Alan Jackson Was ‘Pissed off at the World’ After His Son-in-law’s Death

Alan Jackson‘s son-in-law, Ben Selecman, died in 2018, one year after marrying Jackson’s oldest daughter, Mattie. In a new interview with Hits Daily Double, Jackson reflected on his son-in-law’s death, sharing that having grown up with four sisters and being a dad to three daughters, it had been nice to have another man around.

“When he died, I was kind of pissed off at the world,” the country singer reflected. “I just wasn’t feeling right about anything. You know how I was raised: I grew up with four older sisters, then [Jackson’s wife] Denise and our three girls. It’s all I was ever around: girls and women. So having a son-in-law was having a boy I could fish with, work on cars and stuff with. It was tough losing him so suddenly — so jarring to all of us. I lost something I’d never had before.”

Selecman died in September 2018 after sustaining severe traumatic head injuries in a fall off a boating dock. “It’s with grateful hearts that Denise and I want to thank our friends and fans for the outpouring of love and prayers during the hospitalization and ultimate passing of our son-in-law, Ben Selecman,” Jackson shared in a message on social media at the time. “Ben was a southern boy who loved hunting and fishing and just being outdoors. His childlike enthusiasm for each new day was contagious to everyone around him. He was the godly young man that Denise had always prayed for for Mattie. Ben we love you. Rest In Peace until we see you again.”

When Mattie and Selecman married, Jackson wrote a song for his daughter that he decided to include on his recently released album, Where Have You Gone. Titled “You’ll Always Be My Baby,” Jackson wrote the song for Mattie as well as his other two daughters, Alexandra and Dani. “It was the first big wedding, and she wanted me to write one,” he recalled. “You can’t really say ‘No,’ but when it was done, I told ’em, ‘This is for all of you. I’m not writing each of you a separate song.’”

He also wrote “Where Her Heart’s Always Been” for his late mom, Ruth Musick, who died in January 2017, and the song features a recording of Musick reading from the Bible. “We were done with the mixes and everything. At Christmas, my sister sent me recordings of my mom reading the Bible,” Jackson said. “That was sweet. The last few years, she had a scratchy voice — and she was just such a sweet woman, hearing her read Scripture takes me right back.”