Like a rocket.
One hit atop another and another has built a stair to the stars for country singer Jason Aldean. When he first played Bristol several years back, he was struggling.
Not anymore.
When Aldean takes to the stage of Viking Hall on May 2, he will do so as a bona fide hit-maker. Aldean has notched two million-selling albums and a handful of hit singles thus far in his young career. Fans will have to wait a while, but a new album is on the way.
“We’ve already done seven songs,” Aldean said by phone last week from Vicksburg, Miss. “It’ll be complete in the next couple of months, but at the earliest, it will be out sometime around next spring.”
Meanwhile, Aldean’s current single “Relentless” put the Billboard’s country singles chart ablaze when it debuted several weeks ago. Coupled with his breakthrough “Hicktown” and such ballads as “Why,” Aldean said that he follows a guide of sorts when it comes to what he records.
“We’ve had songs like ‘Hicktown’ and ‘Johnny Cash’ which were on the rock side, and then we’ve had songs on the ballads side,” Aldean said. “It’s fun to put out songs like ‘Hicktown,’ but it loses its thunder after a while if you don’t record songs like ‘Why.’ ”
Regardless of song choice and quality, without the fans, even the most talented of musicians will sooner or later be buying a bus ticket back home from Nashville. Ask any country singer. Country fans are a different lot. Just let them latch onto a singer, and Alan Jackson becomes Alan, and George Strait is simply George.
Fans treat them as if extended members of the family.
“It’s really cool,” Aldean said. “It goes back to us as country artists and how we treat the fans. Country fans will stick with you all through your career. You don’t really have that in other styles of music. It is a family.”
Thanks to those fans, Aldean is still a star on the rise. He’s about to embark upon a tour with Tim McGraw as the superstar’s opening act. That may not seem significant, but it could mean a monster push to Aldean’s career.
Yet the 2006 Academy of Country Music Top New Male Vocalist award winner said he has no interest in meteoric rises.
“If it puts us into the stratosphere and on the road as headliners, great,” he said. “But building a career takes time.”
So with longevity in mind, Aldean leans on experiences gathered from years of playing in the bars. He applies those lessons learned each time he steps on stage.
“It taught me how to entertain different groups of people,” he said. “It taught me how to get people involved in what I do. I think the concept is the same whether you are playing to 100 people in a club or 100,000 people in a stadium. It’s the same.”
Aldean certainly will not play to a crowd of 100 or 100,000 in Bristol. Doesn’t matter. If one person shows up or thousands do, fans can look for him to sing as if the place is packed clear to the moon.
Each show is an advertisement. He wants to satisfy the fans he has earned while also winning more to his style.
“In my min,d it’s like what can I do to make this show stand out?” Aldean said. “I want them to remember the show.”

IF YOU GO
n Who: Jason Aldean and Lady Antebellum
n When: May 2, 8 p.m.
n Where: Viking Hall, 1100 Edgemont Ave., Bristol, Tenn.
n Tickets: $29.50-$31.50
n Info: (423) 764-4171
n Web: www.jasonaldean.com

TOM NETHERLAND is a freelance writer. He can be reached at features@bristolnews.com.