Fifty years ago, a teenage boy sat in a friend’s living room in Newnan, Georgia, and watched a cheerleader practice a dance routine to a song on the radio. On Thursday, that boy, now 67 and two days away from the last concert of his life, released his own version of that song for the same girl.
“50 years ago in 1976, in Newnan, Georgia, I started dating this young girl. She was a cheerleader for Newnan High School,” Alan Jackson explains in a video announcing the release. “One day, she went over to a friend’s house, and I went over there and hung out a while, and she was practicing her dance routine for the cheerleading squad and the football game to a hit song that was a hit that summer called ‘Still The One,’ I think by a group called Orleans.”
“I sat there and watched her, and three years later, I ended up marrying that young girl. She’s my wife today, Denise.”
That’s the whole story. That’s why this song exists.
The Song That Has Been Playing in the Background of Their Entire Marriage
“Still The One” was originally released by Orleans in 1976 and peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Country legend Bill Anderson covered it in 1977, taking his version to No. 11 on the Hot Country Songs chart. Now Alan Jackson has added his voice to a song that has apparently been running through the background of his marriage since before the marriage even started.
Alan and Denise have been married since December 15, 1979. Forty-six years. Three daughters. Mattie, Ali, and Dani. Denise has been Alan’s muse for some of his greatest work, inspiring “Remember When,” “I’d Love You All Over Again,” and more songs than most fans probably realize.
Their marriage wasn’t always easy. They separated in the late ’90s, went through a very public rough patch, and came back together stronger than before. “Remember When” was written about all of it, the good years, the hard years, and the decision to stay. Releasing “Still The One” now, after everything they’ve been through, carries a weight that a simple cover song normally wouldn’t.
His Final Concert Is Two Days Away
The timing of this release is impossible to separate from what’s coming Saturday.
“Last Call: One More for the Road, The Finale” takes place June 27 at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium, and it is exactly what it sounds like. The last full-length concert of Alan Jackson’s touring career. Tickets sold out within five hours when they went on sale in October 2025. More than 50,000 fans will fill the field and stands.
For You
The lineup reads like a Country Music Hall of Fame ceremony. Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Luke Combs, Riley Green, Cody Johnson, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Jake Owen, Jon Pardi, Thomas Rhett, George Strait, Carrie Underwood, Lainey Wilson, Keith Urban, and Lee Ann Womack will all perform alongside Alan to celebrate a career that spans more than three decades of real, honest country music.
Lower Broadway will livestream the concert for free for fans who couldn’t get tickets, and NBC will broadcast a TV special on Peacock at a later date.
Alan revealed in September 2021 that he has Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, an incurable degenerative nerve condition that has affected his balance and coordination on stage. It’s the reason the touring days are ending. But as “Still The One” proves, the music isn’t done. Jackson has said that just because he’s no longer touring doesn’t mean fans should never expect new music.
“We just felt like we had to end it all where it all started for me, and that’s in Nashville, Music City, where country music lives,” Jackson said about the finale.
Shop Alan Jackson
- The Greatest Hits CollectionVinylWith “Chattahoochee” and “Gone Country”See it on Amazon
- Precious Memories CollectionVinylHis gospel hymns, including “I’ll Fly Away”See it on Amazon
- The Last Show: One More for the RoadVinylSee it on Amazon
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For every ticket sold, $1 is being donated to the CMT Research Foundation, matched by $2 from a generous donor. Even the goodbye is giving back.
He drove to Nashville in an old U-Haul trailer in September 1985 with Denise sitting next to him. Forty-one years later, he’s saying goodbye to the road in the same city, with the biggest names in the genre standing on stage beside him and 50,000 fans singing his songs back to him. And two days before all of that, he quietly released a love song for the cheerleader from Newnan who danced to “Still The One” in a friend’s living room half a century ago.
Some things really are still the one.
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