Alan Jackson Opens New Exhibit

Fans of Alan Jackson will want to plan a trip to Nashville soon.  A new exhibit of Alan’s personal items will be on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum starting this Friday.  Before now, you needed an invitation to Alan’s home to see a lot of these things.  The exhibit includes stage clothes, awards, plaques, hand-written song lyrics, memorabilia, and even his very first car!  The exhibit commemorates Alan’s 25th anniversary as a recording artist, and is appropriately titled “25 Years of Keepin’ It Country.”

As you can imagine, Alan was overwhelmed by the tribute.  “This is so nice.  It’s hard for anybody to understand where I came from, and to get where I am today is truly an American dream.  People don’t realize we didn’t have nothing, and I didn’t know anything about music.  Somebody in Georgia said, ‘You sound as good as some people on the radio, why don’t you move to Nashville?’  And I said ‘OK.’  That was basically what happened.  It just happened.  Denise and I still can’t believe all this has gone on.”

Alan went on to say he tried to save everything he got, including all of his awards. “I remember I was writing songs in a house on Music Row, and the door was propped open with this music award, and I looked at it and it was one of Kris Kristofferson’s awards.  I thought it was cool, but I also thought, if I ever win an award, I’m not gonna leave it in some building propping open a door.  So I made sure we tried to keep all of that memorabilia.  It’s embarrassing.  The girl from the museum came over our house, and her head must have been spinning.  There are so many awards, not just the CMA and ACM, radio stations give me things, it’s crazy, if you all could see it all.  That’s why I’m hoping to share all this stuff.”

Always humble, Alan thanked the fans for all they’ve done.   “I’ve just been so blessed.  I don’t know why, but I take it back to the music.  That’s what I came here for, to sing country music.  I’ve always tried to write songs for my fans, because I’m still a fan.  I just hope it all goes back to the music, because all the other stuff doesn’t mean anything without the music.  I just appreciate the fans, and of course the Country Music Hall of Fame for giving me all this attention, and 25 years is just crazy.  Some folks asked if this was a retirement announcement, and I don’t know what I’d retire from. I don’t work much now!  I like to do like my heroes, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard are still going now.  I’ll probably still doing the same as long as I’m enjoying it, and the fans are enjoying it.”

There are two other similar exhibits at the Country Music Hall of Fame this fall: “Kenny Rogers: Through The Years” and “Crystal Gayle: When I Dream.”  We spoke with Crystal this week, and she gave us this preview of her exhibit: “I have kept everything in the world.  It was difficult to pare it down.  I put in very special things, like a gift I made for my mother, a letter I wrote to my husband before we got married, and clothes that were very special to me as well.  It’s hard to talk about it because I would have crammed everything in there, because that’s how I am.  These things would have been in some of my curio cabinets, boxes, closets, pictures from my walls.  I have my first dress that my mother bought me for the Academy of Country Music Awards.  I couldn’t afford it, but my mother bought it for me.”  Crystal Gayle’s exhibit will run through November 3rd.

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