Jason Aldean is in a “Weird New Era” in His Career

Jason Aldean has always been country music’s bad boy. Cowboy hat? Check? Songs about small-town pride and dirt road anthems? Double check. Enough guitar riffs to make you double-check if you’re listening to a country song or attending a rock festival? Triple check. 

But lately, Aldean’s career has taken a turn into what he described as a “weird new era.”  

In a recent appearance, the Georgia native admitted that his career is in a “weird transition” period. What he meant was about picking which songs by Nashville songwriters he should record. He said, “There's certain songs and subject matter and those kind of things that don't make sense for me to sing anymore.”   

Aldean, who’s been active in the industry since 1998, has, of course, had his choices changed over the years. He added, “I was a little younger. Now, it's like you're trying to have songs with a little more meat on the bone and things that are gonna make sense for me to sing when I'm in my 50s, moving forward, ya know?”  

The “Crazy Town” singer elaborated, “Now we are writing songs about things, about family members having dementia, like writing these really cool, just things that are a little more thoughtful, but still having you know the things that people expect from us on a record, too. So it's just kinda that weird new era for us, I think.”  

Now that he’s almost 50, Aldean still hasn’t thought about retiring: “I don't think I'm there yet. I still enjoy it too much.”  

But he already thought of what he will be doing once he stops touring: “I look at things that are going on now, like The Sphere out in Las Vegas, like, going and doing some residencies. [Kenny] Chesney just did his out there, and Shaun Silva, who is our video director too, did all the content for that ... I think Backstreet Boys just did one.”   

He added, “So, you know, I think that's probably in our future, to hit Vegas, do some residencies.”  

Aldean explained the reasoning behind this game plan; he still wanted to perform live, but without the travel element. He also knew that abruptly stopping would be a big transition. “For me to just stop touring — even doing it the way we do it — man, this is something I wanted to do from the time I can remember. I've gotten to do it for the last 20 years, and they're still letting me do it.”