Jason Aldean may live a life of luxury these days, but the country star hasn’t forgotten the early stages of his career when he was struggling just to keep his family afloat. Speaking in a recent interview with Taste of Country Nights: On Demand , Aldean, 47, recalled the lean period before his breakout hit, 2005’s “Hicktown,” set him on the path to eventual chart-smashing success. Just prior to signing with his record label, Broken Bow Records, Aldean explained things were financially grim — particularly considering he was a new dad struggling to support a young family as a then-unknown musician.
“I was starving, I had a brand new baby. My oldest daughter had just been born, I didn’t have any money,” he confessed. Aldean and then-wife Jessica Ussery had just welcomed their first daughter, Keeley, in 2003, who would be followed by second daughter Kendyl in 2007.
The couple would go on to divorce in 2013. “I wasn’t thinking long term. It was like, ‘I need to get this song going just so I can generate some money to, like, keep from losing my house and to be able to buy diapers.
’ Those kind of things,” Aldean related. “I was very much small potatoes, going, ‘I need to make 5 grand, so I need to make 5 grand today somehow, how does this happen?’ It was more like survival.” Aldean’s record deal with Broken Bow Records was signed in 2005, followed by the release of his self-titled debut album and debut single, “Hicktown.
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