Alan Jackson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on Sunday night during a heartfelt and star-studded ceremony held in Nashville, Tennessee.
Country legends including George Strait, Loretta Lynnand Alison Krauss came together to pay tribute to the revered singer-songwriter, who’s had more than 30 No. 1 hits and sold almost 60 million albums. Strait covered “Remember When,” Krauss covered “Someday” and Womack performed “Here in the Real World.”
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Lynn made her first public appearance since suffering a stroke in May to may tribute to her friend with a touching speech.
“I love you and I am so proud of you,” Lynn said. “You deserve to be here.”
Jackson replied to that comment by saying, “Loretta Lynn said I should be here. That’s all I needed to hear.”
In his acceptance speech, the Grammy winner took the audience back to his humble beginnings as the frontman for Dixie Steel. Glen Campbell suggested that Jackson contact his music publishing company, and from there Jackson headed to Nashville and began his solo career.
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Jackson, the son of a mechanic, said that he wanted some money to invest in his love of cars and that country seemed like the best way to do that.
“I loved cars, and I couldn’t really buy any,” he said. “So, I didn’t have much going on, and I didn’t see much of a future of any direction that would help me buy a lot of cars, and being a singing star looked like the only shot I had.”
Once in Nashville, Jackson had little idea what the business was all about, but his talents as a singer and songwriter got his now-legendary career off to a hot start.
“I came here, I was so ignorant,” he said. “I didn’t know anything about the business. I thought people you hear on the radio, I thought everybody wrote their own songs. I didn’t know there were songwriters that wrote ’em for ’em, so I came here … I guess for some reason God gave me a little big of talent to throw some words together and some melodies that have worked over these years.”
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Jackson then looked back on his catalog and said that while he’s cranked out some happier tunes over the years, his sad songs are his favorite.
“I’ve always said my favorite songs are the heartbreak songs,” he said. “I’ve loved writin’ ’em. I love singin’ ’em. There’s more emotion in ’em, and they’re easier to write. I think most songwriters’ll tell you that.”
Jackson closed out the ceremony by performing the ceremony’s traditional closer, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” alongside Strait, Lynn and Connie Smith.
The night’s other inductees were Jerry Reed and Don Schlitz.
Photo Credit: Getty / Terry Wyatt
