When Jason Aldean first moved to Nashville, he was signed as a songwriter -- not a recording artist -- and spent five years writing every day. However, the country star isn't shy about admitting that songwriting was never his primary goal, and he doesn't mind the fact that his latest studio album, Rearview Towndoesn't feature any tracks that he wrote himself.

"If you look at my albums over the years, there have been times when I've written stuff that ends up on the record, but more often than not, I'm my own worst critic when it comes to my songwriting," Aldean says. "On this record, I actually really made an effort to sit down and write some stuff, and there are some cool songs that may end up on another record or on somebody else's record, but I go with gut instinct. If there's another song that I think is better than what I wrote, I'm going to cut the other song."

The songs Aldean writes himself have quite a bit of competition to get onto his albums: At this stage in his career, the country star can often take his pick of tracks written by the most sought-after songwriters in town.

"When you're a new artist, it's harder to get these songs, because the publishers in town obviously want the A-list guys cutting their stuff, and rightfully so," he explains. "At this point in my career, it's easier to get those songs. We have guys that specifically write for us. For each record, we're offered a lot of songs -- I'd say hundreds -- and narrowing it down to 15 or so."

So what will happen to the songs that Aldean wrote for Rearview Town, but never ended up recording? The singer says he hopes they'll find new homes on other artists' albums.

"I held 'em while we were figuring out what we were going to cut for my record, but once we didn't cut them, I've got no problem releasing them out there," he says. "If you write something and somebody thinks enough of it to cut it, that's cool. They're cool songs. I'm just harder on myself than I should be."

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