Jason Aldean Talks Family and Having One of His Country Music Inspirations on Tour Ahead of Evansville Show

Jason Aldean is one of the biggest stars in country music and will be making his return to Evansville when he brings his Rock & Roll Cowboy Tour to the Ford Center on Thursday, September 22nd. But before he takes the stage, he took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to talk with me about his friendship with Kane Brown, how often his wife Brittany and their two young kids tour with him, and whether or not those same kids think he's cool because of what he does for a living.

Take a listen, or read the full transcript, of our conversation below.

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Ryan O'Bryan: We've been talking about this show, looking forward to it for a really long time. It's Jason Aldean bringing his rock'n'roll cowboy tour to the Ford Center and joining us now is the man that we will see on that stage at the Ford Center. Jason Aldean. Good morning Sir. 

Jason: Good morning, man.

How are you?

We're doing great, doing great.

I think it's been, if I remember correctly, and I'm not great with dates, but it's been about four years, I think, since last time you came to Evansville. I want to say it was sometime in 2018 and at that time you brought along with you, your buddy Kane Brown, who is now gonna headline his own tour at the Ford Center next year. You and Kane are pretty tight. How long have you guys been friends and how did that relationship come to be?

Well, yeah, I mean it kind of started when Kane came out on tour with us one year. We were looking for an opening act. I think Chris Young was out with us maybe, and then we were looking for a, you know, the third slide and so you know Kane was just kind of coming out and you know just kind of hitting the scene so, we, you know, just gambled on him a little bit and took him out and when we did, once he got out there, I just kind of hit it off with him and we became really good friends. Our wives became good friends and he wasn't even married at the time, but he was dating his wife and so,  we all just became really good friends. A couple years later, he came back out as like the direct support act for us. So, he toured with me for two years...you know, two out of three or four years there, he toured with us and we just kind of got to be really good friends, and it just kind of went from there.

I know you guys share a love of Georgia football, if I'm not mistaken, right? 

100%, yeah.

Well, it's a good team to pick, reigning national champion and I believe last time I checked, still ranked number one in the AP 25 poll?

Yeah, we waited, uh, 40 years for that national championship, though. So, it was nice, but it finally came and now, you know, we've, you know, we, we, we seem to be up there, you know, all the time, which is nice, but it wasn't always that way.

It's a good-looking team, that's for sure. They're doing it right down there.

Speaking of the family, are Brittney and the kids, how much do they get to go out on the Tour with you? Are they going to be with you in Evansville, or is it just kind of whenever they can make it work? 

Yeah, you know, I kind of leave that up to Britt. She, you know, a lot of times, we try to change it up a little bit. Like this weekend, for example, she's out with me. It's just her, by herself. Then for the last couple weeks, two or three weeks, we've had the whole crew out. So, we've had the kids out and I kind of leave that up to her. Tere's weekends that she'll just stay home with them and I'll go out by myself, so I kind of leave that up to her whenever she feels like she wants to. So, I don't ever really know. She kind of makes that call like the week of usually.

You've got your older daughter and then you've got the two younger ones. Are the two younger ones at the age, where they are starting to kind of understand what dad does for a living, or do they not really care because they're kids, and your dad, not you?

I think they're starting to kind of get it because they're old enough now when they come out on the road, you know, they can stay awake long enough to go out and see some of the shows. So you know, I think they're starting to kind of get it a little bit, you know, they know that I play shows. They know that I sing, you know, and so now they can go out and kind of look out and see the crowds. I think they're kind of starting to put it together a little bit, but ultimately I think it's not that big a deal to them. I'm just dad. Which is cool.

It's a humbling thing for sure.

Yes, 100%.

They can't understand why people want to talk to you all the time and they don't care because you're the guy that makes them go to bed at 8:00 o'clock at night or, makes them eat their vegetables. They don't want to eat that kind of stuff. They just don't care. 

100% yeah, yeah. It's like, yeah, it's cool that you play your shows, but I need some juice. Give me some of that juice, please.

That's great and all that you've got these thousands of people that are cheering your name, but I'm a little thirsty if you could hit me up with that apple juice, that'd be great, dad. Appreciate it. 

You've got Tracy Lawrence coming along with you this time around, I know Gabby Barrett was on there initially, but obviously, she's got another one on the way of her own, so she's taking a rest and getting ready for baby #2, and I've seen some interviews where you've talked about what it means for you to have Tracy Lawrence on this tour, because I know he was somebody that inspired you to get into this, right? 

Yeah, he was, you know, one of my favorites. He was a guy that I was really drawn to when he first came out. He was my guy. I remember when I was in high school, when I graduated high school, my graduation present was two tickets to go see him in concert. And it's just crazy now to think that, here we are this many years later and I'm playing my shows and he's out touring with us and opening shows for us. It's kind of one of those weird, weird moments for me. But I've always been a fan of his. Still am.

I've gotten to be pretty good friends with him over the years and just to be able to have him come out and actually tour together for the first time, for me is has been a really cool thing, so I always excited to have him on the show.

And John Morgan is going to be part of that show as well, which again is coming up on Thursday. Tell us about this wolf Moon Lodge experience that happens at these shows.

So Wolf Moon is a is a bourbon whiskey that we have and so we have this lodge before the show, it's basically our VIP thing that we go, we play a few songs, we do some Q&A stuff and i t's pretty intimate, and so it's a really cool thing to go in it.

It's kind of a side of our shows and probably the me that you don't really get to see during the main show and so, it's a really cool little thing that we we started doing a few years ago and we have a lot of fun to go in there. Everybody can go in there and get them a little wolf moon, and get them ready for the show.

And it kind of gives us a chance to get warmed up a little bit, just kind of have some fun, and instead of there being 20,000 people in there, a lot of times there may be 100, or 50, or whatever it is that particular day. So it's just a little more intimate and just a little bit of a different vibe, but it's really cool and just a fun thing that we do every night.

We've got actually got a chance for you to win part of this Wolf Moon Lodge experience before the show at the Ford Center. You can enter the wind now on the WKDQ app.

Jason, I know you've got several other interviews to do. I appreciate the time. We're looking forward to seeing you next Thursday at the Ford Center with the Rock & Roll Cowboy Tour and looking forward to a great show.

Hey, I appreciate it man. Always was good to talk to y'all and looking forward to the show as well.