Stars Who Can't Stand Jason Aldean
Jason Aldean might be one of the most successful country music stars working today, but success doesn't necessarily always go hand-in-hand with popularity. Aldean is certainly no exception to this rule, considering the backlash the singer received in 2012, after paparazzi caught Aldean, then married to his first wife, making out with former American Idol contestant Brittany Kerr only two months after he was featured on the cover of People magazine as a requisite family man. Aldean's dubious behavior has also extended further than his personal life, including less-than-deft responses to being named "King of the Bros" in the "bro-country" genre by Billboard and some cringe-inducing comments about female country music stars.
Considering the evidence at hand, it's unsurprising that Aldean has managed to make a few enemies along the path to becoming one of the richest stars in country music — and some of those enemies happen to be country stars themselves. So which celebrities don't exactly get along with the "Dirt Road Anthem" crooner? Let's take a look.
Darius Rucker had words with Jason Aldean
A misstep by country singer Jason Aldean in 2013 nearly sparked an all-out feud with a performer whose music has more or less earned a reputation as the definition of chill — we're talking about Hootie & the Blowfish singer Darius Rucker. As Country Rebel reported, Aldean purportedly caused a stir when he decided to exclude Rucker from appearing in his music video for the single "1994." That was the year Hootie's debut album, Cracked Rear View, broke out onto the scene — becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time — so the band's absence from a video full of celeb cameos (including Thomas Rhett, Luke Bryan, and Hayden Panetierre) supposedly bruised Rucker's ego.
"Darius was mad at me because I didn't put him in my '1994' video," Aldean said in a video recorded backstage at the 2017 Academy of Country Music Awards and posted to his Instagram. Rucker appeared alongside Aldean in that clip, shaking his head. "I told him, man, 'I can't believe you didn't put me in the video, 'cause you know I was doing all right in 1994," said the Hootie frontman.
"You were Mr. 1994," Aldean admitted, kissing Rucker on the forehead. Rucker laughed and agreed: "I am Mr. 1994!"
Jason Aldean tried to deflect a Zac Brown dis
We'd like to think good friends always have each others' backs, but sometimes, sticking up for a pal could lead to trouble of your own. Unfortunately, Jason Aldean found himself in a bit of hot water while trying to defend his friend and fellow country star Luke Bryan from barbs thrown by the titular frontman of the Zac Brown Band.
As Taste of Country reported in September 2013, the whole shlimazel started when Brown shared some thoughts about Bryan's then-newly released single, "That's My Kind of Night," during an interview with the Vancouver radio station JRFM. Brown reportedly called it "one of the worst songs" he'd ever heard. Though Brown clarified that he counted Bryan as a close friend, he also stated that his pal's single represented the "tailgate in the moonlight, daisy duke" bro-country subgenre and was a lot less than Bryan's fans deserved.
Though Aldean did not mention Brown by name after the interview hit the media mill, he did take to Instagram to deliver a personal response to what was very likely Brown's commentary. "I hear some other artist [sic] are bashing my boy Luke Bryan's new song," Aldean wrote in the post. "To those people runnin' their mouths, trust me when I tell you that nobody gives a s**t what you think." Ouch.
Jason Aldean was accused of stealing from Brantley Gilbert
When it comes to the entertainment industry — or any industry, for that matter — perhaps one of the biggest cardinal sins is that of plagiarism, so when Jason Aldean became embroiled in a possible song theft controversy, the ordeal prompted a big backlash and pitted the star against a genre tastemaker ... well, sort of.
As Country Music Nation noted in its breakdown of the debacle, the success of Aldean's 2010 album, My Kinda Party, was due in part to the lyrical stylings of singer-songwriter Brantley Gilbert, who penned the titular track as well as the party bop staple "Dirt Road Anthem."
Gilbert released his own versions of those songs on his first two independent albums in 2009 and 2010 — the last of which came out six months before Aldean's My Kinda Party. When some of Gilbert's fans heard Aldean singing those tunes, they were quick to accuse Aldean of theft.
"When that album came out, a lot of his fans were like, 'You're stealing Brantley's song!'" recounted Aldean in a December 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, adding that Gilbert took to his own Twitter account to set the record straight. Ultimately, the songs Gilbert wrote for My Kinda Party were responsible for both Aldean and Gilbert's success, and that working partnership has turned into a long-standing friendship.