Jason Aldean

Aldean married his high school sweetheart, Jessica Ann Ussery, on August 4, 2001. The couple had two daughters, Keeley, born in 2003, and Kendyl, born in 2007. Aldean filed for divorce in April 2013, citing irreconcilable differences.

Aldean began dating former American Idol contestant Brittany Kerr, making their first public appearance together at the 2014 CMT Music Awards. The couple announced their engagement in September 2014 and married on March 21, 2015. They have two children together: a son, Memphis, born in December 2017, and a daughter, Navy, born in February 2019.

Born Jason Aldine Williams in Macon, Georgia, Aldean was raised by his mother in Macon after his parents separated when he was three years old, spending his summers with his father Barry in Homestead, Florida. His father taught him guitar chords using diagrams on notebook paper, and the two would practice together in the evenings. Aldean developed an early passion for country music, drawing inspiration from artists like George Strait, Hank Williams Jr., and Alabama.

Aldean attended Windsor Academy, where he was a standout baseball player. He declined college athletic scholarship offers to focus entirely on music. At age 14, he began performing publicly at a local VFW hall in Macon and later joined the house band at the Nashville South nightspot at age 15. To stand out in the industry, he altered the spelling of his middle name, Aldine, to create the stage name Jason Aldean.

After high school, Aldean performed across the Southeast with funding from his father. In 1998, he signed a publishing deal with Warner-Chappell and moved to Nashville. His early career stalled after developmental recording deals with major labels failed to produce an album release. Facing thoughts of abandoning music and returning to Georgia, he signed a contract with the independent label Broken Bow Records in the mid-2000s.

Aldean released his self-titled debut album in 2005. The record yielded his breakout top-ten single "Hicktown", followed by his first number-one hit, "Why", and the popular track "Amarillo Sky". His second album, Relentless (2007), also achieved platinum certification. Major mainstream momentum followed with his 2009 album Wide Open, which produced three consecutive number-one country hits: "She's Country", "Big Green Tractor", and "The Truth".

His fourth studio album, My Kinda Party (2010), became a landmark commercial success, earning multi-platinum certifications and the Country Music Association Award for Album of the Year in 2011. The album featured the cross-genre hit "Dirt Road Anthem", the high-charting ballad "Don't You Wanna Stay" featuring Kelly Clarkson, and "Fly Over States". Aldean followed this success with Night Train (2012) and Old Boots, New Dirt (2014), both of which topped the Billboard 200 album charts and produced numerous radio hits including "Take a Little Ride" and "Burnin' It Down".

Aldean established himself as one of country music's most reliable stadium acts during the 2010s, winning the Academy of Country Music Award for Entertainer of the Year for three consecutive years in 2016, 2017, and 2018. In 2019, the ACM honored him with the Dick Clark Artist of the Decade Award.

On October 1, 2017, Aldean was the closing headliner at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip. While he was performing "When She Says Baby", a gunman opened fire on the crowd from the Mandalay Bay hotel. Aldean and his band exited the stage unharmed, but the mass shooting resulted in 60 deaths and hundreds of injuries. Days later, Aldean opened an episode of Saturday Night Live with an address to the nation and a musical tribute performing Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down".

Aldean continued to release full-length projects including Rearview Town (2018), 9 (2019), and the two-part double album Macon, Georgia (2021-2022), which included the duet "If I Didn't Love You" with Carrie Underwood. In 2023, he released his eleventh studio album, Highway Desperado.

The album's lead single, "Try That in a Small Town", sparked widespread national debate and media coverage in mid-2023 regarding its lyrics and a music video filmed at the Maury County courthouse in Tennessee. Amid the controversy, the song rose to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, marking Aldean's first career chart-topper on the all-genre singles chart.

Beyond his recording career, Aldean has engaged in several business and lifestyle enterprises. He co-owns the hunting apparel and media company Buck Commander alongside former Major League Baseball players Adam LaRoche, Ryan Langerhans, and Tom Martin, as well as Willie Robertson and Luke Bryan. In 2018, he opened Jason Aldean's Kitchen + Rooftop Bar in Nashville, later expanding the restaurant brand to locations in Gatlinburg, Pittsburgh, and Las Vegas.

Aldean has been active in philanthropic efforts, with a primary focus on breast cancer research and awareness after losing a close friend to the disease. Through his annual Concert for the Cure, merchandise initiatives, and tour ticket contributions, he has raised nearly $4 million for organizations supporting breast cancer research, including Susan G. Komen.