Jason Aldean Celebrates With ‘My Kinda Party’

Whose last album sold the most copies – Brad Paisley’s, Keith Urban’s, Tim McGraw’s or Jason Aldean’s?

The answer might surprise those who consider Aldean a Nashville outsider because of an independent streak – in both his label and his career choices. But with 1.3 million albums sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan, Aldean easily outpaced those three modern-day country icons.

“I’m proud of it,” Aldean said. “I think because we haven’t ever been the media darling, nobody can say you got a huge fan base because you’re in every magazine, you’re in every this and that, you’re winning every award. We haven’t really had that much. Every fan we’ve got is because we’ve went out and kind of done it grass roots style.”

Aldean’s rise seems so fast. He released his first album in 2006 and put out his fourth, My Kinda Party, on Tuesday.

Yet really the 33-year-old has been working at it since he was 14, with his parents escorting him and his guitar to bars and clubs around Macon, Ga., until he was old enough to drive. He skipped college to chase the dream, forming a band and building a following in Georgia and Florida before moving to Nashville in 1998. He didn’t get his record deal with the independent label Broken Bow until 2004.

The way Aldean sees it, he’s built his fan base gig by gig, song by song and album by album. His first dates drew fans in the dozens, but those people left the bar talking about the show.

“Then the next year when you come to that club there’s 100 people, then you come back the next year and there’s 500 people,” Aldean said. “It takes a long time to build it that way. But I think when it works, those fans hopefully will stick around for a while and not be just bandwagon jumpers where they’re just going to ride the ride for a little while till it’s not hot.”

Next year Aldean will launch a tour where he’ll perform in a mix of amphitheaters and arenas, making the last step on the road to country music’s A-list.

There are also high hopes for My Kinda Party to repeat the success of Wide Open, which spawned three No. 1 singles and a No. 2.

“Very quietly, he gets the job done,” CMT President Brian Philips said. “He sells a ton of merchandise. He’s a hot ticket. He’s got one of the hottest tours out there. So the moral of the story is it doesn’t matter who puts your record out. It doesn’t matter how many awards you win. It doesn’t matter how many fluffy press releases you are in. At the end of the day the fans will find you if you work.”

That showed in the sales figures for Aldean’s last album. SoundScan figures show Wide Open has sold about twice as many physical albums as Paisley’s American Saturday Night (663,000) and also topped McGraw’s Southern Voice (733,000) and Urban’s Defying Gravity (906,000).

Wide Open also outsold Kenny Chesney’s 2008 studio release, Lucky Old Sun (804,000).

Producer Michael Knox, who saw an Aldean show in Atlanta and brought the singer to Nashville, said Aldean has cultivated an honest sound that draws young fans like the Pied Piper, pulling them away from those traditional favorites.

“Jason’s got a lot more edge than those guys do,” Knox said. “The kids now that are buying records … when they listen to oldies that’s the ’80s.”

He added: “He was brought up on Alabama and traditional country music as well. Then he was also influenced by Guns N’ Roses – the transition to the arena rock country act. I think that’s what’s given him the edge on some of those guys. He’s coming across like Motley Crue instead of kind of wearing belt buckles and cowboy hats.”

Aldean said he didn’t stray far from that formula when assembling the new album. Lead single, “My Kinda Party,” is a kind of mission statement and a rollicking good time flavored by long nights in Aldean’s “party barn,” a converted barn that now features a bar, a pool table and karaoke.

There are more textures here, though. For instance, Aldean includes his first duet, “Don’t You Wanna Stay,” cut with Kelly Clarkson. The two will perform the song on this year’s Country Music Association Awards.

“I always try to cut songs that represent what I do and the kind of songs that I like, and also I keep my live show in mind with that,” Aldean said. “I want songs that are going to come off well live. I’m not going to sing songs about breakups all night. I want them to have fun. They come out early, they tailgate, they have fun. It is a party.”