Jackson Dean Talks Glamour and Grind on ‘Backstage Country’

Jackson Dean co-hosts Backstage Country with Elaina Smith this week and things get real. We’re talking the kind of conversation that makes you realize being a country music star isn’t all neon lights and enthusiastic cheers from the fans. Sure, he makes it look effortless, but there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye when you're living in the spotlight.  

Dean admitted it’s been a long, but great, year. He also shared what people say about his profession: “I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? I don't have a real job? I get to show up and play music.’” But when they sometimes insist it isn’t work, Dean patiently explains. “I'm like, ‘I hear you.’ But when I gotta put down 12,000 miles to get to where I gotta go and then back, and that's something that every artist does. But even when I see people out there, I'm like, ‘Hey man, you good? You all right? How you doing? Tell me something good. Tell me something you want to tell me.’ Like when I see Jelly, it's literally a two-minute embrace every time.”  

He added, “Same thing with Lainey [Wilson]. Like, I can't imagine. I see how hard people are working, and I know how hard I'm working myself. Some days it's great, and some days you're like, ‘Oh my God,’ you know?”  

Since the co-hosts had already touched on some of the downsides of “being on” all the time and the hectic schedule of performing and doing interviews, Smith asked Dean what he does to stay sane. Dean responded, “In the last two years, I've gotten myself a cabin in the woods and I've got me a woman now and a dog and a four-wheeler and a bunch of woods. I might have been born in Annapolis, but I was raised in the woods.”  

Smith joked that when he’s in the cabin, “don’t come looking.” Dean chuckled, “Exactly. Exactly what ‘Don't Come Lookin’ is about. That has always been a sacred place for me.”  

He added, “There's just something about it. Yes, you're physically away, but your mind is able to get away as well. But all of that is super, super rejuvenating to me. Also, anything you get to do with your hands, any other creative outlet you get, I burn stuff and make stuff, and all the guitars you see, that's all my work. Blissful nothingness. You know, just go lay in a hammock or something and let the wind blow on you.”  

Jackson Dean’s week on Backstage Country with Elaina Smith gives fans more than a behind-the-scenes peek; it delivers a dose of reality about what it really takes to live the dream. It’s not all fortune and fame; it’s passion, persistence, and a whole lot of vocal warm-ups.