He’ll try! Alan Jackson revealed he has plans to release more music amid his ongoing battle with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.
“Yes. I would hope so. I mean, I may not have toured much, but, like I said, the creative part jumps out every now and then,” Jackson, 64, said on the Tuesday, February 21, episode of the “In Joy Life” podcast, which is hosted by daughter Mattie Jackson. “I’m always scribbling down ideas and thinking about melodies and I feel like there’ll be some more music to come, yes.”
The country crooner shared how he prefers songwriting over touring, which is “kind of like you’re just doing the same thing over and over.” Making an album, however, scratches Alan’s creative itch.
“It’s a challenge, so it keeps you interested a little more. If I didn’t write, I think I would’ve gotten bored just singing a long time ago,” he explained to the 32-year-old Lemons on Friday author.
The “Livin on Love” singer has struggled to make music since being diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. Alan has battled the condition — a hereditary disorder that affects the nervous system, causing progressive loss of muscle tissue and loss of sensation in the arms and legs — for over a decade but didn’t go public with the news until September 2021.
“I have this neuropathy and neurological disease,” the Georgia native shared during a Today show interview at the time. “It’s genetic that I inherited from my daddy. … There’s no cure for it, but it’s been affecting me for years. And it’s getting more and more obvious.”
While CMT doesn’t shorten life expectancy, it can make movement extremely difficult — especially for a person used to performing on stage night after night.
“I’ve been reluctant to talk about this publicly and to my fans,” the “Chattahoochee” singer explained when revealing his battle with the disorder, which also affected his grandmother and sister. “It’s called CMT, ironically enough, because CMT was a big part of my career.”
After revealing his diagnosis, the “Little Bitty” crooner announced that he planned to continue touring, but he didn’t want to call it a “farewell” outing. “I never wanted to do the big retirement tour, like people do, then take a year off and then come back,” he told Today host Jenna Bush Hager. “I think that’s kinda cheesy. And I’m not saying I won’t be able to tour. I’ll try to do as much as I can.”
Despite his health issues, the Country Music Hall of Fame inductee set out for his Last Call Tour in March 2022, sharing in a statement that he would continue to play music for “as long as my health will allow.” However, he was forced to postpone two tour dates in October 2022.
“I hoped I’d be able to be there,” the statement read. “I hate to disappoint my fans. I tried as much as I could to play this show at this time.”
For now, Alan is enjoying his downtime at home — and watching his grandson, Jackson, grow up. The little one is the “Good Time” artist and wife Denise Jackson’s first grandchild and was born in December 2022 and is the son of daughter Ali Jackson and husband Sam Bradshaw. (Alan and Denise, 63, also share daughter Dani Jackson.)
“Our whole family is all joyful for our new grandbaby, our first grandbaby. … My first boy in the family,” Alan gushed about the newborn on Tuesday’s podcast. “I had four older sisters and three daughters and so this is a new experience.”