Jason Aldean
By J.L. Bibb
published in Southern Exposure Magazine
He’s used to life on the stage.
For much of his career, that’s where emerging country star Jason Aldean has been – traveling from one honky-tonk to another, trying to get discovered. The Macon, Ga., native originally sought success in and around the Georgia clubs near his home.
“I grew up playing clubs – that’s where I learned to play,” he says. “To me it was about how to capture an audience and keep their attention for an hour and a half or 45 minutes at a time. Back then, I was playing four 45-minute sets a night and traveling to different places. People that like something in one area might not necessarily like the same stuff in another area. So you kind of had to figure out how to get their attention in different ways or know when you didn’t have it. And really, I was just learning how to interact with the crowd.”
While he found moderate success with his band on the local bar scene, Aldean wanted more. So in 1998, like countless others trying to chase that golden country dream, he packed up and moved to Nashville. Unfortunately, Aldean found out just how hard it really was.
“About two and a half years ago, I was ready to stop,” he recalls. “It was getting to the point of where I’d been turned down by every label in town more than once, more than twice – most of them four or five times! It was one of those things where I was frustrated.
“On top of that, I had a new baby at home, and you know my priorities were kind of changing at that point. It was like getting a record deal was almost in the back of my mind. The first thing I was worried about was buying diapers and formula and finding a way to pay for all that stuff. The second thing was, you know, ‘I’d like to keep my career going, but how am I going to do both?’ I didn’t know how I was going to make both of them work out.”
But all of that changed in the summer of 2003. An agent named Lawrence Mathis approached him after a show at the Wildhorse Saloon. He promised Aldean he could get a deal with a label. Aldean balked, but ultimately agreed to give Mathis six months. It only took five weeks, and Mathis came back to Aldean with a deal from up-and-coming label Broken Bow Records.
“I was probably pretty bitter when I met Lawrence,” Aldean says. “I’d been approached by a lot of people in town, and at that point it was like, ‘Yeah – whatever.’Five weeks later we had an offer from Broken Bow. So I stayed true to my word and signed him as my manager and … that’s kind of when things that started taking off. Then we basically spent that whole year narrowing down songs, going in the studio, recording the album, and getting ready to put that first single out.”
GOING GOLDEN
In the summer of 2005, Aldean released his first album, a self-titled work featuring 11 songs. Backed by Broken Bow, the 29-year-old musician garnered a significant amount of media attention, appearing in Country Music Today and Country Weekly magazines and performing at The Grand Ole Opry, during the pre-game show at the Dallas Cowboys’ nationally televised Thanksgiving Day game, and at the New Faces Show, during the 37th Country Radio Seminar in February.
Fans took to the man and his music, which features a rockin’ country style blended with Aldean’s earthy down-home vocals and no-nonsense attitude. Within months, the lead single, Hicktown, became a Top 10 hit on both the Billboard and R&R country singles charts. This past January, Aldean and Broken Bow jointly celebrated their first Gold record. Remarkably, after just 12 weeks on the charts, the album was certified “Gold” with sales of 500,000 units (the standard for RIAA Gold certification).
“When my album went Gold, it was also Broken Bow’s first Gold album,” Aldean explains. “And that’s the cool thing about being here at this label – that stuff doesn’t happen every day. It’s cool because you get to experience it together for the first time. It’s not taken for granted, and it’s still a big deal here. Plus, it shows that everyone’s efforts are paying off.”
As Hicktown climbed to the #1 spot on Country Music Television (CMT), Aldean’s music video for the song Why, premiered on the network. At press time it had risen to #8 on CMT. Why continues to climb the other charts and last clocked in at #17 on R&R and #17 on Billboard. It has made the Top 5 most streamed videos list on www.CMT.com.
“Because my live show is a lot of energy, we figured Hicktown was the right song to release first,” Aldean says. “Not only was it a little different from anything else that was out, but the video could show what our live show was about. And I thought Why was one of the best songs on the record, lyrically. It was a good follow up to Hicktown.”
Aldean says he co-wrote three songs on the current album, but he is quick to add that he’s more concerned about the quality of the music, rather than achieving notoriety as a songwriter.
“I’m all about putting the best song on the album – no matter who wrote it,” he explains. “I mean, I’m not going to sacrifice the sound of the album or the quality of the album just to have something that I wrote on there. I’m more into just having the best songs – whether I write them or not. I’m a singer, number one, and a writer, number two.
“I know when I used to go buy CDs a lot, one of the things that got on my nerves was that they might have three or four decent songs on there, and the rest would be ‘throw away’ songs. When people go out to buy my album, I want it to be an album that they can put in the player and listen to front to back and not have to hit the skip button on anything. I want to make it a complete album.”
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
In February, Aldean and his band hit the road, touring with Rascal Flatts on their “Me and My Gang” tour, which launched in Grand Rapids, Mich. The young entertainer says he enjoys life on the road.
“I like being on the road,” Aldean says. “Not many people can say that they get up every day and get to meet new people and see new places that they’ve never seen before. That, to me, is one of the perks of the job. Getting to play on stage every night is just the icing on the cake – that’s the best part. Of course, I try not to take any of it for granted, because I worked too hard to get here.
“For me and my band, it’s kind of a package deal. We’ve all known each other for more than seven years, and we just have fun. This is something that obviously doesn’t happen every day. You know, it could all end tomorrow, so as long as we’re out there, we’re going to have as much fun with it and not take it for granted. That’s what it’s all about for me. Playing music at night, that’s the easy part.”
The only drawbacks to touring, Aldean says, are that he doesn’t get to spend as much time with his wife, Jessica, and daughter, Keeley, when he’s on the road. Aldean married Jessica, his high school sweetheart, in 2001. Three years ago, they had Keeley, who was born on Valentine’s Day.
“Really, the toughest part is being away from home and just trying to get used to that,” Aldean says. “I’ve been with Jessica for a long time; I met her when I was 17. Her cousin and I were actually best friends – and we still are. I first saw Jessica at one of our baseball games, and my friend was talking to her – I thought it was someone he was dating. I asked him who it was and he told me it was his cousin, so I told him to hook me up, and he did. Jessica’s been with me since all this stuff really started.”
The family now lives in Thompson’s Station, and Aldean commutes to Nashville during the week.
“When we knew we wanted to have kids, we moved out to Williamson County and bought a house in Thompson’s Station. Now that our daughter’s three, I’m glad we’re there.”
Aldean says that his daughter is still adjusting to her father’s recent success.
“The first two years of Keeley’s life I was home every night,” he says. “And pretty much over the last year, I’ve been gone. There’ve been times I haven’t been home for five or six weeks. I would come home and she was like, ‘Are you going to stay at my house tonight?’ So, it’s taken her some getting used to.”
MOVING FORWARD…
Aldean says that although he’s found success lately, he’s not quite finished pursuing his dreams.
“There’s always stuff to reach for,” he says. “When I go out there and see the crowds that Rascal Flatts are playing for and the venues they’re playing for, it’s like ‘Damn, I’m going to hate going back to playing clubs after being out here on this!’
“I was telling those guys the other day, ‘It gives me something to shoot for, something to look forward to.’ So I think it’s good to get out there and taste a little bit of that.”
Aldean says he hopes to continue to produce good music.
“We have a Gold album now,” he says. “I’d like to have a Platinum album. We have a Top 10, but we haven’t had a Top 5 or a No. 1. Those are things that I’d like to do. You know, there’s a lot of stuff left.”
