Seeing Jackson Dean halfway down a festival billing is going to be something unheard of soon! An artist who – with his band, bring so much energy and musicianship to their live shows, we can’t wait for the day when he will be headlining festivals such as The Long Road Festival. Going by how well the remainder of his UK tour went this last week, I don’t think we will be waiting long!

If you haven’t seen Jackson Dean live then we recommend seeing him. To get a taste of what his shows may be like, he has recently released his Live at The Ryman album which is exceptionally good!

We caught up with Jackson at The Long Road Festival to discuss his time in the UK, when he played The Royal Albert Hall, his Live at The Ryman album and more!

Enjoy!

Hi Jackson – How are you?

I am good thanks, was just looking at this beautiful building here! (Stanford Hall at The Long Road Festival, UK)

It is stunning!

I have never seen a festival with historical grounds on it! It’s very beautiful!

You are playing later which we can’t wait for! Will you be catching anyone’s set beforehand?

Every festival we do, I try to get around and walk the grounds just to see what it’s like. I would love to catch Blackberry Smoke’s set! I have never seen them! They are like one of the closer bands to what we are in terms of heaviness and a lot of guitars and a lot of solos and that.

You were here earlier in the year! You played Highways Festival at The Royal Albert Hall so what was that like?

It was wonderful! I thought the overall running of the festival was really great. Steve Wilson Jr, me, Morgan Wade and Kip Moore in just one night. I would have loved all of us to have played 40 (minutes) and then Kip do his headline and then that would have been great. Sometimes 25 minutes just isn’t enough to get going! But it was wonderful, we got two standing o’s, I would do it again in a heartbeat.

So you were on the main stage as there were smaller stages within the building. So you got to play The Royal Albert Hall, a bucket list moment!

Oh we got to play The Royal Albert Hall!! It was pretty surreal being in there. Everybody that me and my band have idolised have pretty much played there! It was so surreal getting to do that and in our own way!

Would you say The Royal Albert Hall is the UK equivalent of The Ryman?

I would definitely say it’s the UK equivalent of The Ryman. Our first time ever playing in the UK was at The Royal Albert Hall!

That’s incredible!

Speaking of…You just released Live at The Ryman! Your music translates beautifully in a live setting. Do you have that live setting in mind when you write music?

I always keep the boys in mind when I’m writing. There’s a difference between writing lyrics and composing. I’ve really enjoyed the composing part because most of the time, a lot on this next record is just me and the boys vibing! I have been with Sean (Mercer) since I was 13 so we can all just fall into each other and play! We got three on this next record that are ours that we composed ourselves! The composure part is a lot more fun to me. That’s the raw materials of what you’re working with. The words are just the icing on the outside.

When you do record, when a song is written but you go into the studio to record, how are those individual instruments written into the song, do the band just improvise as they go along or is each instrumental part all pre written?

We work it all. When we write something new, when I write something new, it has to go through many trial periods. Don’t Come Lookin’, all of Greenbroke went through a big trial period with us because we don’t play to tracks, we don’t play to a click. The tempo is on my boot heel and Sean’s boot heel as well. It depends if he starts it or if I start it, so they all have their own trial period which is fun and they ebb and flow and sometimes it can be fast and sometimes it can be way laid back and sometimes it can be like “this is not going well” and sometimes it is like “oh hell yeah!”. Since that show at The Royal Albert Hall we have hit such a stride of “oh hell yeah!”. After that we would go and play stadiums for like 30,000 to 150 people. It has been so much fun since that show, I think people over here will recognise that this is composure, this isn’t just Nashville coming overseas to bring you commercial hits. I don’t think that’s what they want over here!

We do love our live music and instrumentals here! I was always into Rock and Grunge growing up and noticed there is actually a lot of that really in country music sometimes and vice versa. It’s not all the stereotypical music that non-country fans assume that it is.

Most people playing country music right now, most of the players are metal heads and rock heads and they say “I don’t want to play thrash metal music anymore, I want to have a good time and be a badass in this genre”, it’s interesting.

There’s a lot storytelling and good lyrics in general in genres such as metal, grunge and rock too that kind of delivers a nice cross over at times. Look at Pearl Jam’s Just Breathe which is also covered by Willie and Lukas Nelson. I always had people mocking my love for country music saying it’s all Cotton Eyed Joe.

Yeah, they hear country music and they automatically think of straw hats and overalls!

Do you have any tour traditions at all?

Travel light haha! I have seen people travel with three suitcases and all of their sh**! I have a leather sack that I sling over my shoulder and my guitar case. Travel light and stay with your men (band) we pretty much do everything together. We usually do some Fred Eaglesmith before we take to the stage. But as for traditions, not many!

What about your Ryder? Anything interesting on there?

Right now all we’ve got, nothing crazy like only blue m&m’s – we try to be pretty easy for people. I have seen people be divas. I have seen it happen in the flesh and I don’t want to be a part of that. If you’re easy then they want you to come back so I pride this camp in being very nice and humble and not asking for a lot!

What song of yours is a family favourite?

Family favourite??? Probably Wings. It was the first one that we let out on the label. It’s also, talk about composure, it’s also probably the most composed one. You can hear what I am talking about on the live record (Live at The Ryman) and Wings goes from like 4 minutes to six. There’s this whole thing in the outro, we play it a little differently live than on the record! The record is a little bit more tamed, this is a little more unhinged you know?

Is that how you determine a set list? By playing songs that you want to change up on stage? Extend…

People think artists make their choices by going off the room but they don’t. They go by what they want to play, at least that’s what I do.

We love that here. We don’t want to just hear the hits but I am guessing you found that out already when you played The Royal Albert Hall?

I have! Especially just from that last show at The Royal Albert Hall. I went out with Kip (Moore) when he was signing autographs and photos. It was right outside of the bus and a couple of Irish girls came up to me and asked me about the record and the songs and they asked me about a record that we did when I was about 17/18 that I did with my boys in Baltimore. It’s very flattering that y’all do your research.

Hopefully you will come back soon? I would love to see you at C2C Festival. I need to hear your music in the O2 Arena and it should go without saying that Fearless will just be insane live in the O2!

Hell yeah!

ABOUT JACKSON DEAN:

Fast-rising Country singer/songwriter Jackson Dean is quickly earning a reputation for his old school, gritty, lyric-driven, outlaw style of Country following a breakout year that landed him on Pandora’s Ten for 2023 (all genre), Spotify’s Hot Country Artists to Watch 2023, the CMT Listen Up class of 2023, CRS New Faces 2023, Amazon Music’s 2023 Breakthrough Artists to Watch: Country Class as well as a slew of other artist to watch lists.

Mature beyond his years, Jackson opted to move out to a cinderblock, concrete floor, one-room shack on the back of his grandfather’s property with no heat and no plumbing at just 18 years old. An adventurous and carefree spirit, the 22-year-old multi-instrumentalist, is also an old soul and skilled artisan whose pastimes include making leather goods, wood-burned art and disappearing into the woods to sleep under the stars. Bringing that same sense of adventure and downhome vibe to his songwriting, the “modern-day Country rambler” (Taste of Country) burst on the scene, showing people how real music can be with his atmospheric, musically-forward debut album Greenbroke (out now via Big Machine Records). The Maryland native’s single, “Don’t Come Lookin’” was the fastest debut to reach No. 1 in 2022 and cemented Jackson as the youngest solo male Country artist to reach the top of the charts with a debut.

Landing spots on the Billboard Hot 100, the soundtrack for Netflix’s The Ice Road and a John Dutton scene in Yellowstone. His sophomore single, “Fearless (The Echo)” is currently climbing the Country radio charts after being Most Added upon impact. Following an early career of local performances in his hometown, Jackson has joined bills with superstar acts like Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert, Brantley Gilbert, Kane Brown, Jake Owen, Brooks & Dunn, Lee Brice, HARDY and Brothers Osborne and found himself on the bill for credible events like Austin City Limits and Stagecoach. The young talent just kicked off the Back to the Honky Tonk Tour with Blake Shelton and Carly Pearce and will join dates with Eric Church and Parker McCollum later this year.

Visit jacksondeanmusic.com for more information and upcoming tour dates.