would listen to classical music.
January 22, 2018 @ 3:03 pm
What’s great about Alan is how many times you’ve been able to post a piece on your website so similar to this, Trigger. Such a stalwart defender of traditional country. He’s consistent with it and has been since the beginning of his career.
January 22, 2018 @ 3:12 pm
A class act, no doubt!
January 22, 2018 @ 3:19 pm
100% behind Alan, I love all types of Music, but when I want Country, I want real Country, not this Rock country crap, I want the traditional stuff, even if it’s being rerecorded real old stuff. Country music usually tells a story, something that U almost never get from any other type of music. When I want Rock, I want Rock, when I want Jazz, I want Jazz. But for me KEEP COUNTRY REAL, or stick it someplace
January 22, 2018 @ 4:14 pm
I was actually watching Alan’s speech a couple weeks ago on Youtube, and it just made me love and respect him even more. He truly is a class act, which is not something I can say about many of today’s mainstream “country” artists. I especially loved the part of the speech Trigger has highlighted here. We really do need more younger artists today that truly care about the history and traditions of the genre like Alan has throughout his entire career.
January 22, 2018 @ 4:16 pm
Good for him. He is a true legend. And his performance at the CMA’s last year was one of the few things that saved it.
January 22, 2018 @ 4:59 pm
Well deserved, “Who Says (You Can’t Have It All)” will always be one of my favorite country songs. I am thankful that i got to see him in concert this past summer.
January 22, 2018 @ 6:30 pm
I truly agree with Alan that we need more singers to stay true to country roots. The thing that makes writers like myself so mad is. We have beautiful real countrymusic that has great stories in it. Real country songs that we want professional singers to sing. But unfortunately for some reason we can’t seem to get to the singers. Yes it’s true if they write there own songs they get more money from the sales. But. Would it not be better to have a song from someone else and still stay on the charts with great followers than to lose your followers because the pen had went cold. Alan is solid gold because you can understand his music and you can relate to it in life. I would be honored to have Alan to sing one of my songs even if it didn’t get recorded. Alan. You’ve been an inspiration to me and my music. Thank you very much. Marty
January 22, 2018 @ 8:07 pm
Joe Nichols is a great traditional country singer. His latest album “Never Gets Old” is awesome!
January 22, 2018 @ 8:35 pm
If you didn’t listen to the whole speech, it really is Alan Jackson in a nutshell. Hands down one of, if not my favorite artist.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9WvIgF5Dqs
January 22, 2018 @ 10:33 pm
One man ,Jamey Johnson, is country music’s saving grace, radio should be blowing his music up but isn’t.. Just doesn’t get the credit he deserves!
January 23, 2018 @ 10:01 am
How can radio blow up music that hasn’t been made?
January 23, 2018 @ 12:57 am
Interesting debate, and one or two leads for me to follow up on. I just keep diggin’ all the way down to the bedrock.
January 23, 2018 @ 4:36 am
I think he’s right, fans would like to get back to REAL country music.
You know what you get when you cross Country music with RAP?
You get CRAP!
January 23, 2018 @ 8:08 am
I couldn’t agree more with what Alan Jackson said. I will listen to him any day, any time of the week over the crap that they play on mainstream radio (that’s if I tuned in regularly).
January 23, 2018 @ 8:31 am
My son, Marine LCpl Adam Loggins, was killed in Iraq in 2007. Alan’s music helped me get through the days. I used some songs off his gospel cd at Adams funeral. I had trouble praying after his death. When I listened to that cd, I felt like I was praying. It was the music I grew up hearing in church, it made me feel nearer to God. Thank you for that Alan!
January 23, 2018 @ 8:45 am
Loretta,Alan & George Strait! All the way!!!
January 23, 2018 @ 12:39 pm
I wish I had the talent to make it on music row, I would keep it country. I guess I’ll just have to settle with keeping it country at karaoke on Friday nights.