Alan Jackson Says "Baloney" to Change

Alan Jackson photo courtesy of SonyBMG Nashville.

Aug. 3, 2009 — The speed with which things change in society is one of the most frustrating aspects of modern culture — just ask anyone still trying to use Windows 98! — and while Alan Jackson does try to keep up with the pace, he finds himself dragging his heels as often as not.

That’s what’s behind his new single, "I Still Like Bologna," in which Alan runs down a veritable laundry list of new-fangled electronic toys likely to send a technophobe into trauma. There’s satellite dishes, cell phones, laptops, 50-inch plasma-screen TVs, digital music. In the middle of all that stuff, Alan cleverly uses baloney — a lunchmeat that’s packed with fat and cholesterol — as a symbol for the simple things in life.

"I’ve written these songs before about adaptin’ to modern civilization, and sometimes I still don’t fit in very well," Alan says, "but this song evolved from that, and I just started singin’ that chorus and there it was. You know, ‘I still like bologna on white bread now and then,’ ’cause it just sounded like the perfect way to say that I’m aware of all the modern technology and do adapt to some of it, and the health — better eating and diet policies — but every now and then, I still like that bologna on white bread."

The Internet remains a relatively new technology, and anyone who was playing around on it this past weekend might have discovered that Alan was still indulging his interest in an old technology. Alan — who declared his love of old boats in the first verse of "Drive (For Daddy Gene)" — visited the Antique Boat Museum’s annual auction and show in Clayton, N.Y., according to The Watertown Daily Times. Alan had five of his own boats up for sale at the event.