In 2021, the now 65-year-old Alan Jackson was speaking with Today’s Jenna Bush Hager and opened up about his health struggles with Charcot-Marie Tooth disease (CMT)
“It’s not going to kill me. It’s not deadly,” Added the “Good Times” singer. Offering fans a point of reference, he then said, “But it’s related [to] muscular dystrophy and Parkinson’s disease.”
John Hopkins Medicine describes CMT as “an inherited disorder that affects the nerves supplying the feet, legs, hands, and arms. It is caused by gene defects that are nearly always inherited from a person’s parents.”
The singer of “Chattahoochie” explains that both his grandmother, and older sister also have CMT.
“It’s getting more and more obvious. And I know I’m stumbling around on stage,” said the Georgia born singer. “And now I’m having a little trouble balancing, even in front of the microphone, and so I just feel very uncomfortable.”
His greatest champion
Through his career, the Country Music Hall of Fame member has had the support of his wife, high school sweetheart, Denise Jackson.
The couple wed in 1979 and have three daughters, Mattie (born in 1990), Ali (born in 1993) and Dani (born in 1997).
After a brief separation in 1998, the two have been inseparable, and Denise continues to be his biggest champion.
In fact, when Denise was working as a flight attendant, she met the legendary late Glen Campbell, who she coerced into meeting her husband, an aspiring musician working to make ends meet with a job in the mailroom at the Nashville Network.
