Alan Jackson went way down yonder on the Chattahoochee for the last time on Saturday night, performing his signature hit near the end point of his goodbye show at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium.
The event, which also featured George Strait, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Jon Pardi, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Riley Green, Cody Johnson, Lee Ann Womack, and more, was filmed for a concert special to air on NBC marking Jackson’s permanent retirement from touring.
Last year, Jackson announced “One More for the Road – The Finale” after several years of openly discussing his plans to leave live performances behind. In 2021, he revealed a diagnosis of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease to the Today Show, a degenerative disease that impacts balance and mobility. Though Jackson said it does not impair his ability to record new music or affect his life expectancy, it does make performing onstage increasingly difficult as the condition progresses.
Based on Jackson’s own words, “One More for the Road” seems like a goodbye for good. “I never wanted to do the big retirement tour, like people do, then take a year off and then come back,” Jackson told Today. “I think that’s kinda cheesy.”
Jackson’s last album, 2021’s Where Have You Gone, showed that the Country Music Hall of Famer is still as prolific as ever: the bulk of the songs on the album were solo writes, including the title track, which seemed to find him lamenting the current state of country music (“Soft steel guitar, oh, how I’ve missed you” he sang). Not long after, his elegy was answered, as neotraditional sounds have made a big comeback on country radio, led by artists like Zach Top and Midland.
Earlier this week, Jackson also released a cover of Orleans’ “Still the One,” as a tribute to his wife and high school sweetheart, Denise.
