July 22, 2026 • 41 mins
Bobby counts down his top 10 Alan Jackson songs and shares the personal stories, memories and fun facts behind each pick. He talks about growing up listening to Alan, the guitar Alan gave him with the message “keep it country,” and their memorable first meeting. Along the way, Bobby breaks down classics like “Chattahoochee,” “Don’t Rock the Jukebox” and “Remember When,” reveals which songs surprised him by being covers, and explains why Alan Jackson remains one of country music’s greatest songwriters.
Watch The BobbyCast on Netflix!
Follow on Instagram: @TheBobbyCast
Follow on TikTok: @TheBobbyCast
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Everybody it is not Alan Jackson. So he thought I was,
I know, that's me, Bobby, and so we're gonna talk
about Alan Jackson. So we're gonna do, according to me,
the greatest ten Alan Jackson songs of all time. If
you're like me and you grew up listening to country music,
you probably have a absolute affinity for Alan Jackson and his songs,
(00:31):
and you can hear certain songs from Alan Jackson. I
know exactly where you were in your lifetime depending on
when they came out, And for me grew up listen
to Alan Jackson, and Chattahoochie for sure is on the list,
but like I know exactly where I was when Chattahoochie
was playing on the radio. Never really thought i'd meet
Alan Jackson. I have two stories. One he sent a
(00:51):
guitar to me, and on the guitar he signed at
Alan Jackson and he wrote keep a country with parentheses
around it. Now. I debated if he wanted just me
to keep a country like I already am, or if
he was mad at me and going, hey, you need
to keep a country. Never really had an answer to that,
but I still have that guitar. Number two. It was
(01:13):
the ACMs. I believe it might have been the fiftieth
because it was in Texas, and so it was very
special because it was fifty years of the ACMs and
there was a big outdoor show and I was doing
stand up comedy, and it was a lot of artists
on this outdoor stage just kind of intermittenly playing, and
(01:33):
as the evening got later, more people showed up. And
it's pretty cool because I was one of the artists
that was performing at the end of the night and
it was almost all music except for me. And so
I'm up and I have like a twenty minute set
to the thousands of people that are there waiting to
see Alan Jackson because he's playing right after me. Now,
(01:55):
at this point, I'd never met Alan Jackson. So I'm
doing my set and I look over in the corner
and I see an extremely tall guy in blue jeans.
It looks exactly like I look now, standing there, very quiet,
very solemn, just waiting for his turn to go on stage.
So I finished my set and I did. Okay, it
(02:16):
wasn't my best set because it was an outdoor environment. Also,
I'm only mildly funny, So I walk over to the
side and I say, mister Jackson, I'm Bobby Bones. Always
been a big fan, just wanted to say hi. Now.
He's a tall guy, just a big fella in general.
And he looked down at me said, saw you out
(02:36):
there telling jokes? You're the guy in the Radio two.
I said, yes, sir, I am. He said, how about that?
I said, Then he walked off and played it, but
he gave me a solid how about that? So you know,
I've been kind of confused on the R two interactions.
Hey keep it country and how about that? But you
know what, I've got two real interactions with freaking Alan Jackson.
(02:58):
He did my radio show a couple times, but he
was on zoom both times, which again, why wouldn't. Maybe
Alan Jackson hates me. I don't think he does, And
even if he did, I love Alan Jackson. I'm a
massive fan. And we're talking about his music now because
he just performed his last show ever and it was
a pretty cool show where he had a lot of
artists that came up and performed before him, like opened
for him, that are massive in country music now, Carrie Underwood,
(03:21):
Luke Bryant, you could go on and on, and I
believe they're going to release that as a live album
and also stream that show. So pretty cool, deserved respect
Country Music Hall of Fame. A couple of cool stories
about him. His wife helped him be discovered at the airport,
which is kind of cool. So Denise Jackson was working
(03:43):
as a flight attendant in the early eighties when she
spotted freaking Glenn Campbell in the boarding area of the airport,
and so she worked up the nerve to walk over
and pitch her husband, Alan Jackson to Glenn Campbell Ranstone Cowboy,
Glenn Campbell, wrecking crew, Glenn Campbell like that dude, and
he's like, hey, he's really good. He can sing. I
(04:05):
really think you should take a chance on him. And
so what Glenn Campbell did is he gave her the
publishing company's card that he owned, and so she took that.
They made the calls, and eventually that was it. Like
that's how the first deal happened for Alan Jackson. It
led to his first songwriting deal and eventually his move
to Nashville because they were still in Georgia at the time.
(04:28):
It's kind of the Jerry Maguire pitch of country music,
except this worked and it was his wife doing the pitching,
not him, but you get it's pretty cool story. His
wife at the airport, who was a flight attendant. Also
just seeing Glenn Campbell in the airport like that would
be crazy too. So that's number one. Another thing about
Alan Jackson. When you think about him, you think about
the cowboy hat, you think about the mustache. The cowboy hat,
(04:49):
I would say it's kind of a cover up more
than it is a stage costume. So as a teenager,
Alan Jackson ran through a glass door and when he did,
hit a huge skull on his forehead. So he started
wearing the hat to hide it and then just never stopped.
And forty years later it's again the hat and the
mustache the most recognizable visual things about Alan Jackson. Really
(05:12):
one of the most famous cowboy hats in country music.
Who else do you put there? Garth Alan Jackson, Like
that's it. And it all started because he was a
little self conscious as a teenager. Really wasn't a stylist,
idea or anything else. So let's talk Alan Jackson. Let's
talk his songs. We're going to start at number ten.
(05:33):
She's got the rhythm, I got the blues. Oh what
a jam? Nineteen ninety two. She's got the rhythm parentheses,
I love a good parentheses and I Got the Blues.
It was from the album A lot about living parentheses
and a little about love. We're double parentheses in here.
This is an Amazing Day. So he wrote that with
Randy Boudoir, and this was a number one song, and
(05:56):
I think it was like his seventh to number one song.
It was up in the mix there. The interesting thing
about this song is that it's upbeat, yes, but it's
actually a heartbreak song. Something Alan Jackson was kind of
good at was making songs that kind of sounded peppy
but actually were sad, and so he loved writing songs
that sounded happy if you were just listening and not
paying attention, but if you listen to them, they really
(06:19):
weren't happy at all. And this song was about getting
your heartbroken because She's got the rhythm and I Got
the Blues at number ten on the Greatest Alan Jackson
Songs at number nine and it's gonna be hard for
me not to sing every one of them. But I
give you just a little taste and a little loft
key okay at number nine from nineteen ninety Jason thatd
(06:41):
knee on Rainboh, what a jam from here in the
real world. Alan Jackson wrote it with Jim McBride. It's
gonna be hard for me not to say, man, that
song's a jam after every song too, So please indulge
me if I do. This is an auto biographical look
at him just chasing the dream, I mean chasing that
(07:03):
neon rainbow. You know, from him playing small town bars
what she talks about in the song, to hoping for
a record deal. It very much mirrors his journey from
rural Georgia to Nashville. So chasing that neon rainbow, he
chased it, he found it before being famous Alan Jackson,
in case you didn't know, when he moved to Nashville
(07:23):
worked in a mail room. And this song is that story.
So at number nine, chasing that Neon Rainbow, all right,
or at number eight from nineteen ninety four, living on Love,
and I can only sing so much or I will
be fined or charged. So even though it's a short
(07:44):
snippet and it's a little loft key, I can only
give you so much, or Netflix or the Alan Jackson
estate will find me dramatically. And you know what, I
like the money that I've made, so at number eight
Living on Love from the album Who I Am. Here's
the cool thing about this song. It was written solely
by Alan Jackson. It's one of the greatest country songs
(08:07):
ever that Alan Jackson wrote by himself. So one, it's
amazing that you just sat down and wrote it, but
two the money he made because he wrote the whole
thing by himself. In Nashville, most songs are written by two,
mostly three people at a time. You know, this town
(08:30):
very much is lunch pale, go to work. You're in
a room with other writers. You go in at ten am,
you're done by three. Everybody's got an idea too. It's
a factory get out with the song. And this whole
town's like that. And a lot of times whenever you
go in with these folks, sometimes you don't know them,
you've never met them before. You're being set up by
your publishing company. So most songs are co wrights. Now
(08:53):
a lot of Alan Jackson songs were co writes. Even
then you're gonna see it. There's a lot of just
two person co writes with Alan Jackson. But for him
to do this by himself awesome. So it's one of
his signature love songs. Basically, it's about celebrating couples who
make it through life with not a lot of money,
but plenty of love. Obviously, it was another number one
(09:15):
hit and just Living on Love. A lot of people
think that it was inspired by his relationship with his
wife Denise, who he married before he had Fay more money,
which if we go back to the airport, that's what's up.
So Alan Jackson number eight with Living on Love number seven,
(09:36):
Midnight in Montgomery. It's hard for me not to put this.
This is one I consider for number one, and I think, listen,
it's not a deep cut because I think if you're
an Alan Jackson fan or just a country music fan,
you know the song. So I'm not throwing out a
B side that you've never heard before. It wasn't one
of his biggest chart hits, but if you love Alan Jackson,
(09:59):
you love the song for couple of reasons. It's a
tribute to Hank Williams. That's what the song is. It's
kind of sonically haunting. It's kind of a cool way
to say it's kind of a ballot, huh. I kind
of that's cool. I like that I did that. It's
not it's sonically haunting. I want to use that somewhere else.
And if you do hear me use it somewhere else,
don't tell on me that I've already used it once before.
(10:21):
So it's a tribute to Hank Williams, and it's basically
him imagining encountering the ghost of Hank Williams outside of Montgomery, Alabama,
where Hank Williams died. I thought about this at number one.
It's that good of a song. But whenever I do
these lists, there's a bit of a formula because a
little bit chart success, a little bit album success, a
(10:44):
little bit of lasting power, all these factor are in.
But it easily it could have been number one mid
not in Montgomery freaking jams, and it's at number seven
here at number six from the year two thousand and
one where I come from. Oh come on, that's a
(11:05):
damn from the album when Somebody Loves You. It was
solely written by Alan Jackson. Guy's just counting counting dollar bills.
He's like Pablo Escobar. I had so much money, he'd
just go out into a field somewhere in Columbia and
there's just money in a field, and he even forgot
he had it there. That's what Alan Jackson's like. I've
had just so much money from writing all these songs,
(11:25):
but he wrote that by himself. Where I Come From
is funny too, And Alan Jackson wasn't always the funny guy.
Rarely was the funny guy, but when he did, it worked.
And then even songs like and Idy Bit he didn't
make the list, but like, there are songs where he
does show his humorous side. And so that's what this was.
It's kind of being funny, but it was about southern culture,
(11:46):
small town life. This is if I were making a
list of Alan Jackson sing along songs. This is definitely
a top three corn Bread and chicken front porch picking.
You know what I'm saying. If I think too much
of I'm gonna get fined. But you know what I'm saying.
Number six, Where I Come From. Also, this mustache itches
(12:08):
for those that are just listening and you're not watching.
I committed to the bit. So I've got my cowboy
hat on and i have an Alan Jackson blonde mustache
taped to my face. That's probably gonna make me break
out when I take this off. But not only that,
I look like Sam Elliott. I really tried for Alan Jackson,
(12:29):
and I think I ended up. If Sam Elliott was
the lead singer of Wheezer. I think that's where I
am at this point while I do this list. So
if you're just listening, just know I look ridiculous. If
you're watching, thank you for watching. At number five, when
you think of that season after spring, that summer obviously,
(12:56):
and you think about, well, you wish it were summer longer,
so it makes you a little blue. That's a terrible
way to set that song, summertime blues. You get it.
There ain't no cure for the summertime blues. I was
really trying there. Obviously, I don't have this written out.
I'm just going off the top of my head here.
But at number five on my list is Summertime Blues
(13:18):
from nineteen ninety four, the album Who I Am This is?
It's a cover. Who knew? I didn't know. Whenever I
saw he didn't write it, I thought, oh, cheaped down,
huh got a little lazy one day. No, it was
a cover. It's a great song. He put a country
spin on one of the most famous rock songs. From
way way back in the day took it all the
(13:39):
way to number one. It had already been a hit
for Eddie Cochran, for I Don't Know Who Blue Cheer Is,
and for the Who. This song had four lives, which
is crazy, and all four of the songs were right
because there ain't no cure for the summertime blues. So
it is a country classic and it didn't even start
(14:00):
as a country song. That's pretty legit. I love when
I do something about somebody I love and I learned
something new. And if you're a music snob and you
knew that, and you're like, how did you not know that?
Suck it. I didn't know that, and I know a lot,
but suck it because I didn't know that. And I
want to be honest with you, if you're watching and
listening right now, I did go and listen to the
other versions though after I found that out. It's pretty cool. Alan,
(14:22):
you did a good job. You did a good job
on that song. Alan, I know you're watching, all.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Right, Hank tight the Bobby Cast. We'll be right back,
and we're back on the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Number four. This is personally my favorite Alan Jackson song.
This is how you know too. I'm not just using
bias to make the list. Now, before I tell you
what song it is one. It's a very catchy, upbeat,
it's fun. But it being on Home Improvement completely made
(15:05):
this my number one song. And not because I look
at it and go, well, if it was on home improvement,
it must be awesome.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
No.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
I was completely a one home improvement junkie back in
the day, and when Alan Jackson went on Tool Time
on Home Improvement, it was world's colliding. It's like when
Arkle went over to Full House. Do you guys remember
that crap? You're like, what is Steve Erkele doing with
Stephanie Tanner. TJF did that a lot though okay she
didn't know. They they're pretty smart because they had a
(15:32):
lot of their shows mixed a little bit because Arcle
also went to Step by Step. Arcle's everywhere on TGIF
and fun fact about TGIF. It's hard to say TGIF
with his mustache on, but fun fact about TGIF shows
like Full House, step by Step. Uh, what's another one?
(15:54):
The guy wrote that, Uh shoot, doom, doom, doom, Let
me get there. It's a rail condition this day in age.
Uh Winslow's I'm gonna get there, I'm gonna get there
and be it in it good news on the newspaper page.
Loving Nah. I think the title of the show's not
(16:15):
in the song, and that's really troubling me. All right,
team name of the show, family freaking matters. Goy Erkle song,
it's the racle song. And also Arkle wasn't even supposed
to be a big part of that show. Like halfway
through the season. He shows up in an episode and
he was so loved by the audience they thought, well,
guess we got to keep him in the show, and
(16:36):
then he became the biggest part of the show. My
point about the songs, they were all sang by the
same guy. He nailed all those. What if that's your job?
Got a new show, Jim, can you do a song?
No problem? Uh? Anyway back to Mercury Blues and Home Improvement.
I always judged people because you had two choices. It
(16:56):
was Home Improvement or Frasier, And I thought, what do
you read books? Are you rich? Why are you watching Fraser?
How do you watch Fraser over home Improvement? Like? I
really thought those people were real snooty. If you picked
Fraser over Home Improvement, but on Tooltime, which was the
show that Tim the Tolman Taylor did on Home Improvement,
him and Al Borland. This is itch in my face
(17:19):
so bad, guys, I have to scratch my fake mustache
for a second. Oh my god, now the hair is
getting into my nose. Alan Jackson came to play live
on Tooltime and they rolled a car out. If I
had money, I tell you what to do. I go
downtown by a Mercury or two, crazy about a Mercury.
(17:39):
I freaking loved Mercury Blues. And another fun fact, Alan
Jackson didn't write it, but it's also a cover. How
about that crap? So Home Improvement has it. It's awesome.
If you go to the video, shadowy hard to see
(18:02):
that it really is him. But Keith Urban's playing guitar
in the video. Now is he really playing guitar? No,
because he didn't play guitar on the song. They just
needed somebody that looked like a guitar player, like a
rock star. So Keith Urban is the guy that they
have in the music video that's faking like he's playing guitar.
And Keith Urban has a story about like Mine from
the first time he met Alan Jackson, where he was
like Messel Jackson, Keith Oben, and then Alan Jackson was like,
(18:24):
why are you talking with an accent that makes no sense?
Are you a hobbit? And He's like, why, ma, my
accent sucks. It's not actually like Keith's. But Keith said,
if I remember correctly, he was like, all right, Dan.
Like that was their whole interaction, and later they became
really good friends. I just think Alan Jackson's a man
a few words. So number four Mercury Blues written by
(18:45):
Casey Douglas and Robert Geddins. It was written in the
nineteen forties. And what I like is Alan Jackson would
just find songs that he loved, even if they weren't country,
and he would just transform them into amazing country music songs.
And I think most people know this. I'm assuming you
watching or listening, I'm assuming you know this, but not
(19:07):
everybody does. Because I was talking about this song with
someone and they thought it was about Mercury, the planet.
This is not a Solar System song. It's about a car,
so the Mercury, and the title refers to the Mercury automobile,
not the planet. Mercury Jam. My favorite Alan Jackson song
is Mercury Blues number three. You know, Chattahoochie's gonna be
(19:32):
on the list, I'm gonna put it at three. If
I would have put it at one, first of all,
I would have been a poser. Because if you have
an artist that you really like and you put their
most famous song as your favorite, you're a poser and
you're a liar. So that's the true story of any
major artist. If you say, man, I'm a crazy John
Mayer fan, and I go what's your favorite song, and
(19:54):
you go bubble Gum Tongue, I'm like, you're full of crap.
And it's not even called bubble gum Tongue. It's called
Your Body's of Wonderland. And that can't be your favorite song.
If you're a John Mayer fan, you have to pick
something a little more. I'm not gonna say B B side,
But for me, my favorite John Mayor's song, because he's
my favorite artist of all time is Stop this Train.
(20:19):
Stop this train. I wanna get off and go home again.
It's about just getting older, It's about life coming at you.
My favorite lyric ever in any songs from Stop This
Train from John Mayer. It's I'm so tired of getting older.
I'm only good at being young, and you play a
(20:40):
numbers game just to show that life is just begun.
Paired a little paraphrase there, but like I felt that
because John Mayer was like the kid, the genius kid.
He's getting older and his parents are getting older, and
he's like, this is crazy. He stopped this train. I
want to get off my favorite. I gotta have that
lyric framed. I don't know where it is, but I
do have a frame somewhere, maybe in my house when
(21:02):
I moved. I don't know. I think the mover stole
stuff for me when we moved last time. That'd be
a weird thing to steal because I haven't seen it
in a while. But I do love that song. And
if your favorite artist has a song and their biggest
song is your favorite song, and that's not your favorite
artist and your opposer, So Chattahoochie can't be your number
one Alan Jackson song unless you're a casual, which you
(21:23):
might be number three Chattahoochie. He wrote that with Jim McBride,
this is the definitive Alan Jackson song, though I mean
the guitar like at the beginning itself is all you
need to hear to know. Chattahoochie's on the music video,
which you may not remember if you're younger. But for
someone that grew up in the nineties and watched CMT
(21:45):
the water skiing Epic, what's wild is those pants are
in the Country Music Hall of Fame. At least they
were the last time that I was there, and I
try to go once every year and a half or so.
Great exhibit. If you come to Nashville, you should go
to the Country Music Hall of Fame. They don't pay me. Actually,
I donate to them every year because it is so
(22:05):
much fun and they change out the exhibits so often.
I had a coach hit me up, who is the
head coach of a Division one big team, and he said, Hey,
come in to town. What should I do? Now, I'm
not a tour guide guy. I don't know what do
I know about Nashville. I live here, so I don't
know the cool stuff that you do if you come here,
because I don't do that stuff. But I said, the
one thing that you do if you come to Nashville
(22:27):
is you go to the Country Music Hall of Fame
and not only that pay the extra for the guide.
Best money you'll spend because you can walk through it
and you can appreciate it. But if you have a
guy that can tell you stories about the stuff and
take you to the things that they don't want you
to miss, it's an epic experience. So it's paid for
(22:49):
by the Nashville towards A Bureau. Not really, no money
was changed. Actually I give them money. But they had
the exhibit on Alan Jackson and it still may be there,
and it's his genes from when he was water skiing,
and they're kind of on a Mannigan's legs Manniquin's legs.
And in the video they're dark and I was confused
at why they were so light until I realized I'm stupid,
(23:11):
and they were wet when they were dark in the
music video. And the drier the jeans get, the lighter
they get. But had it was them, it had the
big holes in the pants. It's crazy to see. I
know it ain't the Mona Lisa like the real one,
but to see Alan Jackson's pants from the Chattahoochee video,
that's pretty cool. I did see the Mona Lisa once
(23:32):
my wife and I went to Europe and the thing's
in Paris, right in the louver. Went to a lot
of museums, so I think it's in the louver. The louver,
so we go down and I've only ever seen the
louver really in uh Tom Hanks the movie where he's like,
(23:58):
I don't know, read the book and then turn to
a movie and he's trying to figure out the da
Vinci code. I got there. So we go to the
liuver and we get the guide. I love getting a guide.
My wife sometimes gets annoyed when we get a guide
because I want to ask a lot of questions. And
we go to the louver and I say I want
to see the Mona Lisa, and they say so does
(24:20):
everybody else. That's why most people come here. And I say, okay,
can we go now because I want to see it first,
and they say okay. So they walk us pretty far
back to the back and there it's like fifteen rows
deep of people. And I've been told how super small
it is because mostly people say, yeah, the Mona Lisa.
It's much smaller in person. So in my mind I
(24:43):
expected that thing to be a postage stamp whenever I
got back there, so here. I am, my wife and
a tour guide. We're to love and we're going back
to the Mona Lisa. And there's fifteen rows deep and
you can't get right up on it. There's a glass
wall that has the painting inside of it. There's a
like a velvet rope probably five feet from it. Imagine
like a club with a bouncer, because there is basically
(25:05):
a bouncer and you don't get to go through the rope.
But they stand there and everybody has their phone over
and they're taking pictures and you're looking at it. What
I remember about the size of it because I was
told it was so small. My whole life it was massive.
So that's what I do about my wiener So small, tiny,
(25:27):
so tiny? Oh my god. So the Mona Lisa, Eh,
it's fine. It wasn't even famous though, Like that painting
was not famous as a painting as it was painted,
or even as it was sold. You know why that
thing is so famous because somebody stole it, and it
was stolen when they hunted it down, it was like
(25:47):
the Mona Lisa stolen. It wasn't that Da Vinci painted
the thing and people said that is art. We're gonna
make the most famous painting ever. Its to No, it's
that it got stolen and that made it more famous.
That's crazy. Anyway, I saw it, took a picture of it.
Pretty cool when walked around the loom of the rest
of the day. Pretty neat experience. Okay, anyway, we're Chattahoochie.
I saw those pants and so I got to that
(26:10):
the whole exhibit thing. So this is the song. If
you're introducing someone to country music, they need to know Chattahoochie.
And it's basically celebrating growing up in rural Georgia and
everything that comes with small town summers. There's a couple
of lines in the song that are fun and kind
of fun but kind of creepy, like not so creepy
(26:33):
because good for him, But he was willing and she
wasn't ready. Good maybe don't share that part of the experience.
I was willing, she wasn't ready. So they settled for
a burger and a grape snow cone, and you know what,
he dropped off early. Good for him, good guy, like
just let it happen. Didn't go home, rural Georgia for you.
(26:58):
The video one CMA music video, The U and he
said many times that he hated filming the water skiing
scenes because he wasn't really a water skier. What I
know him from mostly music video wise, is him water skiing,
and he's like, I don't even really like water skiing.
I'm not that good at it. And number two one
of the strongest starting songs. Now, before I tell you
(27:21):
the song, a lot of these songs you play it
from the star like Chattoochee, Mercury Blues, great guitar links
that you know the song by the first ten to
twelve seconds of the song. This song, no guitar. It
just fires off right from the start from the chorus. Rare,
(27:43):
and think about that rare that a song will start
with the chorus. There's only a couple big ones, and
I'm sure there's many, many, many that I can think of.
But I was talking to Stephen Tyler once name Drop
Aerosmith lead singer, and we were talking about sweet emotion
mustash just breaking pitching me. I keep thinking there's a
bug in my mouth and it's the hair from this
(28:05):
eighty four cent fake mustache.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Anyway, hang tight, the Bobby Cast will be right back,
and we're back on the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
I was talking to Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and he
was talking about Sweet Emotion, and he said it was
groundbreaking that we started that song with the chorus, and
if you think about it, it's a build up and
then it goes sweet emoge. That's the chorus, right, And
(28:46):
he said people looked at us like we were crazy.
Our record label thought it was crazy. We started with
the chorus. And so that's not done a lot. It's
done a little more now. But this song did that
nineteen ninety one, right out of the stop Don't Rock
the Box. I want to hear some Jones. Oh man,
what a freaking jam that was. This song pretty much
(29:10):
became an unofficial anthem for country music fans who preferred
classic country over pop influence country. But that argument was
fought then, it's fought now, it'll be fought in ten years.
That arguments never actually settled. And what was traditional back
then fifteen years before that was it's weird. Man. Don't
get me started on the DA ain't country music, but
(29:32):
Don't Rock the Jukebox at number two on my list.
I was at Disney World once. It's a cool story,
and I worked on American Idol for four years. It
was a really great four years for me, and on
that show, I was a mentor to all the contestants
once they got into around the top twenty four. So
(29:53):
I was on every episode and really one of the
reasons I was there is in case Ryan got sick,
I had to fill in out to fill in, and
that did happen on one whole show. I had to host,
and then at times just random spots with people. And
rarely would I be in LA and I'd have an
off day because if we finished taping the show and
(30:15):
did the live show, I've just come back home because
I had the radio show to do. So was in LA.
It was getting near the end of the season and
we had two days. We were working one off day
and then we're back on for another day because we
were shooting like two episodes that week. Never had an
off day in LA except for this one time. And
we had finished that first two days and there's like
(30:35):
a red carpet thing that you do afterward. Red Carpet's
weird because it's not that type of carpet, but you
go and talk to the press after and they're asking
questions and one of the guys from ABC came up
and said, hey, you're staying in town, right, I guess, said,
he said, you should go to I guess it's disney
Land in LA. I'd never been to anything Disney at
this point, and I said I was by myself. I said,
I don't know. I don't have family or anything. Is it? No? No, No,
(30:58):
you work for Disney You should go to Disneyland. And
he gave me a number on the back of a card.
So I called the number and rang and they answered, huh,
it is Mickey. It's freaking Mickey who answered the call.
No it wasn't, but it was somebody who worked at
Disneyland who does VIP packages. And I said, hey, it's
(31:21):
Bobby Bones. I was told to call. I work for
American Idol. Can I come to Disneyland? And they said, yep,
be at this place you know, ten am. We'll meet
you there. I get to Disneyland and it's a little
bit of a drive and so I drive out there.
I'm by myself. It's kind of weird. I'm gonna don't
man go into Disneyland by myself, creepy, moutaware or a trench coat,
you know, I mean? And so I go and a
(31:45):
person meets me. That's one of those VIP guides. They
kind of walks you around the park and you get
to cut all the lines and stuff. And she's so
nice and she's like, Okay, what do you want to do.
And I'm like, I don't know. I've never been here,
so let's just go ride some rides. So I'm by myself.
I'm not by myself anymore. I do have a person
with me, that's thank god. And so we're going and
we're cutting the line of every line. This is a
(32:07):
a Sunday because maybe back on on Monday. We're cutting
every line, riding every ride, going underneath rides sometimes to
get to other rides, so there's no people there. And
I ride this there's like a big screen in your
you're tossing you around. And I get off this thing
and she says, okay, we're not going to go out
the traditional way. Following me, we go through a tunnel.
(32:27):
We'd come out the top and there's another guide with
another like family. So it's me my guide of family,
and it looks like two women and a kid. As
they get closer, I realize there's not a woman. It
was Stephen Tyler, who looked like a woman from dude
looks like a lady, you know what I'm saying. And
so I see Stephen Tyler and I'd spent like three
(32:48):
instances with them, never for more than fifteen minutes. I
don't expect Stephen Tyler to remember anything about me, because
that guy's been famous for so long, since the late seventies.
And we're at Disneyland, and so I don't want to
bother him, but we're walking right beside each other, and
I say, hey, Stephen Tyler and Bobby Bones. Wow, Bobby Ball,
(33:09):
how you been house to Nashville. Immediately knew and remember me.
It was crazy.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
It was great.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Stephen tylerd's like hounds. He talks like that in real
life too, but he's so nice. Stephen Tyler was so nice,
so that was pretty cool. And he told me a
story once about whenever Aerosmith was relatively new, so not
just starting out, because you got to think they were
big in the seventies too, that Freddie Mercury would ride
(33:36):
on the tour bus with them before Queen got big
and like take a bunk like by himself. That's crazy
because he would go on before Aerosmith's with Queen before
Queen blew up. Come on, that's wild, So don't ride
the jukebox starts with the chorus It's my number two song.
(33:56):
It's still a jam today and it starts off. Next
time you hear that song, just think about Oh it
was chorus first, which is pretty rare that it doesn't
do verse chorus Boom starts with the chorus number one,
Here we are. Have you thought about what songs that
happen said yet? Because now time for in my opinion,
(34:19):
the greatest Alan Jackson song. And Alan Jackson is for
sure a top five artist of the nineties wherever you
want to insert him. For sure, you got to go
in no order with these three Garth, Shanaiah, George Strait Like,
for sure they're top three, but you can argue for
it's Alan Jackson. So what's the number one song from
(34:43):
a top five artist of the nineties. Well, it's not
even a song from the nineties. He put the song
out in two thousand and three. This song was also
solely written by Alan Jackson. This song makes me emotional sometimes.
Basically it's a reflection of an entire marriage, from being
(35:10):
young to getting older. To raising kids, growing older together.
I mean, remember when, remember when thirty seems so old?
Oh my god, that song is awesome. If you don't
feel something when you hear that song, turn this off,
(35:32):
leave go. If you do feel something or in the
right place together and I'm glad you're here. Number one,
Remember when what a jam? He wrote it as a
tribute to his wife Denise. She appears with them in
the music video. It is such a great song. It's
number one for me for so many reasons. That's what's up.
(35:57):
There are more songs I did. There are songs that
I I really thought, how can I not put this in?
And I made a list of his top ten songs
that I didn't put in. We'll start at number twenty.
I'm just kidding, but where were you in the world?
Stop turning? It was hard for me not to put
that in because it was a great song that was
specific to nine to eleven in that time and nailed it.
(36:19):
Obviously perfect song. But when I hear that song, I
think in nine to eleven like that to me is
such a because the people are going to say, how
did you not put that song in? And you're right,
Except this is my list so you're wrong about my list.
But that song is such a time capsule of that time,
and that's why I didn't put it in because I
think it makes me sad, it makes thinking nine to eleven.
(36:40):
I don't know. I didn't put it in. Also, Drive
was one that I really fought with that Drives a
jam too, but they didn't make it. But my number
one song. Remember when Alan Jackson has twenty six number
one songs. Now he has the thirty six if you
(37:00):
count like all the charts. There's like weird charts and
airplay here, but not built. I just went straight Billboard
Country charts. So he has maybe twenty six, twenty six,
twenty seven, I Love You All over Again, Don't Rock
the Jukebox Someday, Dallas Love's got a Hold on You jam.
(37:23):
Really thought about that one in the oldest too. She's
got the rhythm, Chattahoochie, Summertime Blues, Living on Love. One
that didn't make the list, that was on the initial
list before I cut it down. She's gone country, look
at the him boots. That was a jam too. Or
when it comes to funny songs, I don't even know
your name, that's a great Alan Jackson song Tall Tall Trees.
(37:46):
Are you kidding me? How did that not make the list?
You idiot? That's a great song too. Another number one song,
I'll try little Bitty there it goes right on the money.
It must be love. I'm reading all the number ones.
Where I come from? Where were you in the world?
Stop turning? Drive? Drive is good. I might have missed
by not butting drive in there. But it's five o'clock somewhere.
(38:07):
That one not for me. Not a beach guy, never drank,
doesn't really appeal to me. Never really a buffet guy either,
But it was a massive song. So it's five o'clock somewhere.
Remember when small Town Southern Man? Good Time country Boy?
And if You're gonna count It with Zach Brown Band
as She's walking away, so which was kind of a jam.
(38:29):
So those are my top ten Alan Jackson songs. I'm
taking this mustache off? Oh my god, thank you? That
is how's it hold on? What if I flip it
like this? Flip it?
Speaker 3 (38:43):
Oh? There you go? Now like a beard?
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Yeah? How about that?
Speaker 3 (38:49):
You almost look like a California surfer.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Yeah, now I'm on a switch foot. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
Hey, you want to know a fun fact, i'd love
pleas on Jackson.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Please, did you ever write that's Brandon by the way
behind the camera? You ever write with Alan Jackson?
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Never wrote with Alan Jackson opened a few like festivals
for him, like I played at like eleven in the
morning and he played eleven at night. You know, But
can you name a number one country song by another
artist that Alan Jackson wrote?
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Hmmm, we're gonna be here a while if I have
to guess, so can you give me a hint?
Speaker 3 (39:25):
All right?
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Because I don't know the answer just from that?
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Okay? It was it was a nineties country artist, not
as big, but you know, had a bunch of hits.
The artist, the artist? Do you want me to tell him?
Tell you his name? No?
Speaker 1 (39:42):
I mean, is that the only hint you're gonna give me?
Speaker 3 (39:44):
I mean, I don't know how to when you when
you hear the song, you're like, oh my god, that's
that's that'd be that'd been a perfect Alan Jackson song,
But it was a reject. He's like, I don't know,
give it to this guy.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Okay, so let's play. Let me try to name the artist. Okay,
what does the artist where?
Speaker 2 (40:00):
He?
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Is he? A hat act?
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Hat act.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Yeah, okay, there's only a few. Then I'm gonna go diffy,
not a hat act. How about clay Walker? Is it
klay Walker? Oh? Okay? Good? Guess what's the most Alan
Jackson song that Clay Walker sings.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
Here's a hint. It starts with a chorus, oh oh.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
If I can make a living, there you go. If
I can make a living, I loving you be a
millionaire in a week or two. Alan Jackson wrote that
he wrote that that's a good story than how about that?
And now I have some sort of disease on my
lip and we've talked about the top ten Alan Jackson songs.
What a day this has been, so thank you very much, everybody.
(40:45):
Don't forget follow me over on Instagram at mister Bobby Bones.
Big shout out to Alan Jackson. If you watch this,
remember me. Yeah, okay, thank you, Bye, everybody, have a
great rest of the day. Thanks for listening to the
Bobby Cast.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Share this episode with a friend because they don't pay
to advertise us.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
M
Everybody it is not Alan Jackson. So he thought I was,
I know, that's me, Bobby, and so we're gonna talk
about Alan Jackson. So we're gonna do, according to me,
the greatest ten Alan Jackson songs of all time. If
you're like me and you grew up listening to country music,
you probably have a absolute affinity for Alan Jackson and his songs,
(00:31):
and you can hear certain songs from Alan Jackson. I
know exactly where you were in your lifetime depending on
when they came out, And for me grew up listen
to Alan Jackson, and Chattahoochie for sure is on the list,
but like I know exactly where I was when Chattahoochie
was playing on the radio. Never really thought i'd meet
Alan Jackson. I have two stories. One he sent a
(00:51):
guitar to me, and on the guitar he signed at
Alan Jackson and he wrote keep a country with parentheses
around it. Now. I debated if he wanted just me
to keep a country like I already am, or if
he was mad at me and going, hey, you need
to keep a country. Never really had an answer to that,
but I still have that guitar. Number two. It was
(01:13):
the ACMs. I believe it might have been the fiftieth
because it was in Texas, and so it was very
special because it was fifty years of the ACMs and
there was a big outdoor show and I was doing
stand up comedy, and it was a lot of artists
on this outdoor stage just kind of intermittenly playing, and
(01:33):
as the evening got later, more people showed up. And
it's pretty cool because I was one of the artists
that was performing at the end of the night and
it was almost all music except for me. And so
I'm up and I have like a twenty minute set
to the thousands of people that are there waiting to
see Alan Jackson because he's playing right after me. Now,
(01:55):
at this point, I'd never met Alan Jackson. So I'm
doing my set and I look over in the corner
and I see an extremely tall guy in blue jeans.
It looks exactly like I look now, standing there, very quiet,
very solemn, just waiting for his turn to go on stage.
So I finished my set and I did. Okay, it
(02:16):
wasn't my best set because it was an outdoor environment. Also,
I'm only mildly funny, So I walk over to the
side and I say, mister Jackson, I'm Bobby Bones. Always
been a big fan, just wanted to say hi. Now.
He's a tall guy, just a big fella in general.
And he looked down at me said, saw you out
(02:36):
there telling jokes? You're the guy in the Radio two.
I said, yes, sir, I am. He said, how about that?
I said, Then he walked off and played it, but
he gave me a solid how about that? So you know,
I've been kind of confused on the R two interactions.
Hey keep it country and how about that? But you
know what, I've got two real interactions with freaking Alan Jackson.
(02:58):
He did my radio show a couple times, but he
was on zoom both times, which again, why wouldn't. Maybe
Alan Jackson hates me. I don't think he does, And
even if he did, I love Alan Jackson. I'm a
massive fan. And we're talking about his music now because
he just performed his last show ever and it was
a pretty cool show where he had a lot of
artists that came up and performed before him, like opened
for him, that are massive in country music now, Carrie Underwood,
(03:21):
Luke Bryant, you could go on and on, and I
believe they're going to release that as a live album
and also stream that show. So pretty cool, deserved respect
Country Music Hall of Fame. A couple of cool stories
about him. His wife helped him be discovered at the airport,
which is kind of cool. So Denise Jackson was working
(03:43):
as a flight attendant in the early eighties when she
spotted freaking Glenn Campbell in the boarding area of the airport,
and so she worked up the nerve to walk over
and pitch her husband, Alan Jackson to Glenn Campbell Ranstone Cowboy,
Glenn Campbell, wrecking crew, Glenn Campbell like that dude, and
he's like, hey, he's really good. He can sing. I
(04:05):
really think you should take a chance on him. And
so what Glenn Campbell did is he gave her the
publishing company's card that he owned, and so she took that.
They made the calls, and eventually that was it. Like
that's how the first deal happened for Alan Jackson. It
led to his first songwriting deal and eventually his move
to Nashville because they were still in Georgia at the time.
(04:28):
It's kind of the Jerry Maguire pitch of country music,
except this worked and it was his wife doing the pitching,
not him, but you get it's pretty cool story. His
wife at the airport, who was a flight attendant. Also
just seeing Glenn Campbell in the airport like that would
be crazy too. So that's number one. Another thing about
Alan Jackson. When you think about him, you think about
the cowboy hat, you think about the mustache. The cowboy hat,
(04:49):
I would say it's kind of a cover up more
than it is a stage costume. So as a teenager,
Alan Jackson ran through a glass door and when he did,
hit a huge skull on his forehead. So he started
wearing the hat to hide it and then just never stopped.
And forty years later it's again the hat and the
mustache the most recognizable visual things about Alan Jackson. Really
(05:12):
one of the most famous cowboy hats in country music.
Who else do you put there? Garth Alan Jackson, Like
that's it. And it all started because he was a
little self conscious as a teenager. Really wasn't a stylist,
idea or anything else. So let's talk Alan Jackson. Let's
talk his songs. We're going to start at number ten.
(05:33):
She's got the rhythm, I got the blues. Oh what
a jam? Nineteen ninety two. She's got the rhythm parentheses,
I love a good parentheses and I Got the Blues.
It was from the album A lot about living parentheses
and a little about love. We're double parentheses in here.
This is an Amazing Day. So he wrote that with
Randy Boudoir, and this was a number one song, and
(05:56):
I think it was like his seventh to number one song.
It was up in the mix there. The interesting thing
about this song is that it's upbeat, yes, but it's
actually a heartbreak song. Something Alan Jackson was kind of
good at was making songs that kind of sounded peppy
but actually were sad, and so he loved writing songs
that sounded happy if you were just listening and not
paying attention, but if you listen to them, they really
(06:19):
weren't happy at all. And this song was about getting
your heartbroken because She's got the rhythm and I Got
the Blues at number ten on the Greatest Alan Jackson
Songs at number nine and it's gonna be hard for
me not to sing every one of them. But I
give you just a little taste and a little loft
key okay at number nine from nineteen ninety Jason thatd
(06:41):
knee on Rainboh, what a jam from here in the
real world. Alan Jackson wrote it with Jim McBride. It's
gonna be hard for me not to say, man, that
song's a jam after every song too, So please indulge
me if I do. This is an auto biographical look
at him just chasing the dream, I mean chasing that
(07:03):
neon rainbow. You know, from him playing small town bars
what she talks about in the song, to hoping for
a record deal. It very much mirrors his journey from
rural Georgia to Nashville. So chasing that neon rainbow, he
chased it, he found it before being famous Alan Jackson,
in case you didn't know, when he moved to Nashville
(07:23):
worked in a mail room. And this song is that story.
So at number nine, chasing that Neon Rainbow, all right,
or at number eight from nineteen ninety four, living on Love,
and I can only sing so much or I will
be fined or charged. So even though it's a short
(07:44):
snippet and it's a little loft key, I can only
give you so much, or Netflix or the Alan Jackson
estate will find me dramatically. And you know what, I
like the money that I've made, so at number eight
Living on Love from the album Who I Am. Here's
the cool thing about this song. It was written solely
by Alan Jackson. It's one of the greatest country songs
(08:07):
ever that Alan Jackson wrote by himself. So one, it's
amazing that you just sat down and wrote it, but
two the money he made because he wrote the whole
thing by himself. In Nashville, most songs are written by two,
mostly three people at a time. You know, this town
(08:30):
very much is lunch pale, go to work. You're in
a room with other writers. You go in at ten am,
you're done by three. Everybody's got an idea too. It's
a factory get out with the song. And this whole
town's like that. And a lot of times whenever you
go in with these folks, sometimes you don't know them,
you've never met them before. You're being set up by
your publishing company. So most songs are co wrights. Now
(08:53):
a lot of Alan Jackson songs were co writes. Even
then you're gonna see it. There's a lot of just
two person co writes with Alan Jackson. But for him
to do this by himself awesome. So it's one of
his signature love songs. Basically, it's about celebrating couples who
make it through life with not a lot of money,
but plenty of love. Obviously, it was another number one
(09:15):
hit and just Living on Love. A lot of people
think that it was inspired by his relationship with his
wife Denise, who he married before he had Fay more money,
which if we go back to the airport, that's what's up.
So Alan Jackson number eight with Living on Love number seven,
(09:36):
Midnight in Montgomery. It's hard for me not to put this.
This is one I consider for number one, and I think, listen,
it's not a deep cut because I think if you're
an Alan Jackson fan or just a country music fan,
you know the song. So I'm not throwing out a
B side that you've never heard before. It wasn't one
of his biggest chart hits, but if you love Alan Jackson,
(09:59):
you love the song for couple of reasons. It's a
tribute to Hank Williams. That's what the song is. It's
kind of sonically haunting. It's kind of a cool way
to say it's kind of a ballot, huh. I kind
of that's cool. I like that I did that. It's
not it's sonically haunting. I want to use that somewhere else.
And if you do hear me use it somewhere else,
don't tell on me that I've already used it once before.
(10:21):
So it's a tribute to Hank Williams, and it's basically
him imagining encountering the ghost of Hank Williams outside of Montgomery, Alabama,
where Hank Williams died. I thought about this at number one.
It's that good of a song. But whenever I do
these lists, there's a bit of a formula because a
little bit chart success, a little bit album success, a
(10:44):
little bit of lasting power, all these factor are in.
But it easily it could have been number one mid
not in Montgomery freaking jams, and it's at number seven
here at number six from the year two thousand and
one where I come from. Oh come on, that's a
(11:05):
damn from the album when Somebody Loves You. It was
solely written by Alan Jackson. Guy's just counting counting dollar bills.
He's like Pablo Escobar. I had so much money, he'd
just go out into a field somewhere in Columbia and
there's just money in a field, and he even forgot
he had it there. That's what Alan Jackson's like. I've
had just so much money from writing all these songs,
(11:25):
but he wrote that by himself. Where I Come From
is funny too, And Alan Jackson wasn't always the funny guy.
Rarely was the funny guy, but when he did, it worked.
And then even songs like and Idy Bit he didn't
make the list, but like, there are songs where he
does show his humorous side. And so that's what this was.
It's kind of being funny, but it was about southern culture,
(11:46):
small town life. This is if I were making a
list of Alan Jackson sing along songs. This is definitely
a top three corn Bread and chicken front porch picking.
You know what I'm saying. If I think too much
of I'm gonna get fined. But you know what I'm saying.
Number six, Where I Come From. Also, this mustache itches
(12:08):
for those that are just listening and you're not watching.
I committed to the bit. So I've got my cowboy
hat on and i have an Alan Jackson blonde mustache
taped to my face. That's probably gonna make me break
out when I take this off. But not only that,
I look like Sam Elliott. I really tried for Alan Jackson,
(12:29):
and I think I ended up. If Sam Elliott was
the lead singer of Wheezer. I think that's where I
am at this point while I do this list. So
if you're just listening, just know I look ridiculous. If
you're watching, thank you for watching. At number five, when
you think of that season after spring, that summer obviously,
(12:56):
and you think about, well, you wish it were summer longer,
so it makes you a little blue. That's a terrible
way to set that song, summertime blues. You get it.
There ain't no cure for the summertime blues. I was
really trying there. Obviously, I don't have this written out.
I'm just going off the top of my head here.
But at number five on my list is Summertime Blues
(13:18):
from nineteen ninety four, the album Who I Am This is?
It's a cover. Who knew? I didn't know. Whenever I
saw he didn't write it, I thought, oh, cheaped down,
huh got a little lazy one day. No, it was
a cover. It's a great song. He put a country
spin on one of the most famous rock songs. From
way way back in the day took it all the
(13:39):
way to number one. It had already been a hit
for Eddie Cochran, for I Don't Know Who Blue Cheer Is,
and for the Who. This song had four lives, which
is crazy, and all four of the songs were right
because there ain't no cure for the summertime blues. So
it is a country classic and it didn't even start
(14:00):
as a country song. That's pretty legit. I love when
I do something about somebody I love and I learned
something new. And if you're a music snob and you
knew that, and you're like, how did you not know that?
Suck it. I didn't know that, and I know a lot,
but suck it because I didn't know that. And I
want to be honest with you, if you're watching and
listening right now, I did go and listen to the
other versions though after I found that out. It's pretty cool. Alan,
(14:22):
you did a good job. You did a good job
on that song. Alan, I know you're watching, all.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Right, Hank tight the Bobby Cast. We'll be right back,
and we're back on the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Number four. This is personally my favorite Alan Jackson song.
This is how you know too. I'm not just using
bias to make the list. Now, before I tell you
what song it is one. It's a very catchy, upbeat,
it's fun. But it being on Home Improvement completely made
(15:05):
this my number one song. And not because I look
at it and go, well, if it was on home improvement,
it must be awesome.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
No.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
I was completely a one home improvement junkie back in
the day, and when Alan Jackson went on Tool Time
on Home Improvement, it was world's colliding. It's like when
Arkle went over to Full House. Do you guys remember
that crap? You're like, what is Steve Erkele doing with
Stephanie Tanner. TJF did that a lot though okay she
didn't know. They they're pretty smart because they had a
(15:32):
lot of their shows mixed a little bit because Arcle
also went to Step by Step. Arcle's everywhere on TGIF
and fun fact about TGIF. It's hard to say TGIF
with his mustache on, but fun fact about TGIF shows
like Full House, step by Step. Uh, what's another one?
(15:54):
The guy wrote that, Uh shoot, doom, doom, doom, Let
me get there. It's a rail condition this day in age.
Uh Winslow's I'm gonna get there, I'm gonna get there
and be it in it good news on the newspaper page.
Loving Nah. I think the title of the show's not
(16:15):
in the song, and that's really troubling me. All right,
team name of the show, family freaking matters. Goy Erkle song,
it's the racle song. And also Arkle wasn't even supposed
to be a big part of that show. Like halfway
through the season. He shows up in an episode and
he was so loved by the audience they thought, well,
guess we got to keep him in the show, and
(16:36):
then he became the biggest part of the show. My
point about the songs, they were all sang by the
same guy. He nailed all those. What if that's your job?
Got a new show, Jim, can you do a song?
No problem? Uh? Anyway back to Mercury Blues and Home Improvement.
I always judged people because you had two choices. It
(16:56):
was Home Improvement or Frasier, And I thought, what do
you read books? Are you rich? Why are you watching Fraser?
How do you watch Fraser over home Improvement? Like? I
really thought those people were real snooty. If you picked
Fraser over Home Improvement, but on Tooltime, which was the
show that Tim the Tolman Taylor did on Home Improvement,
him and Al Borland. This is itch in my face
(17:19):
so bad, guys, I have to scratch my fake mustache
for a second. Oh my god, now the hair is
getting into my nose. Alan Jackson came to play live
on Tooltime and they rolled a car out. If I
had money, I tell you what to do. I go
downtown by a Mercury or two, crazy about a Mercury.
(17:39):
I freaking loved Mercury Blues. And another fun fact, Alan
Jackson didn't write it, but it's also a cover. How
about that crap? So Home Improvement has it. It's awesome.
If you go to the video, shadowy hard to see
(18:02):
that it really is him. But Keith Urban's playing guitar
in the video. Now is he really playing guitar? No,
because he didn't play guitar on the song. They just
needed somebody that looked like a guitar player, like a
rock star. So Keith Urban is the guy that they
have in the music video that's faking like he's playing guitar.
And Keith Urban has a story about like Mine from
the first time he met Alan Jackson, where he was
like Messel Jackson, Keith Oben, and then Alan Jackson was like,
(18:24):
why are you talking with an accent that makes no sense?
Are you a hobbit? And He's like, why, ma, my
accent sucks. It's not actually like Keith's. But Keith said,
if I remember correctly, he was like, all right, Dan.
Like that was their whole interaction, and later they became
really good friends. I just think Alan Jackson's a man
a few words. So number four Mercury Blues written by
(18:45):
Casey Douglas and Robert Geddins. It was written in the
nineteen forties. And what I like is Alan Jackson would
just find songs that he loved, even if they weren't country,
and he would just transform them into amazing country music songs.
And I think most people know this. I'm assuming you
watching or listening, I'm assuming you know this, but not
(19:07):
everybody does. Because I was talking about this song with
someone and they thought it was about Mercury, the planet.
This is not a Solar System song. It's about a car,
so the Mercury, and the title refers to the Mercury automobile,
not the planet. Mercury Jam. My favorite Alan Jackson song
is Mercury Blues number three. You know, Chattahoochie's gonna be
(19:32):
on the list, I'm gonna put it at three. If
I would have put it at one, first of all,
I would have been a poser. Because if you have
an artist that you really like and you put their
most famous song as your favorite, you're a poser and
you're a liar. So that's the true story of any
major artist. If you say, man, I'm a crazy John
Mayer fan, and I go what's your favorite song, and
(19:54):
you go bubble Gum Tongue, I'm like, you're full of crap.
And it's not even called bubble gum Tongue. It's called
Your Body's of Wonderland. And that can't be your favorite song.
If you're a John Mayer fan, you have to pick
something a little more. I'm not gonna say B B side,
But for me, my favorite John Mayor's song, because he's
my favorite artist of all time is Stop this Train.
(20:19):
Stop this train. I wanna get off and go home again.
It's about just getting older, It's about life coming at you.
My favorite lyric ever in any songs from Stop This
Train from John Mayer. It's I'm so tired of getting older.
I'm only good at being young, and you play a
(20:40):
numbers game just to show that life is just begun.
Paired a little paraphrase there, but like I felt that
because John Mayer was like the kid, the genius kid.
He's getting older and his parents are getting older, and
he's like, this is crazy. He stopped this train. I
want to get off my favorite. I gotta have that
lyric framed. I don't know where it is, but I
do have a frame somewhere, maybe in my house when
(21:02):
I moved. I don't know. I think the mover stole
stuff for me when we moved last time. That'd be
a weird thing to steal because I haven't seen it
in a while. But I do love that song. And
if your favorite artist has a song and their biggest
song is your favorite song, and that's not your favorite
artist and your opposer, So Chattahoochie can't be your number
one Alan Jackson song unless you're a casual, which you
(21:23):
might be number three Chattahoochie. He wrote that with Jim McBride,
this is the definitive Alan Jackson song, though I mean
the guitar like at the beginning itself is all you
need to hear to know. Chattahoochie's on the music video,
which you may not remember if you're younger. But for
someone that grew up in the nineties and watched CMT
(21:45):
the water skiing Epic, what's wild is those pants are
in the Country Music Hall of Fame. At least they
were the last time that I was there, and I
try to go once every year and a half or so.
Great exhibit. If you come to Nashville, you should go
to the Country Music Hall of Fame. They don't pay me. Actually,
I donate to them every year because it is so
(22:05):
much fun and they change out the exhibits so often.
I had a coach hit me up, who is the
head coach of a Division one big team, and he said, Hey,
come in to town. What should I do? Now, I'm
not a tour guide guy. I don't know what do
I know about Nashville. I live here, so I don't
know the cool stuff that you do if you come here,
because I don't do that stuff. But I said, the
one thing that you do if you come to Nashville
(22:27):
is you go to the Country Music Hall of Fame
and not only that pay the extra for the guide.
Best money you'll spend because you can walk through it
and you can appreciate it. But if you have a
guy that can tell you stories about the stuff and
take you to the things that they don't want you
to miss, it's an epic experience. So it's paid for
(22:49):
by the Nashville towards A Bureau. Not really, no money
was changed. Actually I give them money. But they had
the exhibit on Alan Jackson and it still may be there,
and it's his genes from when he was water skiing,
and they're kind of on a Mannigan's legs Manniquin's legs.
And in the video they're dark and I was confused
at why they were so light until I realized I'm stupid,
(23:11):
and they were wet when they were dark in the
music video. And the drier the jeans get, the lighter
they get. But had it was them, it had the
big holes in the pants. It's crazy to see. I
know it ain't the Mona Lisa like the real one,
but to see Alan Jackson's pants from the Chattahoochee video,
that's pretty cool. I did see the Mona Lisa once
(23:32):
my wife and I went to Europe and the thing's
in Paris, right in the louver. Went to a lot
of museums, so I think it's in the louver. The louver,
so we go down and I've only ever seen the
louver really in uh Tom Hanks the movie where he's like,
(23:58):
I don't know, read the book and then turn to
a movie and he's trying to figure out the da
Vinci code. I got there. So we go to the
liuver and we get the guide. I love getting a guide.
My wife sometimes gets annoyed when we get a guide
because I want to ask a lot of questions. And
we go to the louver and I say I want
to see the Mona Lisa, and they say so does
(24:20):
everybody else. That's why most people come here. And I say, okay,
can we go now because I want to see it first,
and they say okay. So they walk us pretty far
back to the back and there it's like fifteen rows
deep of people. And I've been told how super small
it is because mostly people say, yeah, the Mona Lisa.
It's much smaller in person. So in my mind I
(24:43):
expected that thing to be a postage stamp whenever I
got back there, so here. I am, my wife and
a tour guide. We're to love and we're going back
to the Mona Lisa. And there's fifteen rows deep and
you can't get right up on it. There's a glass
wall that has the painting inside of it. There's a
like a velvet rope probably five feet from it. Imagine
like a club with a bouncer, because there is basically
(25:05):
a bouncer and you don't get to go through the rope.
But they stand there and everybody has their phone over
and they're taking pictures and you're looking at it. What
I remember about the size of it because I was
told it was so small. My whole life it was massive.
So that's what I do about my wiener So small, tiny,
(25:27):
so tiny? Oh my god. So the Mona Lisa, Eh,
it's fine. It wasn't even famous though, Like that painting
was not famous as a painting as it was painted,
or even as it was sold. You know why that
thing is so famous because somebody stole it, and it
was stolen when they hunted it down, it was like
(25:47):
the Mona Lisa stolen. It wasn't that Da Vinci painted
the thing and people said that is art. We're gonna
make the most famous painting ever. Its to No, it's
that it got stolen and that made it more famous.
That's crazy. Anyway, I saw it, took a picture of it.
Pretty cool when walked around the loom of the rest
of the day. Pretty neat experience. Okay, anyway, we're Chattahoochie.
I saw those pants and so I got to that
(26:10):
the whole exhibit thing. So this is the song. If
you're introducing someone to country music, they need to know Chattahoochie.
And it's basically celebrating growing up in rural Georgia and
everything that comes with small town summers. There's a couple
of lines in the song that are fun and kind
of fun but kind of creepy, like not so creepy
(26:33):
because good for him, But he was willing and she
wasn't ready. Good maybe don't share that part of the experience.
I was willing, she wasn't ready. So they settled for
a burger and a grape snow cone, and you know what,
he dropped off early. Good for him, good guy, like
just let it happen. Didn't go home, rural Georgia for you.
(26:58):
The video one CMA music video, The U and he
said many times that he hated filming the water skiing
scenes because he wasn't really a water skier. What I
know him from mostly music video wise, is him water skiing,
and he's like, I don't even really like water skiing.
I'm not that good at it. And number two one
of the strongest starting songs. Now, before I tell you
(27:21):
the song, a lot of these songs you play it
from the star like Chattoochee, Mercury Blues, great guitar links
that you know the song by the first ten to
twelve seconds of the song. This song, no guitar. It
just fires off right from the start from the chorus. Rare,
(27:43):
and think about that rare that a song will start
with the chorus. There's only a couple big ones, and
I'm sure there's many, many, many that I can think of.
But I was talking to Stephen Tyler once name Drop
Aerosmith lead singer, and we were talking about sweet emotion
mustash just breaking pitching me. I keep thinking there's a
bug in my mouth and it's the hair from this
(28:05):
eighty four cent fake mustache.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Anyway, hang tight, the Bobby Cast will be right back,
and we're back on the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
I was talking to Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and he
was talking about Sweet Emotion, and he said it was
groundbreaking that we started that song with the chorus, and
if you think about it, it's a build up and
then it goes sweet emoge. That's the chorus, right, And
(28:46):
he said people looked at us like we were crazy.
Our record label thought it was crazy. We started with
the chorus. And so that's not done a lot. It's
done a little more now. But this song did that
nineteen ninety one, right out of the stop Don't Rock
the Box. I want to hear some Jones. Oh man,
what a freaking jam that was. This song pretty much
(29:10):
became an unofficial anthem for country music fans who preferred
classic country over pop influence country. But that argument was
fought then, it's fought now, it'll be fought in ten years.
That arguments never actually settled. And what was traditional back
then fifteen years before that was it's weird. Man. Don't
get me started on the DA ain't country music, but
(29:32):
Don't Rock the Jukebox at number two on my list.
I was at Disney World once. It's a cool story,
and I worked on American Idol for four years. It
was a really great four years for me, and on
that show, I was a mentor to all the contestants
once they got into around the top twenty four. So
(29:53):
I was on every episode and really one of the
reasons I was there is in case Ryan got sick,
I had to fill in out to fill in, and
that did happen on one whole show. I had to host,
and then at times just random spots with people. And
rarely would I be in LA and I'd have an
off day because if we finished taping the show and
(30:15):
did the live show, I've just come back home because
I had the radio show to do. So was in LA.
It was getting near the end of the season and
we had two days. We were working one off day
and then we're back on for another day because we
were shooting like two episodes that week. Never had an
off day in LA except for this one time. And
we had finished that first two days and there's like
(30:35):
a red carpet thing that you do afterward. Red Carpet's
weird because it's not that type of carpet, but you
go and talk to the press after and they're asking
questions and one of the guys from ABC came up
and said, hey, you're staying in town, right, I guess, said,
he said, you should go to I guess it's disney
Land in LA. I'd never been to anything Disney at
this point, and I said I was by myself. I said,
I don't know. I don't have family or anything. Is it? No? No, No,
(30:58):
you work for Disney You should go to Disneyland. And
he gave me a number on the back of a card.
So I called the number and rang and they answered, huh,
it is Mickey. It's freaking Mickey who answered the call.
No it wasn't, but it was somebody who worked at
Disneyland who does VIP packages. And I said, hey, it's
(31:21):
Bobby Bones. I was told to call. I work for
American Idol. Can I come to Disneyland? And they said, yep,
be at this place you know, ten am. We'll meet
you there. I get to Disneyland and it's a little
bit of a drive and so I drive out there.
I'm by myself. It's kind of weird. I'm gonna don't
man go into Disneyland by myself, creepy, moutaware or a trench coat,
you know, I mean? And so I go and a
(31:45):
person meets me. That's one of those VIP guides. They
kind of walks you around the park and you get
to cut all the lines and stuff. And she's so
nice and she's like, Okay, what do you want to do.
And I'm like, I don't know. I've never been here,
so let's just go ride some rides. So I'm by myself.
I'm not by myself anymore. I do have a person
with me, that's thank god. And so we're going and
we're cutting the line of every line. This is a
(32:07):
a Sunday because maybe back on on Monday. We're cutting
every line, riding every ride, going underneath rides sometimes to
get to other rides, so there's no people there. And
I ride this there's like a big screen in your
you're tossing you around. And I get off this thing
and she says, okay, we're not going to go out
the traditional way. Following me, we go through a tunnel.
(32:27):
We'd come out the top and there's another guide with
another like family. So it's me my guide of family,
and it looks like two women and a kid. As
they get closer, I realize there's not a woman. It
was Stephen Tyler, who looked like a woman from dude
looks like a lady, you know what I'm saying. And
so I see Stephen Tyler and I'd spent like three
(32:48):
instances with them, never for more than fifteen minutes. I
don't expect Stephen Tyler to remember anything about me, because
that guy's been famous for so long, since the late seventies.
And we're at Disneyland, and so I don't want to
bother him, but we're walking right beside each other, and
I say, hey, Stephen Tyler and Bobby Bones. Wow, Bobby Ball,
(33:09):
how you been house to Nashville. Immediately knew and remember me.
It was crazy.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
It was great.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Stephen tylerd's like hounds. He talks like that in real
life too, but he's so nice. Stephen Tyler was so nice,
so that was pretty cool. And he told me a
story once about whenever Aerosmith was relatively new, so not
just starting out, because you got to think they were
big in the seventies too, that Freddie Mercury would ride
(33:36):
on the tour bus with them before Queen got big
and like take a bunk like by himself. That's crazy
because he would go on before Aerosmith's with Queen before
Queen blew up. Come on, that's wild, So don't ride
the jukebox starts with the chorus It's my number two song.
(33:56):
It's still a jam today and it starts off. Next
time you hear that song, just think about Oh it
was chorus first, which is pretty rare that it doesn't
do verse chorus Boom starts with the chorus number one,
Here we are. Have you thought about what songs that
happen said yet? Because now time for in my opinion,
(34:19):
the greatest Alan Jackson song. And Alan Jackson is for
sure a top five artist of the nineties wherever you
want to insert him. For sure, you got to go
in no order with these three Garth, Shanaiah, George Strait Like,
for sure they're top three, but you can argue for
it's Alan Jackson. So what's the number one song from
(34:43):
a top five artist of the nineties. Well, it's not
even a song from the nineties. He put the song
out in two thousand and three. This song was also
solely written by Alan Jackson. This song makes me emotional sometimes.
Basically it's a reflection of an entire marriage, from being
(35:10):
young to getting older. To raising kids, growing older together.
I mean, remember when, remember when thirty seems so old?
Oh my god, that song is awesome. If you don't
feel something when you hear that song, turn this off,
(35:32):
leave go. If you do feel something or in the
right place together and I'm glad you're here. Number one,
Remember when what a jam? He wrote it as a
tribute to his wife Denise. She appears with them in
the music video. It is such a great song. It's
number one for me for so many reasons. That's what's up.
(35:57):
There are more songs I did. There are songs that
I I really thought, how can I not put this in?
And I made a list of his top ten songs
that I didn't put in. We'll start at number twenty.
I'm just kidding, but where were you in the world?
Stop turning? It was hard for me not to put
that in because it was a great song that was
specific to nine to eleven in that time and nailed it.
(36:19):
Obviously perfect song. But when I hear that song, I
think in nine to eleven like that to me is
such a because the people are going to say, how
did you not put that song in? And you're right,
Except this is my list so you're wrong about my list.
But that song is such a time capsule of that time,
and that's why I didn't put it in because I
think it makes me sad, it makes thinking nine to eleven.
(36:40):
I don't know. I didn't put it in. Also, Drive
was one that I really fought with that Drives a
jam too, but they didn't make it. But my number
one song. Remember when Alan Jackson has twenty six number
one songs. Now he has the thirty six if you
(37:00):
count like all the charts. There's like weird charts and
airplay here, but not built. I just went straight Billboard
Country charts. So he has maybe twenty six, twenty six,
twenty seven, I Love You All over Again, Don't Rock
the Jukebox Someday, Dallas Love's got a Hold on You jam.
(37:23):
Really thought about that one in the oldest too. She's
got the rhythm, Chattahoochie, Summertime Blues, Living on Love. One
that didn't make the list, that was on the initial
list before I cut it down. She's gone country, look
at the him boots. That was a jam too. Or
when it comes to funny songs, I don't even know
your name, that's a great Alan Jackson song Tall Tall Trees.
(37:46):
Are you kidding me? How did that not make the list?
You idiot? That's a great song too. Another number one song,
I'll try little Bitty there it goes right on the money.
It must be love. I'm reading all the number ones.
Where I come from? Where were you in the world?
Stop turning? Drive? Drive is good. I might have missed
by not butting drive in there. But it's five o'clock somewhere.
(38:07):
That one not for me. Not a beach guy, never drank,
doesn't really appeal to me. Never really a buffet guy either,
But it was a massive song. So it's five o'clock somewhere.
Remember when small Town Southern Man? Good Time country Boy?
And if You're gonna count It with Zach Brown Band
as She's walking away, so which was kind of a jam.
(38:29):
So those are my top ten Alan Jackson songs. I'm
taking this mustache off? Oh my god, thank you? That
is how's it hold on? What if I flip it
like this? Flip it?
Speaker 3 (38:43):
Oh? There you go? Now like a beard?
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Yeah? How about that?
Speaker 3 (38:49):
You almost look like a California surfer.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Yeah, now I'm on a switch foot. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
Hey, you want to know a fun fact, i'd love
pleas on Jackson.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Please, did you ever write that's Brandon by the way
behind the camera? You ever write with Alan Jackson?
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Never wrote with Alan Jackson opened a few like festivals
for him, like I played at like eleven in the
morning and he played eleven at night. You know, But
can you name a number one country song by another
artist that Alan Jackson wrote?
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Hmmm, we're gonna be here a while if I have
to guess, so can you give me a hint?
Speaker 3 (39:25):
All right?
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Because I don't know the answer just from that?
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Okay? It was it was a nineties country artist, not
as big, but you know, had a bunch of hits.
The artist, the artist? Do you want me to tell him?
Tell you his name? No?
Speaker 1 (39:42):
I mean, is that the only hint you're gonna give me?
Speaker 3 (39:44):
I mean, I don't know how to when you when
you hear the song, you're like, oh my god, that's
that's that'd be that'd been a perfect Alan Jackson song,
But it was a reject. He's like, I don't know,
give it to this guy.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Okay, so let's play. Let me try to name the artist. Okay,
what does the artist where?
Speaker 2 (40:00):
He?
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Is he? A hat act?
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Hat act.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Yeah, okay, there's only a few. Then I'm gonna go diffy,
not a hat act. How about clay Walker? Is it
klay Walker? Oh? Okay? Good? Guess what's the most Alan
Jackson song that Clay Walker sings.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
Here's a hint. It starts with a chorus, oh oh.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
If I can make a living, there you go. If
I can make a living, I loving you be a
millionaire in a week or two. Alan Jackson wrote that
he wrote that that's a good story than how about that?
And now I have some sort of disease on my
lip and we've talked about the top ten Alan Jackson songs.
What a day this has been, so thank you very much, everybody.
(40:45):
Don't forget follow me over on Instagram at mister Bobby Bones.
Big shout out to Alan Jackson. If you watch this,
remember me. Yeah, okay, thank you, Bye, everybody, have a
great rest of the day. Thanks for listening to the
Bobby Cast.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Share this episode with a friend because they don't pay
to advertise us.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
M
Host
Bobby Bones
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.