Jason Aldean’s long-awaited High Noon Neon Tour kicks off on Thursday, May 10, in Kansas City, Mo. The singer says the cross-country trek, which includes several stadiums, will show fans how far he has come, as an artist and a performer.
“I think we’ve been doing this enough now, headlining enough, to where I like to think we figure stuff out every year,” Aldean shared with PopCulture.com at a recent media event. “We figure out ways to make stuff better, and change it up, and be different here, tighten this up over here. I’m constantly learning from things we did the year before, and we’re always trying to perfect it. I don’t know that you ever perfect it, but we try.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“Obviously, when you’re playing the stadiums, you always want to add that one sort of extra little bonus in there when you do a stadium show,” Aldean added, “for people that are coming, because it’s such a big event.”
Aldean’s High Noon Neon Tour comes only one month after the Georgia native released his latest Rearview Town, but he is trusting his fans to sing along to both the old and new songs.
“One of the best things about finally releasing an album is the fact that you can go out and start playing some of those songs live,” said Aldean. “More of YouTube and some of those things, you can’t really go out and test new music early on anymore, because you play it once, it’s on YouTube, and then everybody hears it two months before your album comes out. You kind of have to be careful with that stuff. Once the album is finally out, you can go out and play those songs.
“It’s great for us, because you can look and get a gauge of the reaction it’s getting from people,” he continued. “The first time we played ‘She’s Country,’ people flipped out. You’re like, ‘OK,this is going to be something special.’ ‘Dirt Road’ was the same thing. You can kind of read people a little bit. I love testing my stuff out. I love going and playing the new songs. It’s kind of like our babies. We’ve been working on this album for a year or more, so when you finally get a chance to put it out there and people check it out, it’s exciting for us. I’m excited to be able to play it for them.”
Included in Aldean’s High Noon Neon Tour is a show at SunTrust Park in Atlanta, where he will be joined by his good friend, Darius Rucker, as part of Rucker’s former band, Hootie & the Blowfish. The idea was born while Aldean was discussing with Live Nation who would be on his bucket list of iconic artists he’d like to share the stage with, and the ’90s band quickly landed at the top of the list.
“[I] started naming acts that we thought were possibilities. Hootie and the Blowfish popped in my head, and I said that to him, and I could just see a light bulb come on. He turned around and said, ‘Hmm, that’s interesting.’ We’re both friends with Darius, we’ve known him for years. Darius and I have the same manager too, so we kind of started going down that road a little bit. I mean, they were the biggest thing in the world for a while. They don’t really play much. It’s kind of like when they get back together, it’s a pretty big deal.
“Somehow we were able to talk those guys into getting back together one more time during the year, to play this show,” Aldean recalled. “It’s not far from South Carolina, where they’re from and got their start. I really don’t know how we managed to pull that off, but I’m glad that he was into the idea. It’s a pretty cool show. I’m excited for my own self, because I never got to see them play live. Now I actually get to see Hootie and the Blowfish, so looking forward to it.”
Lauren Alaina and Luke Combs are serving as Aldean’s opening acts. Dates can be found on his website. Dates can be found on his website.
Photo Credit: Instagram/jasonaldean
