The Realities of Fantasy: A Day With Jason Aldean

Alison Bonaguro | July 5th, 2007 Email Share

Jason Aldean I spent the day with a platinum recording star and all I got was this way-too-realistic view of the music business.

You sell over a million records and still have to polish your own guitar? When did the music business become so damn business-like?

I guess the absence of a full-time staff guitar polisher is just one more example of the inevitable changes going on in every industry. Budgets have been cut. Committees have been formed. Expectations have escalated. But somewhere in there, that fantasy of being a megastar has given way to the reality of actually being one. Gone are the groupies with that take-me-on-your-tour-bus look in their eyes. Gone are the unrealistic demands so popular in the backstage riders of the 90s. (Record labels just don’t have the excess cash to warrant a pair of incremental hands to hand-deliver a whole roasted chicken mid-show to said rock star’s dressing room.) And gone are the spoiled brats of the stage.

On a recent trip to Chicago to push his sophomore album, “Relentless,” platinum-selling country singer Jason Aldean invited me to tag along as he hit TV and radio stations to do a very unrockstarlike thing called self-promotion. It gave me, and thus you, an unfiltered look at a day in the life of a rising star.

This kind of media blitz is a necessary evil. Especially in Chicago, where there are 800,000 country radio listeners and one of the biggest record-buying audiences in the country. But the promotional tour in my mind went something like this:
Management thinks the new album needs a splashy debut. Artist thinks new album speaks for itself. Management tells artist he must get out there and promote it, but they will make it easy on him and cater to his every whim.

And by cater, I mean food. Yet that was the first thing I noticed. Or rather, the lack of it. The day started at 6am, when the bus pulled in from another promotional stop in Dallas. Surely there would be a piping hot breakfast buffet on the bus. No? How about coffee, then? Again, no. Get your own across the street. All Aldean had that morning was a coffee from the Starbucks on Michigan Avenue. Maybe Mick Jagger was a breakfast-skipper, too. But still. Even a box of Krispy Kremes would have been fuel enough for the day ahead.

Next up was the lack of green room. Apparently, VIPs at WGN, Fox and WUSN are treated like common folk. There were no plush couches for lounging on while your minions perform the sound check. There were no plasma TVs to make the down time go by quickly. We waited in the hallways, by the employee bulletin boards and mailboxes and old metal filing cabinets. Hardly the setting for a man who’s sold more than a million records in just two years in the business. When your schedule’s full of more load-ins and soundchecks than actual performance time, having a nice place to hang would’ve made sense.

Jason Aldean Not that Aldean ever complained. He seemed content with the grueling reality of it all. This is a man who sings about women smoking Pall Malls, buying beer at Amoco, praying that his crops will grow and saying “Screw you, man” to his boss. So if art imitates life, and his hillbilly streak runs deep, then it may just be in his nature to have low expectations of life as a star.

Even more than the absent creature comforts like food and a nice place to sit, what stunned me most was the sardine-like sleeping arrangements on the tour bus. “Yep. It’s like a submarine back here,” said Rich Redmond, Aldean’s drummer, of the 12 bunks on the bus.

Each one is only about 6′ X 3′ X 3′. To say they were claustrophobic doesn’t even come close to depicting the horrors of the back of the bus. (Come to think of it, that could explain why no groupies were hanging around. Where would they go to consummate their new relationships?)

But another cruel reality was how busy Aldean stayed with the business side of things. Huddled over a Blackberry throughout the day, he’d obsess with his people over the real-time sales figures coming in on the album. Artists used to get first-week numbers strictly on a need to know basis. As in, you need to know if they suck because you may get cut from the label. Or, you need to know if they’re good because you can start booking into bigger venues. Other than that, artists at this level rarely were consumed with numbers.

But a new era of music means a new kind of musician. One who’s half artist, half businessman. How that will affect the lyrics and melodies has yet to be seen. For now, Aldean seems to be straddling the line nicely. His music is an 80’s-rock-influenced country that works. His stage persona is that of a redneck with a chip on his shoulder. And his behind-the-scenes work ethic is what will set him apart from his primadonna brethren.

Someday, though, I do hope guys like Aldean will make a few more demands. Bigger bunks, some deli trays and yes,someone to polish his guitar for him. If we don’t have rock stars who act like rock stars, what will we fantasize about? And after selling 98,000 copies of “Relentless” the first week out, and debuting at #1, I’d say Aldean deserves to act like one.

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  1. [...] we forgot to mention last week’s t-shirt winner. The t-shirt goes to Angie Anderson for her comment about the Jason Aldean article. I loved the article on Jason Aldean. I think he a really great artist and person. Hes going all [...]

  1. Eve
    July 6, 2007 at 12:17 pm Permalink

    okay I read this and it’s somewhat accurate. However, the author lives in CHICAGO, she didn’t spend a REAL day on the bus with Jason she VISITED him on the BUS while they were in CHICAGO, for their 12 hour stop! While it does accurately describe Jason and his business involvement it left out a lot and summarized a LOT based on the little that she saw in say a couple of hours period of time. Jason’s crew (of two guys based on budget, yes that part is true) does polish his guitar restring it, etc…… in additonal to a million other tasks that they do for the band and Jason himself. But if in between these times there are finger prints on his guitar, Jason isn’t above the others to wipe it off himself.) Life on the road is tough, no elaborate catering, no lush hotel rooms for the night, etc………. But there is so much more to it that one can’t get from 4 hours of VISITING with Jason on the bus!

  2. Bill
    July 6, 2007 at 1:22 pm Permalink

    Wow!! Eve sure knows a lot about Jason Aldean. That’s so awesome that Eve knows so much about him! She must feel really great knowing as much as she does about Jason Aldean! Thanks for letting us know how much you know about Jason Aldean, Eve!

    Article was cool for fans like me who want to get a taste of what it’s like on the road. Too bad it was only “somewhat accurate” (thanks for pointing that out, Eve. You’re the greatest!)

  3. sue
    August 13, 2007 at 1:35 pm Permalink

    i agree with eve. this article isn’t very accurate to Jason’s day to day.

  4. Brianna
    August 17, 2007 at 10:03 am Permalink

    I think this article is great. Not everyone gets to spend a day with Jason Aldean! Whether or not this is how he lives his life EVERY day, it is nice to know what he did here in Chicago and a little bit about his living quarters on the bus. I know I don’t live my life the same way each day. Thanks for the review; what an enjoyable experience that must have been!

  5. Eve
    September 24, 2007 at 10:34 pm Permalink

    Thanks Bob……..
    You Rock too…….
    oh I mean “Bill”
    wish I knew more about you too!
    ummm, no not really!
    happy reading

  6. EVE
    September 24, 2007 at 11:05 pm Permalink

    a few more realaties to add to this wonderous knowledge I have of Jason’s “fantasy” bus tour
    1. while on tour with Rascal Flatts he gets drum roll please……… CATERING!!!!
    2. While on tour with Rascal Flatts he gets free rides on their private jet
    Poor Jason, life on the road sounds like it is getting worse for him!
    best of luck for shiney moments in Jason’s real touring future

  7. Jazmyn
    March 13, 2008 at 12:12 am Permalink

    Yeah I completely agree. I have read like a million bios and interviews and with the bios, somehow or another, they all have something someone else missed or got incorrect. But overall, most of them are pretty accurate. And no he really doesnt complain about anything, he is busy, and yes he works hard and deserves many things, but he doesn’t ask for them so it just shows he is still human and not some diva dude like a lot of stars. He is one to idolize. That song “I Use What I Got” is pretty true I mean think, he doesnt complain or ask for anything more, he just lives his life pretty much.

  8. Jazmyn
    March 13, 2008 at 12:14 am Permalink

    If you want more info, go to my site realjasonaldean.piczo.com (jasonaldean.piczo.com was already in use and its not even close to being finished r even started and never will). It has useful info and just about anything you want to know.

  9. Kelly
    March 13, 2008 at 7:38 am Permalink

    Great, we have all established various aspects of Jason Aldean’s life on the road. Please stop calling what he does grueling or even “work”. I can see where it can be a bit bland and even stressful compared to what many think a platinum-selling recording artist would usually go through. Labeling what Aldean does as “work” is an insult to those who actually have to work to make ends meet. He has to polish his own guitar??? OMG, I cant believe it!!!!!!!! He had to get his own coffee and be interviewed by tv reporters, holy crap!!!!!!Maybe he can put those tales of strife into a revised version of “Amarillo Sky”.

  10. John
    March 13, 2008 at 8:58 am Permalink

    The worst singer I’ve ever seen
    Was some short guy named Jason Aldean
    In a cowboy hat
    Man, I laughed at that

    The little dude thought he could sing
    Sporting a couple of ladies earrings
    Looking like some brat
    With a voice so flat

    Oh, man, he was willing
    But my ears, he was killing
    The Chesney legacy has no pride
    I laughed until I cried

  11. lulu
    June 17, 2008 at 1:21 am Permalink

    the dude at the bottom “john” needs to grow up a little bit… and he really has no idea what he is talking about i seriously laughed at his comment…. whatever dude

  12. W
    September 18, 2008 at 12:26 am Permalink

    I’d be happy to come along and keep the guitar shiny and clean for him. Those guys are the best people in the world. Jason AND his band/crew.

  13. Rachel
    May 7, 2009 at 10:53 pm Permalink

    I love how people think that artists on the road don’t work. Like Kelly. You go to work, what, 8 hrs a day, get to come home, have some dinner, watch some TV, shower, and go to sleep in a nice comfy bed, right?

    Well try living on the road where you have to wake up at 6am, take a lightning fast shower, get dressed, be rushed from press interview to press interview all day, probably not have time to eat, get to the venue, do sound check, MAYBE finally get something to eat, host a meet and greet, be on stage performing for about an hour, hopefully shower, maybe do one more interview, and finally get on the bus where you sleep in what equates to a coffin, with no privacy, at around 1am.

    Um, yeah, sounds like work to me! Don’t put someone down if you’ve never been where they are. People like you would go home crying after a few days on the road!

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