Alan Jackson’s Favorite July 4th Memory Involves New York City and a Boat

Alan Jackson isn’t one for city life, so it’s a bit ironic that his favorite July 4th memory happened in New York City. The country music superstar found a way to please his family, including his wife Denise and three daughters, and himself on one Independence Day.

“This one is hard to beat,” Jackson recalled via his record label. “A couple of years ago, maybe longer than that now, I had an old boat in Florida. It’s like an old antique motor yacht, and it was kind of a cool old boat. I’ve always wanted to take it up north, like to New York and up in that area, up in the northeast where it’s so pretty. So, we took the boat up there and Denise and the girls, we all went up.

“They like going to New York City, which I don’t really care about going to the city,” he continued. “So, I got to stay in my boat there at the harbor tied up, which was cool anyway. They spent time in the city a few days and then that was Fourth of July, and we went out in the Hudson River that night and they shot the fireworks off and we were anchored out in front of the Statue of Liberty and New York City was behind us, and the Statue of Liberty and the fireworks were going off sitting on that boat.”

Jackson’s daughters are all grown now, but the memory made a lasting impression on them.

“That was the coolest thing and my girls still talk about that,” said the singer. “I mean, that was the coolest thing on Fourth of July I can ever remember. I can’t top that one probably. It was emotional sitting there watching the Statue of Liberty and thinking about all that. It was very cool.”

The 60-year-old just celebrated three decades as a country music artist, making his own music, his own way.

“When I came here, I wanted to carry on the tradition of real hard-core country music. And I’d like to stay that way,” Jackson explained. “It isn’t easy to keep your feet on the ground. You get separated from working people, from real life. You know who the real fans are.

“They’re just good people, and that’s where I come from,” he added. “They love music, and they don’t care about all this music business; they don’t understand all that. They just know if they like it or not. And what I intend to do is give ’em what they want – something real.”

Jackson has several weeks off from his 2019 tour, which includes William Michael Morgan or Randy Houser serving as his opening acts. A list of all of Jackson’s upcoming shows can be found on his website.

Photo Credit: Getty images / Jason Merritt