“We Have Some Things Up Our Sleeves”: Jackson Dean Talks Overseas Touring, Collecting Inspiration on the Road and the Uncharted Territory that Awaits
By Alli Patton
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When Jackson Dean took a moment to speak with Holler at the start of his European tour, he described still feeling a little “fuzzy” from the previous night - but he seemed far from it. The ‘Don’t Come Lookin’’ star, awaiting a train ride north to the city of Zurich from his stay in Zermatt, Switzerland, was sharp and collected, eager to embark on some of the biggest solo dates of his young career.
“To be able to play across the sea is pretty epic, and to be able to play places that I can't pronounce is even more,” the artist tells Holler.
Dean is spending the next month or so overseas, treating a devoted international fanbase to his already well-honed brand of smoldering country rock. While this is not his first time taking on venues across The Pond, over these last three years, the 24-year-old singer-songwriter has actively witnessed crowds, venues and admiration of his music only grow.
“Just off the last few times that we've been there, y'all have such an appreciation for it and y'all’s passion for it is inspiring,” he says, recalling past appearances at European festivals and the not one but two standing ovations he received after performances at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2023. “To see like-minded people like that as far away from home as I am right now, it's pretty awesome.”
These, however, are some of Dean’s first international outings since the release of his sophomore studio album, On The Back Of My Dreams. He explains that show-goers should anticipate fresh tunes - including, hopefully, his new single, ‘Be Your Man’, which drops on May 9th - and tightened production, but also be just as prepared to rock.
“It's going to be a lot of new stuff,” Dean explains, adding that the last several months have been devoted to perfecting his set. “There are going to be some surprises. We've gotten a lot tighter and a lot better as a band. We're a five-piece now, so we have some things up our sleeves that I'm hoping y'all will like.”
This time out on the road is crucial for Dean, with his exceedingly unmatched showmanship being molded – refined on stage in front of audiences and fine-tuned in the empty hours on his own or with his band – by these moments in constant flux.
As Dean offers, “Crazy stat: all the travel of the last three years alone, just the last three years, equates to me going to the moon and back. With that kind of mileage under your belt, you see quite a few things, and you wind up in quite a few things.”
The hard work, the long hours, the many miles – all of it culminates in what fans will soon experience as Dean steps into the spotlight.
In addition to discussing what to expect from his current overseas tour, Jackson Dean touched on his songwriting craft, how he finds inspiration while on the road and what still lies ahead for him and his artistry:
On what goes into making a hit song:
“All these songs – whether you want to call them characters or characteristics within those songs – what you gravitate towards, you've probably got some of that in you… There are so many things that go into creating music, and we can sit here and talk about why the vibe is the way the vibe is, why we chose this word and not that one, it's just all what speaks to you.”
On the creation of ‘Heavens to Betsy’:
“That song was written a while ago. I was on Music Row in a little room that we call the Sun Room in my [publishing] house – it's right next to RCA, which is some holy ground. I was writing with Benji Davis and Driver Williams that day, and it was the first thing out of Driver’s mouth. He goes, ‘Heavens to Betsy, boys! What do you think about that as a song title?’”
“Before I could respond with ‘Sir, I did not grow up around that term. What did you just say to me?’, my imagination just had a flash of a scene that we wrote to which was a dude standing on the edge of a cloud with heaven behind him, looking down on his kid. And that was it… It was a very, very easy write. It was very low stress, and it came out beautiful on paper.”
On concert staple, ‘Still Ragin’,’ being tapped for Yellowstone series:
“We wrote that on the bus, and it was in the same week that we wrote [‘Sweet Appalachia’] and ‘Jane’. We cut it in the studio, and I didn't really think it fit with On The Back Of My Dreams. Somehow, it wormed its way onto a file that was then sent to the people over at Yellowstone who were looking for songs. They were like, ‘Well, we want it,’ and we were like, ‘Well, it's not out, so we're going to have to remedy that.’ When they call and want something, you just gotta do it.”
“Now, we open with it.”
On collecting inspiration while out on the road:
“It never stops. You're constantly like, ‘I'm just going to put that one in the bank for later.’ You're constantly going through stuff.”
“There's so much music that I have left to make. I want to make a lot of beautiful things … I'm excited about the future and what we're going to do sonically and all the new territory we're about to head into.”
On the next chapter being uncharted territory:
“We're constantly trying to go to new territory and places that we haven't been before ... The new stuff that we're cooking now is all new territory for us. That's been a big part of us – we're so versatile. We have a very wide palette, and we can do just about anything. I can go and sing the phone book if you asked me to, but we're always going to rock.”
For more on Jackson Dean, see below:
