“He’s still always first Dado to us.”
That is how Mattie Jackson Smith, the oldest of Alan Jackson’s three daughters, summed up her father’s final full concert. The country legend played to a sold-out Nissan Stadium in Nashville on June 27. A few days later, Mattie wrote on Instagram that the night was “surreal and humbling.”
Now the rest of the country gets to see it. “Alan Jackson: The Last Show” airs on NBC on Tuesday, Dec. 8, from 8 to 10 p.m. ET/PT. It streams on Peacock the next day, and a live album from the show comes out Dec. 4.
George Strait came out for two duets. Carrie Underwood, Luke Combs and Lainey Wilson were among the many stars who sang Alan’s songs back to him. Some of the sweetest moments that night, though, belonged to his own family.
Denise, his wife since 1979, sat with their daughters Mattie, Ali and Dani in a special family box. From the stage, Alan celebrated Denise and the family they built together. Then he moved on to the grandkids, or at least to the count.
“We have three wonderful daughters and son-in-laws, and now we’ve got 4.75 grandchildren,” he said, as Taste of Country reported from the stadium.
Anyone who follows the family could do that math. Ali’s son Jackson was born in 2022, and Mattie’s son Wesley came along in 2024. Then 2026 turned into a baby boom. Mattie had a little girl, Charlotte, on Feb. 13, just in time for Valentine’s weekend. Ali followed with a girl of her own, Parker Anne, on April 8.
That left one more on the way, and the mother-to-be was in the building. “One’s due any minute. She’s out there,” Alan told the crowd. “I feel sad for her being here tonight.” Then he added, “Anyway, in a matter of minutes, we’ll have five grandchildren.”
With that, he sang “I’d Love You All Over Again,” the 1991 hit he wrote for Denise on their 10th anniversary.
The Jacksons were on the stage too. Two of Alan’s nephews performed: songwriter Adam Wright and “Big City” Brian Wright. Adam has written for his uncle before, including “So You Don’t Have to Love Me Anymore,” which earned a Grammy nomination. Brian’s daughter, Carlisle, is a singer as well. She opened the show, and the next night she stepped into the circle at the Grand Ole Opry for the first time. Her great-uncle made that call himself. “They asked me to call you today to extend you an invitation to make your Opry debut,” he told her in a video, American Songwriter reported.
The Opry filmed her first night in the circle, one day after Alan’s big show.
Carlisle Wright makes her Grand Ole Opry debut
So which daughter was sitting in that box, ready to go?
It was Dani, the youngest of the three girls. On July 9, just 12 days after the show, she and her husband, Sam, welcomed their first child, a baby boy.
Alan shared the news the next day. “Denise and I are overjoyed to announce the birth of our fifth grandchild,” he wrote. “Samuel Hudson Carrington (Hudson) born July 9 to Dani and her husband Sam.”
The baby’s first name matches his daddy’s, and the family calls him Hudson. That gives the Jacksons a fun bit of family trivia, too. Two of Alan’s three sons-in-law are named Sam, since Ali is married to Sam Bradshaw.
Taste of Country was in Nashville that night, and its video recap covers Alan’s tributes to Denise and the girls.
Taste of Country takes you inside Alan’s Nashville show
NBC will show highlights rather than the whole night, since the full concert ran for hours. Nobody has said yet whether the family moment made the cut. Either way, Hudson already has a story to tell when he’s older. He was at his granddaddy’s big Nashville show, even if he hadn’t quite arrived yet.