Alan Jackson Has Reached a 'Mountaintop' With Hall of Fame

On Wednesday (April 5), Alan Jackson was surprised by the exciting news that he's set to be one of the three newest inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He joins fellow inductees Don Schlitz and Jerry Reed in the class of 2017, who will all be officially inducted in the fall of 2017.

Jackson tells the Boot that he thought he was about to enter a grim meeting with his record label where they were going to drop him when instead he walked into the press conference and learned he was receiving one of country music's highest honors. "It kind of caught me off guard; I didn’t know what to say,” Jackson admits.

The "Small Town Southern Man" singer joins an elite list of stars in the Country Music Hall of Fame including Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, George Strait, Randy Travis and more. The new member says he's in awe to be on the same level as so many icons in the genre. “I saw Glen [Campbell's] name, too. Just to think about, most of those are heroes of mine. You look at all that, and you don’t feel like you’re worthy to be in here with them," Jackson says humbly. "It’s crazy to think that your name and your face will be on the wall.”

The superstar is certainly a worthy candidate for the Hall of Fame, selling more than 60 million albums across the world and notching 35 No. 1 singles, in addition to earning multiple CMA and ACM Awards over the years. He's also a member of country music's other revered institution, the Grand Ole Opry. With all this success, Jackson says his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame is the final goal he could've hoped to accomplish.

“This is about the last dream on the list,” he says. “It’s a mountaintop for a country singer.”

Alan Jackson Has Reached a ‘Mountaintop’ With Hall of Fame Induction