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July 2, 2025 11 mins

There won’t be many in the world who would argue that Jason Aldean’s not a country music superstar. 

He moved up to Nashville at age 21, and after signing and being dropped by a couple of agencies, he got picked up by Broken Bow Records, launching his debut single and album in 2005. 

From there the rest is history – 30 number 1 country singles, almost 20 billion streams, 20 million albums sold, multiple platinum records, as well as being named ACM’s Artist of the Decade, among other things. 

It’s all culminated in his ‘Full Throttle Tour’ going international, and Aldean will be making his way to our shores early next year. 

He told Mike Hosking the music industry is a tough business to break into. 

“We’ve been around for twenty years, so it’s been a good ride, but it’s definitely a tough business,” Aldean said. 

“Not for the faint of heart, for sure.” 

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Another of country's biggest names heading our way early next year,
Jason Eldeen. He headed to Nashville at the age of
twenty one. He was signed, he got dropped, eventually did
a deal the day we rolled out, about twenty years ago.
Thirty number one singles later, almost twenty billion streams, twenty
million albums sold, multiple Grammy nominations American Country Music Artist
of that decade. The Full Throttle Tour is New Zealand

(00:20):
aout Jason Eldeen as well as from Nashville.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Good morning, good morning. Thanks for having me man.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Now, as a guy who's been around a while, I
I've just for your knowledge, I've been a country music
fan my entire life, and so I suffered for many,
many years listening to people's music that others would go,
what country, Why do you listen to country? What the country?
It's something, and yet suddenly it is huge. You must
have enjoyed that ride.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Yeah, you know, I kind of always thought country music
was cool, you know. I was kind of gravitated toward
guys that, you know, I thought were a little bit different,
guys like Ronnie Millsap and Alabama and some of those guys.
When I was growing up, and you know, I think
every sort of new generation of artists, we bring our
influences into the into the genre. And and for me

(01:06):
that was a lot of obviously a lot of country music,
but a lot of rock and southern rock and roll too.
And so, you know, I think now when people turn
on the radio, turn on country radio.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
If you hadn't listened to it in a while, you know,
it's different.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
There's there's things all over the board, from you know,
pop country stuff to now it's you know, it's switching
back around. Guys like Zachtop coming out that are super
traditional again, and so there's a little bit of everything, man,
And I think it's a it's a fun time.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Is music better for it? Is country music better for it?

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Is it?

Speaker 3 (01:40):
What?

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Is it better for it? The whole experience? More artists,
more doesn't mean better.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, I mean I think so.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
I mean, I think it's it's you know, the old saying,
it's uh, quality versus quantity.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
I guess you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
It's like, you want to have a lot of great
artists that are making great records, and you know a
lot of times there's sort of this almost like this
flush of new artists that come in and you got,
you know, all these songs and all these names, and
it's kind of hard to put a face with a name.
And then all of a sudden, you know, guys start,
you know, so the cream kind of rises to the top.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Guys start breaking through, and.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
You know, and you start to see who those guys are,
and it's you know, it's cool, and those are the
ones that you know, the most impactful, or those kind
of guys. But you know, now it's streaming and all
the things all over the place. You know, those those artists,
those stars can kind of come out of nowhere and
come from anywhere. So it's just a different time. You know,
it's a different time than it was when I kind

(02:38):
of hit the scene. And right now you just kind
of never know what that next artist is going to
come from.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
You another one of these You moved to Nashville to
make it big and you did. How the last person
I interviewed who did that was Luke Colmbs and that
worked for him, it worked for you. How many people
do move to Nashville, all those people, how many actually
make it?

Speaker 2 (02:59):
How real?

Speaker 1 (03:00):
That story?

Speaker 3 (03:02):
I mean, I don't know what the number is, but
I gotta I gotta say that, you know, out of
the people that move to Nashville, you know, and I
guess it depends on what you're what making it means.
You know, if if making it means you get a
record deal, then then there's probably a lot of those people.
If making it means you come in, you start writing songs,
and you start getting your songs cut, for a lot
of people, that's their goal. And I feel like, you know,

(03:25):
that's that for me. I feel like the people that
come to town trying to get a deal, that that
really get out there and you know, it really happens
for them on a on a big level. I gotta
think that that percentage is pretty small. You know, probably
maybe maybe five percent if if you're lucky. You know,

(03:46):
everybody comes, every artist, everybody that wants to be a
country music singer comes to Nashville. Their goal is to
get a record deal and you know, get played on
the radio and be able to go tour and do
all those things.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
And the reality is it's just how hard man.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Even some of the I mean, some of the best
singers I've ever heard that have come through this town
that just for whatever reason, it didn't it didn't happen
for him, and you don't really know.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Why that is.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
So it's a tough business man, and and you know,
fortunately for us, we were one of the few that
that kind of was able to break through. And now
we've been around for twenty years, so it's been a
it's been a good ride, but it's it's definitely a
tough business. And you know, not for the faint of heart,
for sure.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Do you believe that if you're truly gifted you will succeed?

Speaker 3 (04:35):
I think it depends, man. I think it's the combination
of a lot of things. You know, it's you know,
I think you kind of have to be you know, obviously,
talent has to be there, you have to have that.
I think you also need a lot of a lot
of luck on your side, a lot of you know,
surrounding yourself with the right team, I think is really
key to that. But just because you're a great artist

(04:57):
and a great singer, great guitar player, whatever it is,
that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to happen for you.
You know, you got to you still gotta have hit songs.
That that's kind of what moves everything is the songs
kind of make everything else go.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
So you could be the best singer in the world.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
But if you don't know how to pick a hit,
you know, it's just for Sometimes it just doesn't happen.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Okay, you got twenty years under your belt. Now what's
a hit today is to say what was a hit
twenty years ago? And how's that changed? And how do
you know?

Speaker 2 (05:24):
I mean, I think for me personally, it's probably changed.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
Just from a standpoint of when I cut my first album,
I was twenty seven, twenty six or twenty seven years old,
So obviously there's some songs that I cut on that
record that now you know, at forty eight I wouldn't cut.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
But I think ultimately it's the same.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
I mean, you want something, you know, you want a
song that says something you wanted to kind of to me,
I like to cut songs and it feels like I wrote,
you know, something that I wanted to write, and you know,
and it has to be melodically cool, it has to
be lyrically something that I would say, and I think
sonically just something that's easy on the ears that you

(06:06):
want to listen to over and over and over. And
I think, you know, it's a combination of a lot
of those things. For me, anyway, that's the way I
look at it, you know. And now i'm you know,
trying to cut songs that maybe, uh, I don't know,
for lack of a better term, have a little more
meat on the bone than they did when I was,
you know, a twenty six, twenty seven year old kid
coming up in the business. So but back then we

(06:27):
were doing songs like Hicktown. You know, it was more
fun and just trying to establish like, hey, we're country music,
but it's it's kind of in your face rock and
roll too, And it was a really fine line of
trying to let people know that that's what we did.
But then it was also we could have those songs
that had some meat on the bone like an Amberillos
guy and those kind of things too, and all that
was on the first record. So I think consciously, for me,

(06:49):
that was something that I wanted to do in the beginning,
and the older I've gotten, you know, you try to
focus more on like the you know, the the real
songs that have a great lyric and you.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Know, you feel like they're going to be around for a.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
While, and some of the little tongue in cheek things
i'd stay away from a little more than I used to.
But different time in life. We're years, twenty years down
the road at this point.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
Does it get easier as success hits you or how to?

Speaker 2 (07:19):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
I think it's it's hard to get success, you know,
and I'm sure you've heard this before, but it's hard
to get that initial success. You know, you wait a
lifetime to get that, and then all of a sudden
it you know, at least in our case, it kind
of came out of nowhere. After you know, however, many years,
fifteen years, all of a sudden it came out of nowhere.

(07:39):
And then then you've got to kind of maintain that.
So now you got all these expectations of, oh, well,
your last album did this, and you had this many
number ones off the last album and it's sold this much.
So anything that doesn't do that on the next record
is not considered a failure. But you feel like, you know,
you're kind of losing a little bit of momentum, and
that's not always the case. I just think as you
get older as an art is you're not the shining

(08:01):
new penny anymore, you know what I mean? And you
kind of have to like find ways to reinvent yourself
a little bit. And so I think it gets a
little harder to keep the momentum going and kind of
stay on top. But but it's not it's not real
easy to get there.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
And then initially either.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
Way, does touring fit into this because I look at
your schedule, man, you uh, you working your ass off.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
Well, you know, I love the tour. I mean that's
why I got into the business. I love making records.
That's fun. But I do that so I can go
tour and play those on the road, and so, you know,
all the other stuff has kind of worked. The touring
side of it, to me is the fun part that
I get to go and you know, jump on stage
with my band and hang out and have fun and

(08:47):
you know, play for people. That's why that's why I
started doing it. That's what's fun for me. And you know,
so to me, man, as long as people are coming
out and interested in what we're doing, we're gonna go
out and keep trying to get better and you know,
come up with cool ways to make albums and go
out and tour and give them something that they haven't
seen before and that's the goal for us every year.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
Fantastic. What's your business philosophy? Because in looking at you,
you you got quite the thing going on in restaurants
and food and wine and all that sort of stuff.
Are you across all of that? Do you run your
home your whole thing?

Speaker 2 (09:23):
Well, there's a lot of people in place that run that.
I can't tell you that I do that myself.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
But you know, the one thing I have always tried
to do is really pay attention to you know, as
you has this you know kind of happens and you
become more famous and those kind of things, you know,
you get a lot of opportunities that come your way.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
People come in and you know, want to partner up
with you on different things.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
And the biggest thing for me is to make sure
that it's something that that I feel really good about,
that I feel like represents me and my brand and
something that I want to put my name on. And
there's been a lot of things that we've said no
to and and to me, you know, if it's something
that makes sense and it's something that I've think is
a good idea or something that I think is cool
that I want to see through, then we do those

(10:05):
things and sometimes you hit a home run and sometimes
you strike out, but you just you know, figure it out.
And you know, it's been fun kind of learning that
business side of everything, from the restaurant side to the
you know, getting into the liquor business and the wine
business and you know, the bar business, all those things.
So I've kind of learned as I've gone and kind

(10:26):
of learned to be a better business guy more so
than I was in the beginning. And you know, but
it's been a lot of you know, learning on the
job kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
Well it's yours some of the by the time you
get here, it'll be our some and so in its
next year of course. But we're we're very appreciative that
you're coming out way and we're looking forward to it.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
Well, I appreciate it, man, looking forward to getting back
down there seeing you guys, and I can't wait to
play some shows for you.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
Indeed, Well look forward to it. Joshon eldeen out of Nashville.
So as far as we consider this part of the world,
Auckland feb nineteen Feb nineteen, that's its spike arena. If
you're not going to get in Auckland, then he's basically
doing Australia. I'm just looking at is it the Rod
Labor Arena which is good for tennis. I don't know
whether it's good for a concert or not. But he's
in the Hunter Vlly. I like the Hunter Belly at

(11:12):
Sunburned Country, which I'm assuming as a festival, so I'd
go see him in the Hunter Velly if you don't
want to go see him in Auckland anyway. Jason Elden
heading our way February next year.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news Talks at B from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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