Jackson Dean is Backstage Country’s guest co-host this week. From November 3 to 7, Dean will be co-hosting the show with Elaina Smith and the duo discusses his hits, the stories and inspiration behind the tracks, and how he managed to perfectly capture the experiences of heartbreak and chaos of daily life.
Jackson Dean Tracks
“Heavens to Betsy”
Jackson Dean - Heavens To Betsy (Official Music Video)
“Heavens to Betsy,” Dean’s lead single from his second studio album, On the Back of My Dreams, is a song about grief. Smith asked if fans ever come up to him to share how they connected with the track while grieving. He replied, “A lot of meet-and-greet people come up to me and they're like, ‘I'm pretty sure my dad's spirit was in the room when you were writing this down.’”
“Don’t Come Lookin’”
Jackson Dean - Don't Come Lookin'
Inspired by a phrase he used to say to his mother, Smith asked Dean what reminded him of the phrase to write the track. The singer-songwriter recounted, “I wrote this over here in East Nashville. It was just me and my producer, Luke Dick, and we were on some good vibes and stuff. It was just on my mind. I was away from home the longest I'd ever been, as far as I've ever really been before. So home was on my mind.”
He continued, “I was doing two a day here on Music Row and halfway sleeping in the back of my truck and then on my cot in my office. So, I was missing home, and it just fit in there like a glove, man. We were sitting there looking for a tag and a title, and I just said that under my breath. Luke Dick whipped his head over, and he was like, ‘What'd you say, boy?’ And I said, ‘If I don't come back, don't come looking.’ And he was, like, ‘Well, there it is. That's what we're doing today.’”
“Fearless”
Jackson Dean - Fearless (The Echo / Official Music Video)
The first lines of the first verse, “I believe in ghosts, most people don't / I swear it on my grandpa's grave,” were inspired by an actual moment, something Dean confirmed. “My grandfather's buried at Shelton Ham, which is a military graveyard, and he was in the Marines and was in the Pacific theater. My grandmother's buried right on top of him, and one of his famous sayings, if he ever did anything for you, he said, ‘That'll be 25 cents.’ When my dad went to ask him if he could marry my mom, he was at the printing press working, and he didn't even turn around, he just goes, ‘That'll be 25 cents.’”
He continued, “He died the year that I was born, but I have grown up regaled [with] stories of him my whole life, and we went to see him one day, it was me, my mom, and my aunt Gloria. I took a quarter. All the military headstones are flat. I took a quarter, and right in the middle, I literally had just touched the grass, and I was gonna put it in between the grass and his headstone, and it shot out of my hand. I was obviously startled.”
