Comin’ up on two decades now.
Before becoming the massive household name he is today, Jason Aldean was just another musician who packed up his bags and moved to Nashville at the young age of 21 with nothin’ but a guitar and a dream of makin’ it big.
With a little help from longtime producer, Michael Knox (who first approached Aldean at a nightclub in Atlanta back in 1998), the current ACM Artist-of-the-Decade title holder eventually released his debut album 7 years later and well, the rest is history.
Although he found early success with his debut single, “Hicktown,” which cracked the top ten at country radio and is still often included in his setlist, it wasn’t until his second single that earned him his first-ever No. 1 hit. And that song was none other than the mid-tempo heartbreak ballad, “Why.”
“Why” was written by Rodney Clawson, as well as Vicky McGehee and John Rich, and was officially released in November of 2005 as a radio single, just four months after his self-titled debut record hit the Walmart shelves.
The following year, Jason stopped by a radio station in Music City to promote the song with country radio broadcaster, Lee Richey. At the end of the interview, Richey sat directly in front of Aldean holding two microphones – one pointed at the guitar’s sound hole and the other capturing his vocals – while the then 29 year-old sang an acoustic rendition of his sophomore single.
Although Aldean hardly performs it on tour anymore due to the high-energy nature of his live shows, the song is still very popular amongst his fans, and even circles around on TikTok quite often. As of this very moment, it has garnered almost 40 million streams on Spotify alone, along with another 28 million views on Youtube.
Watch this throwback performance here: