Jason Aldean has returned with a brand new single and announced a brand new album. “You Make It Easy” is kicking off a new year, and a new album for Jason, as the country star has revealed his eighth studio album Rearview Town.
“You Make It Easy” is Jason’s first single since his 2016 They Don’t Know album, as well as his first piece of new music since the terrifying shooting during his set at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas last fall.
During an exclusive interview with iHeartRadio, Jason explains that the song was written by Florida Georgia Line, and first heard the song while riding around in his truck with FGL’s Tyler Hubbard, and on the demo version of the song was Morgan Wallen, who Jason calls “really soulful.” He tells us about the song:
“Tyler came over to the house one day, and we just kinda spent the day riding around in the truck and listening to songs, and he goes, ‘Yeah, man. We just wrote this thing on Friday.’ This was like, Monday. And he’s like, ‘Yeah, we just wrote this Friday,’ you know, whatever, and played it for me, and I immediately knew that it was something special. And, my first question was, ‘Are you guys gonna cut this?’ And he goes, ‘I don’t know.’ And I was like, ‘Well, I want to if you’re not.’ And, he just kinda said, ‘Well you’re going in before us, so if you want it, it’s yours.’ And, so that’s kinda how it happened and that was just one of those songs to me that I felt like was pretty special first time I heard it, and felt like it was gonna be a big song for us.”
And Jason wasn’t the only person who loved the song when he first heard it. His wife Brittany Kerr gave Aldean the thumbs up as well. He explains, “When I think I got a song that’s cool that I feel like you kinda need a woman’s perspective on, I definitely let my wife check it out just because I think it’s cool, but I also kinda want to get a reaction from somebody like that, and see what they think. And obviously she fell in love with that song. I mean, I think everybody I’ve played that one for has really kinda fell in love with it. So, that’s always a good sign. But, when your wife gives it two thumbs up that’s usually a pretty good deal.”
Rearview Town follows 2016’s They Don’t Know, and is due out later this year. The album title comes from the record’s title track “Rearview Town,” which Jason explains, was written by Neil Thrasher. Thrasher has written many of songs for Jason over the years, and the country star says that the song helped “set the tone of the album.” He tells us:
“‘Rearview Town’ is a song on the record that was written by Neil Thrasher. He was one of the writers on it. I don’t think people realize this, but Neil’s been a huge part of creating what has sort of become my sound over the years. He’s been a huge part of that and he’s written a ton of songs for us over the years. So, ‘Rearview Town’ was one that he was a writer on, and played it for us and I just thought it was cool. There was something kinda dark and kinda mysterious about it, and cool. I felt like it really fit the vibe of the album, and really helped us set the tone for the rest of the record.”
