Alan Jackson Looks Back

Alan Jackson performs "Good Time" at "The 42nd Annual CMA Awards," on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008, live from the Sommet Center in Nashville on the ABC Television Network. Photographer: Donn Jones / Provided by Country Music Association.

Dec. 3, 2008 — If you were to ask Alan Jackson if 2008 was a good year, he might well answer, "50/50." Not because he’s uncertain, but because the number 50 was significant: His record label threw a party recognizing sales of 50 million albums, and he reached the age of 50 in October.

The number 20 also matters, because next year marks two decades since Alan signed his first recording contract with Arista Records.

"Right now at 50, you look back, and golly, there's no way I can remember all the places I've been and things I've done," he told The Fresno Bee.

The milestones of 2008 were never part of his career plan. When he first hit Nashville in the mid 1980s, he took a mailroom job with an idea that he and his wife, Denise, would stay in town for about five years; if he couldn’t make it, he’d go back to Georgia and live out his life with no regrets.

"I was young and trying to get going," he said. "I didn't think that far into the future. At that point you're just trying to get on the map, get a hit song on the radio. It's such a gradual deal. Back then, I thought if you lasted three or four or five years, that would be a huge career. I never thought and said, 'When I'm 50 years old, I'm going to have hits on the radio.'"

Even today, Alan doesn’t have a lot of specific future goals, although it’s a safe bet he wouldn’t mind having hits at age 51.

"I don't know what else I can do in the music business," he said. "Just keep making music and hope somebody likes it."