Mattie Jackson Selecman, Alan Jackson’s eldest daughter, tragically lost her husband while attending what was supposed to be a joyful family gathering in September 2018.
Mattie’s husband, Ben Selecman, fell and injured his head while on vacation in Florida. Unfortunately, he sustained fatal injuries, a tragedy that rocked the entire Jackson family to their core.
The country singer admitted that this is one of the reasons for the long gap between the release of his album Angels & Alcohol in 2015 and his most recent album, Where Have You Gone.
Even after three years, Mattie struggles to deal with her husband’s death. Thankfully, her father always cared for her when she needed it. The father and daughter duo recently revealed that they collaborated on the song “Racing the Dark.”
Even though this is their first co-written song, Alan Jackson’s daughters have long been a source of inspiration for their father’s other songs. This collection includes the classic “Drive (for Daddy Gene),” as well as two brand new tracks from Jackson’s most recent album.
Following that, Alan Jackson recorded “Racing the Dark,” which you can download if you pre-order Mattie’s book Lemons on Friday.
In the book, she discusses how her faith helped her through the grieving process following her husband’s untimely death and how her faith helped her cope with the tragedy.
Everyone in Mattie’s presence during the first few weeks of her grief and anguish, as well as the endless questions that followed, will remember it.
She also revealed how her suffering inspired her to found Nashville, a company she co-founded intending to foster female empowerment in Music City.
Lemons on Friday also includes a foreword by Alan Jackson and his wife, Denise Jackson, a New York Times best-selling novelist.
The father and mother tell their son and daughter’s stories from their points of view, including the anguish that their daughter endured and the new hope that they have for her as she continues to grieve.
