Country singer Jackie Lee has been to hell and back over the last year, but his new single is testament to his spirit
Country singer Jackie Lee has finally come out in the open about his struggle with cancer and the year he hit rock bottom. His recent release 'Long Year', co-written by Barry Dean, Sean McConnell and him, chronicles his endless hospital trips. The video features real-life footage from his treatment. It begins with Lee saying, "Hey, my name is Jackie Lee...and I have something I’d like to share with you guys."
The 26-year-old singer, in a recent interview with Washington Post, said, "I was really on the fence about this. He feared that especially this early in his career, he would be permanently tagged with 'the cancer guy' label. I just didn’t want this to be what I was known for my whole life."
In September 2016, the singer revealed that he found out that he had testicular cancer. And he had just lost his mum to cancer just three months before. Lee, who was 25 at the time, struggled to come to terms with the grief. He was under observation and got himself checked regularly.
Soon after, in 2017, he broke up with his girlfriend and things didn't work out with his record label either. This was the time that his single 'Getting Over You' had just started giving him visibility in the very competitive country scene of Nashville. But, as luck would have it, his cancer got worse and he had to go into chemotherapy.
Stuck in probably the worst place in his life, he said that he found himself asking questions to himself. "It was figuring out...why am I here? Am I here to be famous and make some money? Or make an impact on people's lives?"
Lee confessed that it was at this time that he thought about his mother. "I feel like I learned more from my mom this year than I did in the other 25. That’s what I think about constantly — she didn't raise me to be a wimp...or make excuses. I'm not going to do that. I’m going to carry on the legacy of who she is." His next track, called 'Comeback' releases this Thursday.