In September 2018, Mattie Jackson Selecman, the eldest daughter of Alan Jackson, tragically lost her husband while attending what was intended to be a joyful family gathering. Ben Selecman, Mattie’s husband, took a tumble and hurt his head in Florida when they were on vacation there. Unfortunately, he incurred injuries that would prove to be deadly, a tragedy that shook the Jackson family as a whole to their core.
The country singer admitted that that is in fact one of the reasons why there was such a significant gap in time between the release of his album Angels & Alcohol in 2015 and his most recent album, Where Have You Gone, which came out early this year.
Even though it’s been three years, Mattie is still struggling to come to terms with the loss of her husband. Thankfully, her father has never lacked support when she needed it. The father and daughter team recently disclosed that they collaborated on the writing of a song titled “Racing the Dark.”
Although this is their first co-written song, Alan Jackson’s daughters have long been a source of inspiration for other songs that their father has written. This features the classic “Drive (for Daddy Gene),” in addition to two brand new tracks from Jackson’s most recent album.
After that, Alan Jackson recorded “Racing the Dark,” and you’ll be able to download it if you pre-order Mattie’s book, Lemons on Friday. In the book, she discusses how her faith helped her get through the grieving process after the untimely death of her husband and opens up about how her faith helped her cope with the tragedy.
Everyone who was around Mattie during the first few weeks of her sorrow and anguish, as well as the endless questions that followed, will remember it. She also provided a peek of how her suffering helped her find new purpose in the form of Nashville, a firm that she co-founded with the intention of fostering female empowerment in Music City.
In addition, Lemons on Friday includes a foreword written by Alan Jackson and his wife, Denise Jackson, who is also a best-selling novelist in the New York Times.
The father and mother tell their son and daughter’s tale from their perspective, including the anguish that their daughter endured and the brand-new hope that they have for their daughter as she continues to grieve. Pre-orders for the book can be placed at this time, and it is anticipated that it will be released on November 16.
