Alan Jackson honored with CMT special

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A veteran star being saluted by a bunch of hot new ones -- Alan Jackson knows this can be trouble.

But in his case, Country Music Television's "CMT Giants: Alan Jackson" at 8 p.m. Saturday doesn't signal a changing of the guard just yet.

At 50, Jackson remains a reliable hitmaker, even though he probably has guitar picks older than Taylor Swift and some of the other artists honoring him.

"Typically, your career is over or you're dead before they do something like this, so I'm very lucky to have it at this point," said the singer, who had a pair of No. 1 singles from his latest album, "Good Time."

Still, there's no escaping that Jackson has become an elder. The word "influence" was tossed around a lot when the show was taped in October at the Ryman Auditorium with performers including Swift, George Strait, Brad Paisley, Martina McBride, Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert and Lee Ann Womack.

Hank Williams Jr., George Jones and Jackson's wife, Denise, were also on hand, as were President George W. Bush, Diane Sawyer and Carrie Underwood by videotape.

"I'd say Hank Williams Jr. and Alan Jackson are the two guys whose music really resonated with me," said Bentley, who recalled seeing Jackson in concert when he was 18.

"As a songwriter, anytime I'm looking for inspiration musically, all I've got to do is listen either to an old Alan Jackson record or get hold of whatever new Alan Jackson record is out there, and it reminds me of why I wanted to do this," said Paisley, who performed Jackson's hit "It's Five O'clock Somewhere."

It was tough to tell how Jackson felt about the attention. Even on a normal day, he always seems painfully shy for a guy in his line of work. "When they first came to me and said they wanted to do a show about giants, I thought it was because I was so tall," he joked.

He credited wife Denise for keeping him grounded ("She knew me when I was nobody, and she still speaks to me that way") and he appeared humbled by all the kind words.

"It's an incredible honor and kind of freaky to see all these people here. The president of the United States and all these celebrities coming together and saying all these nice things. It's pretty overwhelming," Jackson said.