Jason Aldean may live a life of luxury these days, but the country star hasn’t forgotten the early stages of his career when he was struggling just to keep his family afloat.
Speaking in a recent interview with Taste of Country Nights: On Demand, Aldean, 47, recalled the lean period before his breakout hit, 2005’s “Hicktown,” set him on the path to eventual chart-smashing success.
Just prior to signing with his record label, Broken Bow Records, Aldean explained things were financially grim — particularly considering he was a new dad struggling to support a young family as a then-unknown musician.
“I was starving, I had a brand new baby. My oldest daughter had just been born, I didn’t have any money,” he confessed.
Aldean and then-wife Jessica Ussery had just welcomed their first daughter, Keeley, in 2003, who would be followed by second daughter Kendyl in 2007. The couple would go on to divorce in 2013.
“I wasn’t thinking long term. It was like, ‘I need to get this song going just so I can generate some money to, like, keep from losing my house and to be able to buy diapers.’ Those kind of things,” Aldean related.
“I was very much small potatoes, going, ‘I need to make 5 grand, so I need to make 5 grand today somehow, how does this happen?’ It was more like survival.”
Aldean’s record deal with Broken Bow Records was signed in 2005, followed by the release of his self-titled debut album and debut single, “Hicktown.” It proved to be the key to his success, becoming his first Top 10 hit on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Chart as well as a blueprint for his signature sound.
“For it to turn into what it has, I never … I dunno, maybe I was just kind of naïve to the point of thinking that it could ever become this,” he said.
The Georgia native now has 11 albums under his belt, with five of them certified platinum or multi-platinum. He additionally has been nominated for five Grammys.
He also is father to four kids now — his two daughters with ex Ussery; and a son, Memphis, 6, and daughter, Navy, 5, with current wife Brittany Aldean — and told the outlet he has no plans of stopping touring anytime soon.
“There’s still a lot of things that I want to accomplish. You know, I feel like I’ve been able to accomplish a lot of the things that I set out to do, originally, and more,” he noted. “I think I’ve done things in my career that I never dreamed I would have done. I started playing music when I was 14 years old.”
“I mean look at like people like the [Rolling] Stones,” Aldean pointed out. “They’re up there, and they’re still going out playing stadiums. I just feel like this is one of those gigs that if you’re in it, you’re kind of a lifer.”