Lauren Alaina will hit the road with Jason Aldean in May, serving as the opening act on his 2018 High Noon Neon Tour. Although this isn’t the first time Alaina has toured with Aldean, the 23-year-old is eager to show her future tour boss how much she has learned.
“Luke was my first tour,” Alaina recently shared with PopCulture.com and other media outlets. “It was the Luke and Jason Aldean [My Kinda Party] Tour. This is my second time back out with him. That was my first tour. I got to learn so much on that tour – I had no idea what I was doing, just totally making it up every single day.”
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Alaina feels honored to be part of an elite group of artists invited to tour with the reigning country music hitmaker.
“Obviously he has so many people at his shows, so that’s a really good opportunity for me,” Alaina adds. “I’m also really excited because I want to show him how much I’ve grown. I don’t know that he’s seen me onstage since then. I want to be able to thank him for that growth because he set that up for me, teed that up for me to be able to grow and learn how to be on the road and how to be on stage. I’m excited. It’s going to be a really big summer and I’m just really proud. I hope he brings that cute baby to every show.”
Alaina hit the road with Aldean and Bryan shortly after coming in second on Season 10 of American Idol in 2011. Although she is grateful for the exposure the show gave her, she admits the success came with a price, after trying to launch her own career.
“The biggest obstacle that I had to overcome is the stigma that comes with being an American Idol contestant,” Alaina said. “I had to work really hard at country radio to overcome that reputation … American Idol was beautiful in so many ways. With them you have instantaneous success. I mean, people know you. It’s not really success. Some people think that’s the easy way to get a career. I had to overcome that. I spent the last seven years doing that.”
Alaina celebrated her first No. 1 last year, with “Road Less Traveled,” and just returned to the top of the charts with “What Ifs,” her duet with Kane Brown.
Alaina is currently serving as the opening act on Cole Swindell’s Reason to Drink Tour. A list of all of her upcoming shows can be found on her website.
