Jason Aldean is so glad Morgan Wallen is part of country music. Wallen has had plenty of crossover hits, including his recent "Love Somebody" single, which was a No. 1 hit at both pop and country radio. Although country purists may criticize Wallen for not adhering strictly to the boundaries of country music, Aldean says Wallen is only helping the genre.
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"Morgan's just kind of a global level now," Aldean says on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard (via Taste of Country). "That's awesome, too, that we get a guy like that — really brings in a lot of different listeners into our format."
Aldean goes on to say that Wallen's global appeal is what makes him such an integral part of country music.
"He's getting people to listen to his stuff that wouldn't typically listen to country."
"Those kinds of things, it's all good for all of us," he adds.
Jason Aldean Is Working On A New Album
Aldean is a superstar in his own right. Although not at the global level of Wallen, Aldean can still sell millions of albums and sell out large concert venues. Aldean is currently working on a new album, the follow-up to his 2023 Highway Desperado record. But this one, his 12th, will feature more serious topics, including perhaps a song about dementia, which he reveals is in progress.
"We're writing songs about...family members going through things like dementia, those kinds of things," Aldean shares (via Taste of Country). Sadly, the subject matter is something that he has dealt with on a personal level.
"My uncle passed away with Lewy body dementia in the last year," Aldean 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."
While Aldean will always have the party songs, the 48-year-old finds himself drawn to different songs than he was in the beginning of his career. This time, he wants songs that have meaning.
"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."
