Jason Aldean is working on a tough emotional song, about a cause that is sadly personal for him. The father of four reveals he is working on a song about dementia, an illness that has unfortunately impacted his own family.
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"We're writing songs about...family members going through things like dementia, those kinds of things," Aldean says on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert (via Taste of Country).
Aldean shares that his mother's brother tragically succumbed to the illness in 2024.
"My uncle passed away with Lewy body dementia in the last year," he says. "And [we've] got another family member that's dealing with that kind of thing. So we've got some songs we wrote, talking about that."
Aldean burst onto the country music scene in 2005 with "Hicktown." Early in his career, he also released songs like "Big Green Tractor," "Crazy Town," "My Kinda Party" and more. And although Aldean still loves those songs, and still performs them regularly, the 48-year-old says it's time for him to have more substance in his music.
"At some point, you're going to have to have some songs that have a little meat on the bone ...but still having [the up-tempo songs] that people expect from us on a record, too," he explains.
"The subject matter gets a little more mature," Aldean adds. "You deal with sh-- that maybe you didn't deal with early on, or didn't pay attention to early on in your life. And you know, now it's a real thing."
Jason Aldean Opens Up About His Biggest Heartbreak
Without question, Jason Aldean's biggest heartbreak so far is the tragic Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting in 2017, which took place when he was on stage. Aldean funded therapy for his band and crew, but now admits he never sought professional help for himself.
"I think for me, I kind of had a breakdown in my house one day," he remembers. "It was after my son was born, and just all that heaviness of everything, just getting laid on you.
"I ended up having a moment at my house where I kind of broke down thinking about just all the people that I could have lost," he continues. "All the people that we did lose as far as fans. But my inner circle of people and my wife was there, eight months pregnant with my son and all these things."
