Alan Jackson brought his decades long touring career to a close Friday night in Nashville, capping off “Alan Jackson: Last Call, The Finale” with a string of emotional speeches to a sold out crowd at Nissan Stadium.
The country music legend took the stage on June 27 following a lineup of tribute performances from some of Nashville’s biggest names, including Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Luke Combs, Riley Green, Cody Johnson, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood and Lainey Wilson. A 40 minute weather delay pushed back the start of Jackson’s set, but fans stuck around, and once he walked out, the cheers said it all.
“Thank you guys so much. I’m Alan Jackson, it’s good to see you all,” he told the crowd.
Jackson admitted the tributes from his fellow artists had caught him off guard emotionally. “These nice things people said, it’s just completely overwhelming. It just makes me wanna tear up a little bit,” he said, adding that he was grateful for every artist who showed up to perform.
He was quick to lighten the mood, though, telling fans he didn’t want the night to feel like a goodbye. “We’re not going to dwell on all this sad last show stuff,” he said, joking that the rehearsal had felt a little like a funeral, with him imagining himself watching from heaven as other artists sang his catalog.
Jackson leaned into the simplicity that’s defined his career from the start. “I put one of the lines in my songs: I’m just a singer of simple songs, and that’s exactly what I am,” he said, pointing to his decades of writing about life, love and drinking as proof. “And it’s just been a crazy life, crazy career. And been so blessed, as my momma would say.”
He encouraged the crowd to just enjoy themselves. “Two step up and down the aisle, do whatever you want to do, sit back and relax, have a good time, have a drink,” he said. “We’ll try to play something you like.”
The setlist moved through fan favorites early on, including “Livin’ on Love,” “Summertime Blues,” “Midnight in Montgomery” and “Who’s Cheatin’ Who.” Jackson then sat down on a stool to talk more directly with the crowd. “If anyone has lived the American dream, it’s me,” he said.
He thanked fans across the world for sticking with his music for so many years. “I’ve played several thousand shows here, and y’all have always been so nice, so respectful,” he said.
Jackson also looked back on how it all started, recalling his move to Nashville from Georgia about 40 years ago. He’d given himself five years to land a record deal before heading back home if it didn’t work out. “After five years, I finally got a record contract. We recorded the first album. We were so excited, put out the first single on the radio, and it died a terrible death,” he said. The label decided to take a chance on another song instead, and that decision changed everything. That song was “Here in the Real World,” his breakthrough 1990 hit, which he performed shortly after telling the story.
Jackson, 67, announced his retirement from touring in May 2025 at the final stop of his “Last Call: One More for the Road” tour in Milwaukee. He’s battled Charcot Marie Tooth disease since 2011, an inherited neurological disorder that damages the peripheral nerves and affects movement, balance and sensation. The condition runs in his family and isn’t typically fatal, but it is progressive, gradually causing muscle weakness and loss of feeling in the extremities.
“I just felt like I had to end it all where it all started, and that’s in Nashville, Tennessee,” Jackson said back in Milwaukee. “I gotta do my last one there.”
He reflected on the four decades since he and his wife first drove into town with a U-Haul trailer in tow, chasing a dream that turned into a career few artists ever get to have.
For every ticket sold to the finale, $1 will go to the CMT Research Foundation, which funds research toward finding a cure for Charcot Marie Tooth disease. The concert is also set to air as a prime time TV special and stream on Peacock later this year.