After more than three decades on the road, over 1,200 live performances (the vast majority in North America and Canada), Alan Jackson decided it was time to stop touring for good.
The country artist performed for the last time on stage in front of a paying audience at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on May 17. On the final night of his Last Call: One More For The Road Tour, Jackson and his band ran through a 21-song set before finishing with an encore – a cover of K.C Douglas’ 1973 cut, Mercury Boogie.
End of the road for Country Music Hall of Fame star
It brought the curtain down on a grueling trek across the country that started in Biloxi, Mississippi in June 2022 and also signaled the end of Jackson taking his band out on tour.
“Y’all may have heard that I’m winding down,” the Country Music Hall of Famer told a sell-out audience at Fiserv Forum. “In fact, this is my last road show we’re doing. I appreciate it. Y’all gonna make me tear up out here.
“I will say, this is my last road show out here, but we are planning on doing a big finale show in Nashville next summer,” he added. “Just felt like I had to end it all where it all started, and that’s in Nashville, Tennessee. Music City. I got to do my last one there. This is the last one out on the road for me. It’s been a long, sweet ride.”
Winding down for health reasons
Jackson revealed that he is stepped away from the stage for health reasons. In September 2021, he publicly announced that he had been diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease 10 years earlier- CMT is a degenerative condition that affects the nerves connecting the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body, causing motor and sensory problems, muscle weakness and affects balance and walking.
Full circle in Nashville
No date has been set for Jackson’s final appearance on stage, or the venue where it will take place but we do know it will be in Nashville, where he and his wife Denise moved to in 1985.
Nashville was also where he performed Here In the Real World on his Hee Haw debut on September 22 1990 – the moment which brought him to the attention of country fans nationwide.
Jackson enjoyed 35 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and has sold nearly 60 million albums worldwide. Iconic songs like “Chattahoochee,” “Don’t Rock the Jukebox,” “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning),” “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” and “Remember When” are staples of country music.
