Jason Aldean is the reigning ACM Artist of the Decade – a title he will hold for the next ten years. But when he initially found out about the career accolade, he thought he had done something wrong!
“We had been in the studio working on a new album, and my manager came over and kind of pulled me outside and goes, ‘I need to talk to you.’ I thought, ‘Man, what did I do now?’” Aldean recalled to Kix Brooks on American Country Countdown (via Nash Country Daily). “That was kind of the first thing that popped into my head, and he goes, ‘You know, they’re giving away the Artist of the Decade Award this year at the ACMs, and they just voted you to be the one to get it.’
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“I was completely blown away,” he continued. “I guess more so just because . . . they clearly don’t give it out every year. It’s every 10 years, so it wasn’t even on my radar that it was coming up or that it was a thing. It really came out of left field for me. There are a lot of artists I think are very worthy of the award, so for us to be the ones to get that, and people think enough of us to vote us in and feel like that we should have that, it means a lot to me.”
Aldean received the Artist of the Decade honor during the live broadcast of the ACM Awards, with former recipient George Strait giving it to Aldean.
“He’s the reason I wear the hat and the boots,” Aldean told PopCulture.com and other media backstage at the ACM Awards. “He’s the guy that I think we all want all to have a career like that. Everybody in country music respects him and what he’s done and I think we all hope to have a career just like that and gain the respect of everybody in the country music community like he has.
“To me, he was one of my idols growing up, so to not only get that award but to have him come out and give it to me is almost like a passing of the torch kind of thing,” he added. “That meant a lot to me, for sure. So it made a special night even more special for me.”
Aldean will soon kick off his Ride All Night Tour, with Kane Brown and Carly Pearce serving as his opening acts. Find dates at JasonAldean.com.
Photo Credit: Getty images/Michael Tran
