When Jackson Dean says he gives his all to his live performances, you better believe he means it. “I’ll push so hard sometimes,” the country rocker tells PEOPLE, “that I literally black out — like when you stand up too quick.” And still he keeps singing.
“Last time I had it happen,” he says, “I spent an entire verse in the dark. Your body’s still going, and you’re like ..
. hell, yeah!” By now, fans come to his shows expecting this all-gas-no-brakes style, part of a formula that’s powered a momentum to his career ever since his debut single, “Don’t Come Lookin’” topped the charts in 2022. Add to that formula a volcanic voice and songs soaked in a restless spirit, and Dean has managed to set himself apart in a crowded country field.
This is all the 24-year-old Maryland native has ever wanted since boyhood — granted, after a brief flirtation with a career in the Marines until he realized that “my feelings toward authority would not add up,” he says. “But once I found music, it was just game over, really.” To understand the physicality of Dean’s performances, you only have to look at his upbringing.
The son of a masonry business owner, he grew up working for his dad, slinging concrete and hoisting bricks. He also was an all-around athlete: wrestling, lacrosse, and most definitively, the defensive line in football. "I was not a pretty boy," he says.
"I was not going to catch the ball. I was trying to kill the ball. It was a clash every.
