How Caylee Hammack Inspired Alan Jackson’s ‘A Man Who Never Cries’
Though a relative newcomer on the country scene, Caylee Hammack is already inspiring legends including Alan Jackson.
After the two teamed up in 2020 for a cover of the Don Williams hit, “Lord, I Hope This Day Is Good," Hammack expressed her gratitude to her fellow Georgian by sending him a gift and thank you note containing a line that became the inspiration for his new song, "A Man Who Never Cries."
“She sent me this nice little gift and this note, and she said she went home to Georgia and played her daddy the cut. He was sitting there in the kitchen and he doesn’t say much about all her career stuff, but she said when she played him that cut, he just lit up and she saw some tears from a man who never cries,” Jackson tells Billboard. “When I read that, I thought, ‘Man, that sounds like a song. I’ll have to write that.’ So I kind of took that idea and built around it.”
Jackson put pen to paper and wrote the song, creating an up-tempo homage to the trials and successes of his life that at times bring him to tears.
"If you look closely deep in my eyes / You might see a few happy tears / From a man who never cries," he reveals in the chorus.
"A Man Who Never Cries" is one of many songs Jackson penned for his new album, Where Have You Gone. Released in May of 2021, the project is Jackson's first studio album since 2015's Angels and Alcohol.
Hammack and Chris Young will join the country giant in his hometown of Newnan, Ga., for the Where I Come From benefit show, supporting those who were impacted by the EF-4 tornado that ripped through Newnan and destroyed roughly 70 homes in March of 2021. The concert is set for June 26 at Newnan's Coweta County Fairgrounds.
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