Jason Aldean is a Grammy-nominated country music singer from Macon, Georgia, who has sold over 20 million albums and earned 30 number-one singles since 2005. Known for blending traditional country with rock and hip-hop influences, he’s won three consecutive ACM Entertainer of the Year awards and remains one of the genre’s top touring acts.
Who Is Jason Aldean?
Jason Aldine Williams, professionally known as Jason Aldean, burst onto the country music scene in 2005 and quickly became one of the genre’s most recognizable voices. Born February 28, 1977, in Macon, Georgia, the now 47-year-old singer has built a career that spans nearly two decades of chart-topping success.
With 30 number-one singles, nearly 20 billion streams, and over 20 million albums sold, Aldean has become synonymous with modern country music. His signature style combines small-town storytelling with stadium-powered energy, creating anthems that connect with fans across generations.
Since 2005, he has been signed to BBR Music Group, formerly known as Broken Bow Records, for which he has released eleven albums and 40 singles. Every one of his first nine studio albums has been certified gold or higher by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Early Life and Musical Beginnings
Jason’s parents separated when he was just three years old. He split his time between living with his mother in Macon and spending summers with his father in Homestead, Florida.
His father would map out guitar chords on notebook paper to show his son where to place his fingers, and Jason would practice all day while his father was at work. When his father returned home, they would play guitar together. This early foundation developed Jason’s natural ear for music—he could soon play a song after hearing it just a few times.
Both parents encouraged their son’s musical talents, and at 14, after watching country music awards on television, he knew he wanted to perform on stage. His mother helped him secure his first public performance at the local Veterans of Foreign Wars hall, where he sang John Anderson’s “Seminole Wind” and Tracy Lawrence’s “Sticks and Stones” to an audience of ten people.
At 15, he joined the house band at the Macon nightspot Nashville South. He attended Windsor Academy, a private Christian school in Bibb County, Georgia, where he was also a standout baseball player who drew interest from college teams. However, he chose music over an athletic scholarship after graduating from high school.
The Long Road to Success
After high school, Aldean moved to Nashville in 1998 after signing with Warner-Chappell Publishing, but his career stalled when he was offered a recording contract and subsequently dropped. He signed with Capitol Records Nashville but was dropped again without releasing an album.
Years of disappointments followed. Showcases failed to bring contracts. The final straw came at the Wildhorse Saloon, where promised label talent scouts never showed up.
Frustrated and discouraged, Aldean gave himself six months before planning to leave Nashville and return home to Georgia. Then, five weeks later, he was offered a deal from Broken Bow Records. It was 2005, and Jason’s career was about to change forever.
Breakthrough Success and Chart Domination
Aldean’s debut single, “Hicktown,” was released in early 2005, reaching number 10 on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. His self-titled debut album followed in July 2005, peaking at number six on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. The album went platinum and established Aldean as a fresh voice in country music.
His first number-one hit came with “Why” in 2006, and he earned the title “Top New Male Vocalist” at the 2006 ACM Awards.
His second album, “Relentless,” dropped in 2007 and debuted at number four on the Billboard Hot 200. The third album, “Wide Open,” arrived in 2009, featuring the number-one hit “She’s Country” followed by “Big Green Tractor” and “The Truth”—both also reaching the top of the charts.
But it was his 2010 album “My Kinda Party” that truly cemented Aldean’s status as a country superstar. The album is certified quadruple-platinum by the RIAA and featured hits like “Don’t You Wanna Stay” with Kelly Clarkson, “Fly Over States,” and the unusual country-rap song “Dirt Road Anthem.”
Breaking Boundaries in Country Music
Aldean has never been afraid to push country music’s boundaries. Like a country music Columbus, he helped bring hard rock, hip-hop, and R&B into mainstream country through songs like “Hicktown,” “Dirt Road Anthem,” and “Burnin’ It Down.”
His 2012 album “Night Train” achieved double-platinum certification and became his third album to reach number one. The 2014 release “Old Boots, New Dirt” continued his winning streak with four consecutive number-one singles, including “Burnin’ It Down,” “Just Gettin’ Started,” “Tonight Looks Good on You,” and “Gonna Know We Were Here.”
Thirty of Aldean’s 41 singles have reached number one on either the Hot Country Songs or Country Airplay charts. His highest-certified single is 2018’s “You Make It Easy,” which has been certified six times platinum.
Awards and Industry Recognition
At the 2016 ACM Awards, Aldean was awarded Entertainer of the Year for the first time in his career. He would go on to win that award in 2017 and 2018. These three consecutive wins placed him among country music’s elite performers and validated his status as one of the genre’s most compelling live acts.
Aldean became the sixth artist to receive the ACM Dick Clark Artist of the Decade Award in 2019. He has won 15 ACM Awards total and received five Grammy Award nominations throughout his career, including two nominations for Best Country Album.
In 2017, Aldean appeared on Forbes’ Celebrity 100 list, ranked at 98. Forbes estimated his annual income at $43.5 million in 2015, and he was the seventh highest-earning country musician, making about $32.5 million in 2017.
The Route 91 Tragedy
On October 1, 2017, Jason Aldean was performing the closing set at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas when gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire on the crowd from his 32nd-floor suite at the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel.
The mass shooting occurred between 10:05 p.m. and 10:15 p.m., killing 60 people and wounding hundreds more, making it the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in American history.
Months after the shooting, Aldean revealed he suffered a breakdown while processing the trauma. He opened Saturday Night Live days after the tragedy, then traveled back to Las Vegas to visit victims in hospitals who hadn’t yet recovered from their wounds.
His wife, Brittany, gave birth to their first child together, son Memphis, two months after the shooting. Aldean credited the birth with helping him begin to process the trauma. The country singer never attended formal therapy, instead relying on his family, band, and crew, who experienced the tragedy together.
Every October 1st, Aldean marks the anniversary of the shooting on social media, writing messages like “7 years later and this day never gets easier. Sending love out to everybody in the Route 91 family today.”
Personal Life and Family
Aldean married his high school sweetheart, Jessica Ann Usser, in 2001. The couple had two daughters together: Keeley, born in 2003, and Kendyl, born in 2007.
In 2012, photos surfaced of Aldean with Brittany Kerr, a former American Idol contestant and Charlotte Bobcats cheerleader. Aldean apologized publicly, but he and Jessica filed for divorce in 2013.
Aldean and Brittany announced their engagement in September 2014 and married on March 21, 2015. Their son, Memphis, was born on December 1, 2017, and their daughter, Navy, was born in early 2019.
Today, Jason maintains a blended family with his four children. He credits Brittany for understanding the demands of his touring lifestyle and helping him balance family life with his country music career. The family moved into a massive dream home in a rural area outside Nashville in mid-2020.
Business Ventures Beyond Music
Aldean has expanded his brand beyond music into several successful business ventures. He owns part of Buck Commander, a hunting company, in partnership with former Major League Baseball players Adam LaRoche, Ryan Langerhans, and Tom Martin, Willie Robertson of Duck Dynasty, and fellow country singers Luke Bryan and Tyler Farr.
Jason Aldean’s Kitchen + Rooftop Bar opened in Nashville in 2018, followed by a second location in Gatlinburg in 2023, a third in Pittsburgh in March 2024, and a fourth in Las Vegas in December 2024. He also co-owns the E3 Chophouse in Nashville with Luke Bryan and Adam LaRoche.
Recent Work and Current Tours
Jason Aldean announced his 2025 Full Throttle North American tour in January 2025. The Live Nation-produced outing kicked off on May 23 at the Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and includes a mix of arena, amphitheater, and stadium shows through October 4 at the iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The tour features opening acts Nate Smith, RaeLynn, and Dee Jay Silver, along with a previously announced co-headlining stadium show with Brooks & Dunn at Fenway Park in Boston.
His eleventh studio album, “Highway Desperado,” was released on November 3, 2023. The record featured his 30th number-one hit, “Whiskey Drink,” and his first career number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Try That in a Small Town.”
The Full Throttle World Tour is set to kick off its international leg in 2026, adding Aldean’s first-ever headlining run in New Zealand and his first return to Australia in more than a decade.
The “Try That in a Small Town” Controversy
In 2023, Aldean released “Try That in a Small Town,” which became the subject of widespread controversy following the release of its music video on July 14.
The video was filmed in front of the Maury County courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, the site of a 1946 race riot and a 1927 lynching. CMT pulled the music video from the air four days after its release.
The song and video were denounced by fellow musicians, including Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell, and Margo Price, while drawing support from country musicians Cody Johnson and Brantley Gilbert.
Amid the controversy, the song debuted at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, then rose to number one the following week, becoming Aldean’s first national chart-topper and best chart performance of his career.
Musical Style and Influence
Aldean’s music represents a modern country sound that appeals to both traditional country fans and younger audiences. His songs typically blend themes of small-town living, rural pride, love, and loss with harder rock instrumentation and contemporary production techniques.
His willingness to incorporate elements from other genres—particularly rock, hip-hop, and R&B—has influenced a generation of country artists who followed. Songs like “Dirt Road Anthem” paved the way for the country-rap fusion that became increasingly popular in the 2010s and 2020s.
His consistent chart success demonstrates his ability to evolve with changing musical trends while maintaining his core identity. From the traditional country influences of his early work to the genre-blending experiments of his later albums, Aldean has proven himself adaptable without abandoning the sound that made him famous.
Complete Discography
Studio Albums:
- Jason Aldean (2005) – Platinum
- Relentless (2007) – Platinum
- Wide Open (2009) – Platinum
- My Kinda Party (2010) – 4× Platinum
- Night Train (2012) – 2× Platinum
- Old Boots, New Dirt (2014) – Platinum
- They Don’t Know (2016) – Gold
- Rearview Town (2018) – Gold
- 9 (2019) – Gold
- Macon, Georgia (2021)
- Highway Desperado (2023)
Notable Singles:
- “Hicktown” (2005)
- “Why” (2006) – #1
- “Amarillo Sky” (2006)
- “She’s Country” (2009) – #1
- “Big Green Tractor” (2009) – #1
- “My Kinda Party” (2010)
- “Dirt Road Anthem” (2011) – #1
- “Don’t You Wanna Stay” with Kelly Clarkson (2011) – #1
- “Take a Little Ride” (2012) – #1
- “Night Train” (2012) – #1
- “Burnin’ It Down” (2014) – #1
- “You Make It Easy” (2018) – #1
- “If I Didn’t Love You” with Carrie Underwood (2021) – #1
- “Try That in a Small Town” (2023) – #1 Billboard Hot 100
Legacy and Impact
Jason Aldean’s impact on country music extends far beyond his impressive sales figures and chart positions. He helped redefine what country music could sound like in the 21st century, proving that artists could honor tradition while pushing boundaries.
His touring success has been particularly noteworthy. Known for his electrifying live shows, Aldean consistently sells out stadiums and amphitheaters across North America. His ability to connect with audiences in person has made him one of country music’s most successful touring acts for nearly two decades.
As he continues to tour and release new music, Aldean remains a dominant force in country music. His influence can be heard in the work of countless younger artists who cite him as an inspiration, and his legacy as one of the genre’s most successful performers of the modern era is firmly established.
FAQs
How many number-one hits does Jason Aldean have?
Jason Aldean has 30 number-one singles on either the Hot Country Songs or Country Airplay charts. His first Billboard Hot 100 number-one came in 2023 with “Try That in a Small Town.”
Is Jason Aldean still touring?
Yes, Jason Aldean is currently on his 2025 Full Throttle North American tour, which runs through October 2025. The tour will extend internationally in 2026, including his first headlining shows in New Zealand and his first return to Australia in over a decade.
What is Jason Aldean’s real name?
Jason Aldean’s birth name is Jason Aldine Williams. He created his stage name by combining his first name with a respelling of his middle name, dropping his last name.
How many albums has Jason Aldean sold?
Jason Aldean has sold over 20 million albums throughout his career, with nearly 20 billion total streams across all platforms.
Did Jason Aldean win Entertainer of the Year?
Yes, Jason Aldean won the ACM Entertainer of the Year award three consecutive years from 2016 to 2018. He also received the ACM Dick Clark Artist of the Decade Award in 2019.
What happened at Jason Aldean’s concert in Las Vegas?
On October 1, 2017, a mass shooting occurred while Jason Aldean was performing at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas. A gunman opened fire from a nearby hotel, killing 60 people and injuring hundreds more in what became the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in U.S. history.
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