Jason Aldean plays Bridgestone Arena. Photo: Courtesy of BBR
Jason Aldean‘s “Rock N Roll Cowboy Tour” lit up Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Friday night (Oct. 14), bringing 100 minutes of action to a packed house.
John Morgan, Chase Rice and DeeJay Silver warmed up the stage for the multi-Platinum artist, who opened the night with the fitting “Lights Come On.” With the crowd audibly showing their excitement, the Georgia native and his five-piece band ripped right into “Girl Like You” and took it all the way back to his first album with “Amarillo Sky.”
“It’s been about four years since we played here at Bridgestone,” Aldean shared with the hometown audience. “We’ve had this one circled on the calendar for quite a while so I have a feeling tonight’s gonna be a good time and that we might be here for a while. You guys settle in.”
Promising a stacked show of new songs from his recently released double album, Macon, Georgia, as well as familiar songs from past albums, Aldean went into his most recent No. 1 single, “Trouble With A Heartbreak,” before rolling through some of his nearly 20 years of hits. The entertainer gave lively performances of his ode to Nashville in “Crazy Town,” his essentially evergreen “Big Green Tractor,” “Take A Little Ride” and more.
Jason Aldean plays Bridgestone Arena. Photo: Courtesy of BBR
After taking a temp check with the crowd, Aldean set the stage for his newest single to country radio, “That’s What Tequila Does,” and brought the tempo down a tick with “Got What I Got” and “When She Says Baby,” which proved to be a crowd favorite as they screamed it back to the cowboy hat-donned singer.
“One thing I notice is that whenever artists play their hometown show, we kind of like to call up some friends and bring them on stage,” he noted, starting a string of musical guests who would take the stage. John Morgan returned to the mic first, accompanying Aldean on the Ashley Monroe and Brett James-penned smash “The Truth.”
Next, the crowd was surprised by Miranda Lambert walking on stage as her hit “Kerosene” blasted through the speakers. “Miranda and I go back a long way. I always said if I wanted to be a chick in country music, I’d want to be her.” The pair broke out into their 2018 hit, “Drowns The Whiskey,” marking only the second time they’ve been able to perform it live.
Next up, Aldean unveiled the final guest to grace the stage: country star Morgan Wallen. Accompanied by deafening screams from the audience, Wallen broke out solo into “Whiskey Glasses.” As the crowd erupted and chanted their praises, Aldean shared the story behind his monster hit “You Make It Easy.”
“A lot of people may not know this, but before Morgan really started to have some hits of his own, we recorded a song that he wrote and it was a pretty big song for us. I thought maybe I would get him to stick around. We’ve never done this song together before so I thought [we might do it tonight],” he said before the two entertainers swapped verses to the tune.
Pictured (L-R): Jon Loba, President BMG Nashville; Clarence Spalding, Maverick; Kevin Neal, WME; Jason Aldean; Chris Parr, Maverick; and Brian O’Connell, Live Nation. Photo: Courtesy of BBR
The decorated vocalist then took his turn at the keyboard for “If I Didn’t Love You,” which featured Carrie Underwood delivering her lines on Aldean’s massive video wall. He fired off into “Tattoos On This Town,” “We Back” and “Dirt Road Anthem,” all of which earned roaring background vocals from the crowd.
“If you’ve ever been to one of our shows then you know that we do things a little differently. A lot of times, somewhere toward the end of the show, you guys think the show is over, the artist goes backstage, and you guys sit out here and clap for 5-10 minutes trying to get them to come back out and play a couple more songs. It’s called an encore, but I call it bullshit,” Aldean stated. “I just want to play you guys everything we got and when the show’s over, it’s just over.”
Aldean explained that this was his favorite part of the show and that it was time to kick it into overdrive for the last blast of songs. Starting with “My Kinda Party,” which showed off his band’s impressive musicianship, the award-winning artist delivered a one-two punch to close the nearly two dozen-song set with “She’s Country” and his breakout 2005 hit “Hicktown.”
The “Rock N Roll Cowboy Tour” will take a break this coming weekend for the Country Thunder Festival in Florida, but will pick back up with shows in Iowa (Oct. 27), Missouri (Oct. 28) and Kansas (Oct. 29).
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