Alan Jackson Interview: 'Thirty Miles West' Album Captures Singer's Heartbreak and Triumph

There's a tune on Alan Jackson's new album, Thirty Miles West, that the father of three wrote for his daughters titled "Her Life's a Song." In a broader sense, the same could be said for Alan himself. Over the last two decades, his life has been one hit song after another as he's both celebrated life's sweetest moments and tried to make sense of tragedy by strapping on a guitar and pouring out his heart in a song. The Georgia-born entertainer once again sets his life to music on Thirty Miles West, a 13-song set that includes such uptempo tunes as "Dixie Highway," which features his pal Zac Brown, and the poignant "When I Saw You Leaving (For Nisey)," a love song to his wife Denise that shares his feelings about her battle with cancer. For Alan Jackson, the adage "write you know" remains the key to his songwriting career and, indeed, to his success. "I don't feel like I've tried to change my style of writing to fit in with anything different," Alan tells The Boot. "I'm still writing about things that [are] going on in life. You just write about things that happen. With this album I wrote a song about Denise going through her cancer." Alan is grateful for the accolades, but nothing is more important to him than family, and his world was rocked when he got the news that Denise had cancer. He chronicles those emotions in "When I Saw You Leaving (For Nisey)," the closing track on the album. "It's a scary word, cancer," Alan says quietly. "That song just came out of all of that. I never mentioned it until I had the cut done and then I played it for her. She cried ... I don't think she likes to listen to it on the album much."...more