Thirty-five years after releasing his debut album, award-winning country singer Alan Jackson is set to hang up his cowboy hat in May as he closes out the last string of concerts on his farewell tour.
On Friday, Jackson, 66, will perform in Orlando before heading to Georgetown, Texas, in early April to headline the Two Step Inn festival featuring Ernest, Flatland Cavalry, and Miranda Lambert, among others.
Later that month, the country crooner will perform in Tampa, Florida, before concluding his Last Call: One More for the Road Tour with a show at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on May 17.
Jackson launched his farewell tour in the summer of 2022, announcing in May of last year that he would extend the sold-out shows through 2025.
“I’ve been touring for over 30 years—my daughters are all grown, we have one grandchild and one on the way … and I’m enjoying spending more time at home. But my fans always show up to have a good time, and I’m going to give them the best show I can for this Last Call.”
Jackson’s tour marked the Country Music Hall of Famer’s first cross-country outing since revealing that he had a degenerative nerve disease called Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT).
Jackson discussed his health struggles during a September 2021 appearance on the “Today” show, sharing that he had been battling CMT for years.
Symptoms may include trouble walking, frequent tripping or falling, muscle contractions, and foot deformities, such as high arches and curled toes. There is no known cure for CMT, but treatments may help manage symptoms.
The Georgia native told “Today” that he inherited the disease from his father, Eugene Jackson, who died in 2000 at age 72 from a ruptured aorta.
“We realize now that my grandmother had it on his side and my older sister—who’s 10 years older than me—has it and she doesn’t get around too good now,” Jackson shared.
“It’s getting more and more obvious and I know I’m stumbling around on stage. And now I’m having a little trouble balancing even in front of the microphone, and so I just feel very uncomfortable,” he continued, assuring viewers that the disease is not deadly.
“It is related to muscular dystrophy and Parkinson’s disease but it’s not fatal; it’s just going to disable me eventually.”
In 1985, Jackson moved to Nashville with his wife, Denise Jackson, to pursue a career in the music industry. The longtime couple, who married in 1979, have three daughters: Mattie, 34; Alexandra, 31; and Dani, 27.
Just one year after launching his debut studio album, “Here in the Real World,” in February 1990, Jackson was inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry.
He went on to release more than 20 albums, including “A Lot About Livin'” (1992), “Who I Am” (1994), “Everything I Love” (1996), “Drive” (2002), and “Like Red on a Rose” (2006).
In 2017, Jackson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame alongside singer and guitarist Jerry Reed and songwriter Don Schlitz, best known for penning Kenny Rogers’ 1978 song “The Gambler.”
On his official website, Jackson described his decades-long music career, as well as his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame, as “a fairytale.”
“All the stuff that’s happened to me ... I came to Nashville with nothing and ignorant about the music business and had no experience and then to go through all of this, this is the ultimate piece of the puzzle,” he said. “I don’t even know how to describe it.”
Jackson has sold more than 60 million albums to date. His latest album, “Where Have You Gone,” debuted in May 2021.
