What Is Alan Jackson's Health Condition? Inside the Country Star's Decade-Plus Journey with a Rare Disease

Yahoo

09-05-2025

Alan Jackson announced in 2021 that he had been diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease
The country singer said his diagnosis affected his balance and ability to perform onstage
Jackson returned to the Annual Academy of Country Music Awards in May 2025 to perform and accept a lifetime achievement awardAlan Jackson has been open about having Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a degenerative nerve condition.
The country singer shared the news of his diagnosis on the Today show in 2021 and revealed that he had originally learned about his condition 10 years prior. Jackson decided to go public with the news because it was getting "more obvious" while performing onstage.
"It's getting more and more obvious," he said at the time. "And I know I'm stumbling around onstage. And now I'm having a little trouble balancing, even in front of the microphone, and so I just feel very uncomfortable."
However, Jackson also clarified, "It's not going to kill me. It's not deadly."
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease affects the motor and sensory nerves that control the muscles primarily in the feet, legs, hands and arms, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. While a cure for the disease has not been discovered, it can be managed with supportive therapy.
In May 2025, Jackson took the stage at the 60th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards to perform and accept a lifetime achievement award named after him.
Here's everything to know about Alan Jackson's journey with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and what he's said about his health.
The "Gone Country" singer appeared on the Today show in September 2021 and announced that he was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease 10 years prior.
"I've been reluctant to talk about this publicly and to my fans, but it's been a while, and it's starting to affect my performance onstage a little bit where I don't feel comfortable," he explained. "I just wanted the fans and the public to know if they've come to see me in the last few years or if they come to see me in the future if I play anymore, what's going on. I don't want them to think I'm drunk onstage because I'm having problems with mobility and balance."
Jackson explained that the disease is hereditary, and he got it from his late father. His paternal grandmother and older sister were also diagnosed with the neurological disease.
"I just want people to know that's why I look like I do, if they're wondering," he explained. "I don't want to appear like some whiny celebrity. It's not going to kill me, it's not deadly... It's not fatal — it's just going to disable me eventually."
Jackson further reiterated that he was primarily sharing his story in case it would go on to affect his music.
"This is not a condition that I would be complaining about typically, but it is going to affect me performance-wise onstage, and I don't know how much I'll continue to tour," he said.
Despite his condition, Jackson expressed how "blessed" he had been with his "wonderful, beautiful life" and that he felt a bit of "relief" sharing his diagnosis.
"In some ways, it's a relief because I was starting to get so self-conscious up there, about stumbling around," Jackson said. "And it just made me nervous up there trying to keep my balance. And I look pitiful. So I think it'll be good for me now to get it out in the open and so if anybody's curious why I don't walk right, that's why."
Less than a year after sharing his diagnosis, Jackson embarked upon a national tour, Last Call: One More for the Road.
'I've always admired my heroes like George Jones, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn and Charley Pride who just played as much as they wanted to, as long as they could,' he said in the March 2022 press release. 'I've always thought I'd like to do that, and I'd like to as long as my health will allow. I'll try to do as much as I can, but if I'm comin' your way, come see me."
Jackson acknowledged his disease by donating $1 from every ticket sold to the CMT Research Foundation.
The "Livin' on Love" singer went on to perform at over a dozen venues across the United States, but he had to postpone the final two October 2022 shows because of his health, per Taste of Country.
"I hoped I'd be able to be there," he said in a statement at the time. "I hate to disappoint my fans. I tried as much as I could to play this show at this time."
Jackson, who released his album Where Have You Gone in 2021, said two years later that he "would hope" he could continue making and sharing music.
"Well, yes. I would hope so," he said when his daughter Mattie Jackson asked him about the possibility of new music during a February 2023 episode of her podcast In Joy Life. "The creative part jumps out every now and then. I'm always scribbling down ideas and thinking about melodies and I feel like there'll be some more music to come, yes."
The Grammy winner said songwriting is "more fulfilling than anything" to him.
"It's like, you can be a singer and go out and tour, but it's kind of like you're just doing the same thing over and over," he explained. "When you make an album, or especially when you write a lot of the songs, that's creating something. It's a challenge, so it keeps you interested a little more. If I didn't write, I think I would've gotten bored just singing a long time ago."
Two years after pausing his 2022 tour, Jackson announced that he'd be resuming the Last Call: One More for the Road tour in 2024 and 2025. However, he also explained that each stop would be "marking the last time he'll ever perform his more-than-30 years of hits in that city and surrounding areas."
'I've been touring for over 30 years, you know, played everywhere in the country and parts of the world,' Jackson said in a video posted on X in June 2024. 'I have had a wonderful career, and I'm getting into my twilight years, and all my daughters are grown, and I got one grandchild and one on the way. I enjoy spending more time at home, and don't want to be away like I had to be in my younger days, and I don't tour as much now as I did 10 years ago."
The "Chattahoochee" singer said that for those reasons and his health, it's "getting time to start thinking about hanging it up full-time."
'Most of my fans know I have a degenerative health condition that affects my legs and arms and my mobility that I got from my daddy and it's getting worse,' he added. 'So, it makes me more uncomfortable onstage, and I just have a hard time, and I just want to think about maybe calling it quits before I'm unable to do the job like I want to.'
The final leg of the tour kicked off in Boston, Mass., in August 2024 and will conclude in Milwaukee, Wisc., in May 2025.
In the midst of his tour and ongoing health journey, Jackson returned to the Academy of Country Music Awards on May 8.
He performed an emotional version of his 2003 song "Remember When" before taking the stage to receive the first annual Alan Jackson Lifetime Achievement Award.
"Usually one of my fans tells me they named their dog after me, and I thought that was really something," he said while accepting his award. "I came to Nashville with a paper sack full of songs and a crazy dream and that all these years later I'm standing here receiving such an honor is mind-blowing."
Jackson added, "I thank God all the time for all the people that have been a part of my life and career and maintain this all this time."
The singer specifically thanked his high school sweetheart and wife, Denise Jackson, "who's been my best friend since I was 17 years old."
"She's loved me through the good and the bad, the happy and the sad," Jackson said. "Influenced me, gave me three beautiful daughters, and she's helped me keep my feet on the ground all these years. I would not be here without her.'
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