This Week’s Backstage Country Co-Host: Jason Aldean

This week, one of country music’s biggest stars, Jason Aldean, steps into the co-host seat on Backstage Country with Elaina Smith. From February 9 to 13, the 48-year-old hitmaker will share stories behind his songs, including his latest single, “How Far Does a Goodbye Go?” and keep the country hits rolling all week long.  

Smith and Aldean chatted about his upcoming album Songs About Us and how he decides which songs belong on it. The “Dirt Road Anthem” star revealed that even when an album seems complete, hearing the right song can change everything, often inspiring him to add a few more tracks. “A lot of times I think the guys kind of know what they're doing. And when I say the guys, it's a couple of the guys in my band who've been writing a ton of stuff lately. I think they kind of know what they're doing sometimes because they'll go, ‘Yeah, well, I don’t know. We’re thinking about this for the next album.” He chuckled, “And they know me well enough to know if I like it, it's going to get cut.”  

Aldean, who worked with John Morgan on a couple of songs as a songwriter, reflected on how they discovered him, now that Morgan is also making a name for himself as a country music singer. “It’s probably been four or five years ago. We kind of discovered him and found him. I heard this guy sing a demo, and I was like, ‘Who is singing that? Like, this guy's incredible.’” 

He added, “My band guys had written a couple songs with him, and they were just like, ‘Man, you need to listen to this guy.’ And so they sent the demo, and I heard him singing, and I was just like, ‘Oh, my God, this guy is amazing. And so then my thing is how, you know, these days, you can kind of take anybody in the studio and make them sound good. So I go get him to just sit down with a guitar and film it with his iPhone and send it to me. I want to see if he sounds like this for real. And he did.” 

Songs About Us drops April 24. Pre-order or pre-save here.