19 Alan Jackson Quotes To Tip Your Hat To

Alan Eugene Jackson, born on October 17, 1958, is a legendary American country music singer-songwriter. Jackson’s known near and far for his role in popularizing neo-traditional country, and also for writing the majority of his seemingly endless list of songs. Jackson’s managed to record 21 studio albums, which includes two Christmas albums, two gospel albums, and also three greatest-hits albums. We’ll take a look at some of Alan Jackson’s most infamous quotes.

1. On growing up with nothing

“I grew up with nothing, so whenever I got to where I could have something I felt like I needed to have everything I couldn’t have when I was young.”

2. On wisdom gained through years

“The older you are, I think you realize what you enjoy and what you don’t need, what wears you out and what’s important.”

3. On the writing process

“You just write about things that happen.”

4. On country songs

“A country song is a song about life.”

5. On the radio

“I’ve always said that if you have songs on the radio and get played, you’ve got to have a tour to support that.”

6. On the song selection process

“I could have done a hundred songs, really. It was hard to narrow them down, because I tried to pick songs for the most part that actually did have some effect on me or influenced me in the past.”

7. On retiring from touring

“I think if you retire from touring then people think you are retired.”

8. On sad songs

“I like to write sad songs. They’re much easier to write and you get a lot more emotion into them. But people don’t want to hear them as much. And radio definitely doesn’t; they want that positive, uptempo thing.”

9. On approaching albums

“I think I’ve always approached making albums pretty much the same way. I’m just looking for a mixture of songs and topics that aren’t the same thing over and over.”

10. On his antique car collection

“What I enjoy doing more than anything is, I have my little antique car collection, and when the weather is pretty I like to get out one of my old cars. I have a little route I run down in the country, down Nachez Trace Parkway. The loop down through there is just really relaxing, not much traffic.”

11. On accepting criticism

“You have to be tough-skinned and willing to accept criticism, and at the same time, just try to do music that you like and you are proud of and not just whatever you think it’s going to take to get you on the radio.”

12. On not writing all of his own stuff

“I don’t write all my stuff. Everybody always thinks that. But in just about every album I’ve ever had has been about 50-50 songs I’ve written or co-written and other people’s songs.”

13. On competing with yourself

“I think every album you have, especially if it’s done well, you feel like you’re competing with yourself.”

14. On hitting 40

“If you can last until you’re 40 years old, hopefully you’ll be mature enough to figure out the rest of the years.”

15. On growing up

“I’ve had to live with women all my life. I grew up with four older sisters, and I was the baby and the only boy.”

16. On being a big star

“You think a lot of people get to be big stars and get a little crazy, but most of the ones I’ve ever met have always been surprisingly normal, and I’ve enjoyed that.”

17. On Cracker Barrel

“I’ve been a lot of places, and my wife, Denise, she likes a lot of the fancy restaurants. I’m more of a basic eater. I still go into Cracker Barrel. Those are the kind of people who like the kind of music I’m making.”

18. On his fan base

“The fan base that I’ve had all these years has come along. Some of them are not as plugged into the digital world, so they want to go out and buy the CD at Walmart or something.”

19. On not knowing all his own lyrics

“Probably some of the songs I never even really listened to the lyrics. Half of them I’d hear off the radio and was probably singing the wrong words and didn’t even know it.”