Alan Jackson sure had a helluva night at the CMA Awards yesterday.
He was honored with the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement award, which is of course undoubtedly deserved, if not overdue.
And prior to his beautiful and moving acceptance speech, some of country music’s biggest names took the stage to celebrate him with a medley of his biggest hits.
Carrie Underwood opened the performance by saying that Alan Jackson was her first concert growing up, speaking some about his impact on the genre, before going into a bit of his hit “Remember When”:
“It’s my honor to be here tonight as we honor Alan Jackson with the CMA Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award. The very first concert I ever went to was an Alan Jackson concert. Seeing him perform helped inspire me to pursue my dreams.
It’s been said that country music is three chords and the truth, and in every one of Alan Jackson’s songs, there is truth. For his powerful voice speaks to us about hope and heartache, about fun and friendship, about tragedy and triumph, about life and little about love.
Alan you have friends in every corner of this great country, and a special few of them are here tonight to honor you.”
Lainey Wilson, Dierks Bentley and Jon Pardi then took the stage to sing “Chattahoochee,” “Drive,” and “Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow,” respectively.
Alan then surprised the crowd with a rousing performance of “Don’t Rock the Jukebox,” which was awesome to see, and the crowd clearly loved every second of it, not that I would expect anything less.
This medley was definitely a highlight of the evening, so make sure you check it out if you haven’t seen it yet:
And his awesome speech after the performance: