July 2025

In 1990, when country music was starting to get polished to please the mainstream, Alan Jackson showed up — with an acoustic guitar, a white cowboy hat, and the truth. He didn’t come to Nashville to become a star. He came to tell stories people were starting to forget: the sound of wind through a small-town porch, dirt roads, family bonds, and honesty in every lyric. From “Here in the Real World” to “Drive,” “Small Town Southern Man,” and “Remember When,” Alan has always lived by one simple rule: love deeply, live slowly, and never forget who you are. “I’m not much of a talker. But music can say it for me.” And maybe… he did that better than anyone else ever could.

Introduction Alan Jackson’s “Drive (For Daddy Gene)” is a tender, autobiographical tribute released on January 28, 2002,...