Jason Aldean Reveals Why Florida Georgia Line’s Tyler Hubbard Wrote His First Single (Exclusive)

Jason Aldean just announced his ninth studio album, 9, would be out in November. Along with the good news, Aldean also dropped his first single from the next record, “We Back.” The song was co-written by his good friend, Florida Georgia Line‘s Tyler Hubbard, along with the Warren Brothers and Jordan Schmidt. Aldean is a fan of Hubbard and his writing, so he wasn’t at all surprised that it was Hubbard who gave him the rowdy debut single.

“Those guys, they’ve written a few things for me over the years. They wrote ‘Lights Come On’, they wrote ‘Burning It Down’, ‘You Make It Easy,’” Aldean told PopCulture.com. “This was one of those songs, Tyler called me up and knew we were in the studio recording, and just asked me kind of what we were looking for. I told him for us, we’re always looking for big uptempo things, just because those always seem to be the hardest things to find. And he said, ‘Well, I wanna write something, try and write something for the album.’

“So he went in literally the next day and those guys wrote that song and he sent it to me,” he added. “It was just like this missing piece that we were missing on the album that we didn’t really have yet.”

It didn’t take long for Aldean to know he wanted to include “We Back” on 9, and to decide to use it as the song to introduce his next project.

“As soon as I heard it, I knew it was something that we wanted to cut,” Aldean acknowledged. “I didn’t necessarily know it was gonna be the first single at the time, but we just felt like it was time to come out with one of those big uptempos. I feel like that was when I came on the scene, in ’05. Our first single was ‘Hicktown’ and that was kind of where we made our mark was with those big party songs like that.

“The last couple albums, we’ve had some songs that went a different route,” he added. “They were really great songs, but it was kind of a different side of things that I do and I was feeling the itch a little bit to come back out with one of those big tempos, so this one was perfect.”

Aldean, like Hubbard, enjoys writing songs as well, even though he has yet to include any of his songs on his own records.

“I wrote a lot for the Rearview Town album, and there were some things that I felt pretty good about,” Aldean said. “But I always seem to be my own worst critic on songs, so I got my producer [Michael Knox] in there, begging me to cut certain songs, and I just tend to find things that I get excited about that I didn’t write. I don’t know why that is, but I guess I’m just harder on my own songs.”

The 42-year-old didn’t write as much for 9 as he has for some of his previous projects, thanks in part to his busy schedule, as well as his friends who are skilled at penning songs for others.

“I didn’t really, honestly sit down and write much at all for this record,” said Aldean. “When we’re touring and things like that, it makes it a little tough for me. I feel like there’s songwriters in town that are really good at that, and they’re the best in the world. A lot better than me at it. So, I want to find and record the best songs I can find, and if I happen to write them, cool, and if I don’t, that’s fine, too.”

9 will be released on Nov. 22. Pre-order the record, and download “We Back,” at JasonAldean.com.

Photo Credit: Getty Images / Jeff Kravitz