Jason Aldean Explains Why He Didn’t Write Any Songs For ‘Rearview Town’

Jason Aldean recently revealed the track listing for his upcoming Rearview Town album, including the songwriters. And while the list includes hit writers like Florida Georgia Line’s Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley, Jaron Boyer, Brett Beavers, Josh Thompson, Neil Thrasher and more, one name is noticeably absent: Aldean.

“I actually did write some for this record,” Aldean reveals to Nash Country Daily. “The problem with me writing is my producer [Michael Knox] gets really frustrated with me a lot of times because I’ll write stuff, and I’m my own worst critic. I’ll listen to songs and I’ll end up cutting somebody else’s stuff just because I’m hard on my own songs.”

Aldean admits he wrote a lot with Thrasher, who is responsible for some of Aldean’s biggest hits, including “Night Train,” “Tattoos on This Town” and “Fly Over States,” among others. Although the Georgia native says Thrasher is largely responsible for creating what has become Aldean’s signature sound, collaborating with the tunesmith wasn’t convincing enough to Aldean to include one of his own songs on Rearview Town.

“He was one of the guys that I wrote with a lot for this record,” Aldean adds. “We still have some stuff that we wrote sort of in the can that we can go back and pull from at some point.”

The debut single from Rearview Town, “You Make it Easy,” is a ballad, written by FGL guys Hubbard and Kelley, along with Jordan Schmidt and Morgan Wallen. The song might be a departure for Aldean, but it was one Aldean felt was important to include.

“‘You Make it Easy’ is a ballad sort of thing, but it’s kind of bluesy and cool,” notes Aldean. “I think a lot of times when we release ballads, they’re not typically like a love song, per se. It’s usually more of a heartache kind of song. And this one’s not like that. To me, it’s just a really great, well-written song and it is.”

“I tell people, ‘This may be the wedding song of the year,’” continues Aldean. “I don’t know, but it’s still really cool. I don’t consider it mushy and that kind of stuff because I typically steer away from those kind of songs, but this one was really cool. Like I said, it has a little bit of a blues feel to it, which I thought was really cool. And if we’re going to do a song like this, I think this was the way to go.”

Rearview Town also includes “Drowns the Whiskey,” a duet with Miranda Lambert.

“I love working with other artists,” Aldean says. “And so, any time I get a chance to do that, or I hear something that I think would be cool to have somebody on, I love to do that. We got one on this record that I think is really cool, and I think is going to be one of the highlights of the record.”

Rearview Town will be released on April 13. It is currently available for pre-order on Amazon and iTunes.

Photo Credit: Instagram/JasonAldean