After fighting Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease in silence for more than a decade, country music star Alan Jackson finally opened up about his struggles in 2021, saying that the disease “is getting more and more obvious.”
Recently, Alan Jackson gave an update on his condition and talked about what the future holds for his live performances.
In 2021, the 65-year-old Alan Jackson spoke with Jenna Bush Hager on Today about his health issues related to Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT).
“I have this neuropathy and neurological disease,” Jackson explained about the illness he’s been dealing with for 10 years. “It’s genetic, and I inherited it from my dad… There’s no cure for it, but it has been affecting me for years.”
“It’s not going to kill me. It’s not deadly,” said Alan Jackson, the singer of “Good Times.” He then explained to fans, “But it’s related to muscular dystrophy and Parkinson’s disease.”
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) is “an inherited disorder that affects the nerves in the feet, legs, hands, and arms. It’s caused by gene defects passed down from a person’s parents.”
Alan Jackson also shared that both his grandmother and his older sister have CMT, too.
“It’s getting more and more obvious. And I know I’m stumbling around on stage,” said Alan Jackson, who was born in Georgia. “I’m having a little trouble balancing, even when I’m standing in front of the microphone, and it makes me feel very uncomfortable.”
Throughout his career, the Country Music Hall of Fame member has been supported by his wife, Denise Jackson, whom he met in high school.
They got married in 1979 and have three daughters: Mattie (born in 1990), Ali (born in 1993), and Dani (born in 1997).
After a short separation in 1998, the couple got back together and have been together ever since. Denise continues to be his biggest supporter.
When Denise was working as a flight attendant, she met the famous singer Glen Campbell and convinced him to meet her husband, Alan Jackson. At the time, Alan was an aspiring musician working in the mailroom at the Nashville Network to make ends meet.
In 2017, after Glen Campbell passed away, Alan Jackson said, “I will always be grateful to Glen. He was my first contact in Nashville because my wife, Denise, met him at the airport while she was a flight attendant.” He added, “He gave her his business card for his publishing company, and that connection helped me start my music career.”
In an interview with Jenna Bush Hager on Today, Denise spoke about their relationship, saying, “When I’m down, he lifts me up. When he’s down, I try to lift him up.” She added, “The happy side of that is we’ve had a fairy tale life.”
Thanking Denise for her infinite support, the Grand Old Opry member honored her when accepting the 2022 Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award at the CMA Awards. “We started out as teenagers, and she’s hung in there and rode this roller-coaster ride with me for 40-something years now,” he said in his heartwarming speech. “I’m probably not always the easiest person to love, but she’s hung in there and helped me through hard times, and we’ve shared great times. The good and the bad, the happy and the sad. We’ve survived a lot.”
The same year, he embarked on his tour, Last Call: One More for the Road Tour, emphasizing it was not a “farewell tour.”
“I never wanted to do the big retirement tour, like people do, then take a year off and then come back,” he told Bush Hager in the September 2021 interview. “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. I don’t want people to be sad for me, it’s just part of life. I’ve had a wonderful, beautiful life…It’s just good to put it out there in the open. In some ways, it’s a relief.”
He adds, “I’ve been reluctant to talk about this publicly and to my fans…It’s called CMT, ironically enough, because CMT was a big part of my career.”
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