Jason Aldean Is Making a Big Change on His Next Album

Ten albums in — and counting! — Jason Aldean knows how important it is to keep things fresh when it comes to new music. So, he's constantly working to try new things and different approaches in the studio, and as he works on his next project, that means spending a little bit more time in the songwriter's room.

"[I] started jumping into the writer's chair again a little bit, and got a few things on this album that I wrote. Some really cool stuff, man," Aldean tells Taste of Country Nights.

For reference, his last album — a double project called Macon, Georgia, which he put out in 2022 — doesn't include any songwriting credits from the star, despite the fact that there's a whopping 30 tracks total on the project. In fact, Aldean hasn't written any of the songs on his albums since 2009, when he co-wrote a song called "Keep the Girl" for his third studio album, Wide Open.

That was a rarity, even at the time: Aldean co-wrote three songs on his 2005 studio debut, but none on his second album, meaning that he's only had songwriting credits on four tracks he's recorded, across all 10 of the albums he's dropped to date.

It's not that he can't write songs. Aldean actually originally moved to Nashville as a songwriter, signing a publishing deal with Warner-Chapell in 1998. Last year, the singer explained that he's simply a perfectionist.

"My problem was always and still is — it's not that I don't write or can't write. I'm just a perfectionist," he detailed.

But Aldean says his songwriting efforts have been productive during this album cycle, and he's "excited" for fans to hear the results sooner rather than later.

"We got about nine songs finished already for the album, and we're actually gonna go back in and do I think one more session," he tells Taste of Country Nights.

"We'll probably cut five more songs, and [we're] looking at it coming out sometime later this year. I think we're eyeing the fall right now," he relates.

Fans have already gotten to hear a couple of tracks that will be included on the new project. Aldean debuted "Tough Crowd" at the 2023 ACM Awards, and he followed that up with the release of his next album's first single, "Try That in a Small Town."