Alan Jackson Talks About Song He Wrote On Wife’s Cancer Battle

Alan Jackson is known for writing and singing songs with deeply personal meanings and storylines that are relatable to the average listener.

After his wife, Denise was diagnosed with colorectal cancer Jackson wrote a song about the ordeal titled “When I Saw You Leaving (For Nisey).”

The cancer diagnosis happened in 2010 and led both of them to reflect on what mattered the most to them. After discovering the news, Jackson got to writing the song which ended up on his 2012 album Thirty Miles West.

In a new interview with Essentials Radio on Apple Music Country, Jackson opened up about the trials he and his wife faced.

“My wife went through a tough time with cancer several years ago, and I wrote a song about that, and it was almost just something to help me as much as her. And I didn’t know if I wanted it to be on the album, but it was. It wasn’t a single or anything, but I tried to think that it might help other people that are going through something like that.”

Jackson normally plays his new songs for Denise but this time he decided that he would wait to show it to her until after it was recorded.

“I didn’t even tell her I wrote it,” Jackson told The Palm Beach Post. “It was hard to listen to. She cried like most people do, but I think she felt good about it.”

Denise went on to beat her cancer and while “When I Saw You Leaving (For Nisey),” never became a hit, to this day it remains one of Jackson’s most personal and emotional songs.

Listen to it below.