Jason Aldean Doesn’t Ever See Himself Retiring From Music: ‘This Is a Lifer Gig’
In the midst of the excitement and festivities surrounding the presentation of his ACM Dick Clark Artist of the Decade Award in the spring, Jason Aldean admits that he felt like it was still a little early in his career to win such a definitive, milestone title.
"I'm too young to retire, man," he tells The Boot and other outlets with a laugh. "And I think that was the weird thing about winning Artist of the Decade: I almost felt like that was a retirement award or something. I really don't feel like I've been around that long, [but] I turn around and I've been here for 14, 15 years."
Though Aldean has accomplished quite a bit in the decade and a half since he debuted in country music, he says he's still got lots of un-checked items left on his bucket list. "There's still things I haven't accomplished that I think would be cool: a Grammy. I've never won a Grammy. I'd love to win one of those," he points out, adding that making music never really gets old, because he approaches it, first and foremost, as a country fan himself.
"I still love going out and seeing what we can come up with in the studio. I still enjoy making those records," Aldean goes on to say. "As far as playing live, that's always been kind of my favorite part of the whole thing. Part of it, I think, is that I'm competitive by nature. I see somebody out there doing this, I wanna go do that too, you know what I mean?"
Aldean's two youngest children, Memphis and Navy, were born in 2017 and 2019, respectively. The singer has two older daughters from a previous marriage, but he points out that he wants his two younger children to experience a bit of his career throughout their childhoods, too.
"I want them to grow up and be able to see some of that stuff, experience it a little bit. I don't want them to see all that stuff just in pictures from the past, or videos, or whatever," Aldean adds. "So I don't see retiring, maybe ever, but I have tried to back off a little bit just to be at home with them a little bit more than I was in the past."
After Memphis was born, Aldean says he cut his yearly tour schedule down by about 20 shows. "We probably went from playing 75 shows a year to 55 shows, just to make it where I'm home a few more weekends a year," he notes.
"But I never see that time where I'm just retiring and not touring or anything like that," Aldean adds. "I still enjoy it too much to just not do it at all."
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