Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you uplifting songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, country music legend Alan Jackson explores the real meaning of a wedding band in his 2010 release, “True Love Is a Golden Ring.”
In the song, a once-tormented Jackson has finally found his soulmate. He admits that his search for true love had taken him “down a winding road with many turns, through fire and smoke and bridges burned.” But now, he can look into his lover’s eyes and finally see the truth.
He sings, “True love is a golden ring / Like the vows we made it’s a precious thing / Sent from above on silver wings / True love is a golden ring.”
Later in the song, he also likens love to the “endless turn of a wedding band.”
Written by Jackson and Roger Murrah, “True Love Is a Golden Ring” appeared as the 11th track on Freight Train, the singer’s 16th studio album.
Freight Train was a major success for Jackson as it ascended all the way to #2 on the U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums chart, #7 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and #8 on the Canadian Albums Chart.
Born in Newnan, Ga., in 1958, Jackson grew up in a modest home that started out as a one-room toolshed. Jackson’s dad, Joseph, expanding the home through the years to accommodate the births of Alan and his four older sisters.
Jackson didn’t pursue a music career until he was well into his 20s. He didn’t own a guitar as a child and nobody in his family was musically inclined. At the age of 21, he still hadn’t traveled north of the Georgia border.
“Nashville,” he said in his official bio, “seemed as far away as Japan to me.”
In 1980, after attending a concert, he told his wife, Denise, that he was interested in a music career. Three years later, at the age of 25, he started performing with local country bands and writing songs that drew on his life’s experiences.
Jackson got his big break when Denise, while working as a flight attendant, met singer Glen Campbell in an airport and mentioned that her husband was looking to break into the music business. Campbell referred her to his own Nashville music publishing company and told her that the they needed to move to Nashville — which they did.
Even though he entered the business a bit late, Jackson has had a stellar music career. He has sold more than 80 million records and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2017. He even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Please check out the audio track of Jackson performing “True Love Is a Golden Ring.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…
“True Love Is a Golden Ring”
Written by Roger Murrah, Alan Jackson. Performed by Alan Jackson.
True love is a golden ring
Like the vows we made it’s a precious thing
Sent from above on silver wings
True love is a golden ring
Down a winding road with many turns
Through fire and smoke and bridges burned
I’ve held my share of stranger’s hands
Now holding yours, I understand
True love is a golden ring
Like the vows we made it’s a precious thing
Sent from above on silver wings
True love is a golden ring
Love is so much more than a one-night stand
Like the endless turn of a wedding band
Looking in your eyes I see the truth
After all this time I found you
True love is a golden ring
Like the vows we made it’s a precious thing
Sent from above on silver wings
True love is a golden ring
Oh, true love is a golden ring
Credit: Screen capture via YouTube.com.