Alan Jackson

Jackson began recording his own songs in 1988 with the help of producer Keith Stegall. Those demo recordings led Jackson to his contract with Arista and the release of his 1990 debut album, Here in the Real World—co-produced by Stegall and Scott Hendricks—which sold two million copies. Every album Jackson released for the next fifteen years, all produced by Stegall, sold a million or more copies.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Jackson wrote and recorded “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning).” He introduced the song at the 2001 CMA Awards, and it grew into a #1 hit that received national attention.

In addition to writing a majority of the material for his own recordings, Jackson has contributed songs to other artists. Randy Travis, whom Jackson befriended before either was a star, recorded four Jackson tunes (three of which Travis co-wrote), including the hits “Forever Together” and “Better Class of Losers.” Jackson also wrote Clay Walker’s #1 hit “If I Could Make a Livin’,” and Faith Hill did well with Jackson’s “I Can’t Do That Anymore.”

Jackson has sold more than sixty million albums worldwide and ranks as one of the ten best-selling solo artists of all-time in any genre. As of 2017, he has registered fifty Top Ten hits and thirty-five #1s (including twenty-six Billboard #1s). He has received eighteen Academy of Country Music awards, sixteen Country Music Association awards, and a pair of Grammys. Jackson received the first-ever ASCAP Heritage Award in 2014, having earned the title of most-performed country music songwriter-artist of ASCAP’s first one hundred years. Jackson is a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry.