Jason Aldean keeps busy—traveling from Nashville to California on his way to headline the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas on Oct. 5. The popular Aldean has hit the top of the country charts with “Burnin’ It Down,” and his latest album, Old Boots, New Dirt, will be released days after Route 91, but Aldean is taking the pressure in stride. He spoke to Las Vegas Magazine’s Matt Kelemen recently.
Congratulations on once again having the No. 1 country single. How has it felt getting a short break with the release of your new album weeks away?
I appreciate it, man. When we’re not playing shows, we’re actually out promoting the album so it just kind of makes the time go by faster. I’m excited the album is coming out. I get pumped up about that stuff, so I’m looking forward to it.
Have you started playing the new material live?
For the most part, I try not to add a ton of new things in until the album comes out. I feel like fans don’t know a lot of the songs. I’d rather play songs they know than songs they don’t, so for me, I try to wait a little closer to when the album comes out, or (wait until) the album comes out, to introduce some of the new stuff.
Do you think your set for Route 91 will have a lot of new material?
Possibly. We’re about to set out on this monthlong run and we’re going to definitely start to add some things into the show. I think on this next run we’re going to have a lot of time to sit down and do that during sound check.
Will there be special stage production or guest appearances at the festival?
I think all of that stuff comes on the fly, you know? We get there and someone’s in town, and we’ll see what happens. For the most part, we want to give everyone the full experience of seeing one of our shows. We’re going to go and make it as big as if someone was seeing our stadium shows. This being the first Route 91 is exciting for us to get to be a part of it, so it’s going to be a lot of fun.
“Burnin’ It Down” clearly shows that boundary-stretching production works for you. Do you think you’ll keep going in that direction or do you see yourself reversing course and going traditional for an album project?
For me, it’s about finding new ways to keep pushing yourself and make things sound different, and also staying true to what it is that’s gotten us this far. We’ve always branched out and tried new things, and I think that’s something I enjoy doing. I don’t see myself recording an album full of drum loops. I like the sound that having a real band brings to the table.
