Jason Aldean Warns New Artists Against Headlining Shows Too Early

Jason Aldean

As ticket sales dwindle, shows are cancelled, and both artists and venues find themselves struggling, much thought and investigation is put into just where the problem may lie. For Jason Aldean, however, he thinks part of the blame can be placed on new artists flying too high too quickly.

Speaking to the Try That In A Small Town podcast recently, Aldean ruminated on the notion that it’s okay for younger artists to turn down big headline opportunities.

Having launched his own musical career in the '90s, it wasn't until 2005 that Aldean released his first single, spending the preceding years working on his craft and getting himself ready to achieve his next goals.

It would take until his second album, in 2007 before he hit the US top ten, and by 2012's Night Train, he was hitting No. 1 – a trend he'd keep up for three more records.

These days, he can understandably be found performing massive shows, but that wasn’t always the case. In fact, as he recalled, he was given the chance to do huge headline dates on his own around 2009, but instead turned it down in favour of performing as a support act for country icons Brooks & Dunn’s Last Rodeo Tour.

“I even put it off a little longer just to give us time to get another song out and kind of let that heat that was starting to happen, just let it bubble a little bit more,” he explained. “And man, when we finally did go out to do it, it was like, I mean, it didn’t take long to realise that’s what happens.

“You go from clubs to being an opening act for somebody, to all of a sudden you’re the guy, and there’s as many if not more people there as when you were the opening act for the artist that you were a huge fan of. It was an eye-opening thing for me at that time.”

As he continued, Aldean mused that more artists need to take it slowly and recognise when the opportunities presented to them might not be as conducive to success as they appear. After all, if you’re a new artist with little more than a viral single, how will you fill your headline set?

“It’s okay to say no sometimes and go like, ‘Man, I don’t know,’ or ‘I don’t think that’s right for me,’” he continued.

“Everybody wants to be a headliner but the problem is a lot of them only have one or two songs and think they can go out and carry an hour and a half or two hours of a show, and it’s like, ‘Dude, you got two songs people really care about that they want to hear. What are you going to do for the other 80 minutes?’”

Aldean noted that it’s something he sees “all the time,” with many artists shooting themselves in the foot and finding it out “the hard way” by making the jump “too early instead of taking their time, opening for somebody, building their catalogue a little bit, [and] letting some songs come out.”

Aldean made his return to Australia earlier this year, playing arena shows around the country, a decade since he first visited. It’s hard to imagine what his career would look like these days had he made the jump to those arena shows alongside the release of his earliest records.

Would it be the same, or could he have burnt out too early? Either way, it’s fair advice for young artists to follow.