Alan Jackson Reveals His ‘Coolest’ 4th of July Memory With His Family

Alan Jackson has likely enjoyed many memorable Fourth of July celebrations over the years, but the one that made the biggest impact on him was different than any other. Speaking to his record label, Jackson recalled a trip he and his family took to New York City by boat, where they were able to watch the city’s fireworks display from a very special location.

“This one is hard to beat,” he said. “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 had taken that 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.” Jackson explained that while his wife and their three daughters, Mattie, Alexandra and Dani like going into the city, he isn’t a huge fan. Instead, he stayed in his boat, which was tied up at the harbor.

“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,” he recalled. “That was the coolest thing and my girls still talk about that. 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.”

Jackson has shared many memorable moments with his family over the years including the weddings of his two oldest daughters, which he chronicled in his new songs “You’ll Always Be My Baby” and “I Do,” both of which appear on his new album Where Have You Gone. “I wrote the song for Mattie’s wedding the summer of 2017, but it was so hard to do,” he said in a statement. “I told ’em, ‘I wrote this for all of you.’”