ASCAP, BMI Triple Toasts Jason Aldean For No. 1 Hits

The Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville was where Benny Brown took Jon Loba many years ago to watch Jason Aldean, and then immediately sign backstage. So it was appropriate for Aldean to return to celebrate his 17th (“Lights Come On”), 18th (“A Little More Summertime”) and 19th (“Any Ol’ Barstool”) No. 1 hit songs.

ASCAP’s Beth Brinker and BMI’s Bradley Collins hosted the crowd, which included industry on the floor and fans on the second level balcony. Collins extended a thank you to Rick Shedd, Chris Parr and the GreenRoom for helping organize. ASCAP’s partner for No. 1 parties is First Tennessee Bank and BMI’s partner is Pinnacle Bank.

“Combined with Jason’s 19 No. 1’s, amongst the [11 songwriters] on stage, there is a total of 150 No. 1 songs represented,” noted Collins in welcoming all the songwriters to the stage. Aldean took turns performing each song with the songwriters after industry members spoke.

BMG/BBR’s Zach Katz offered remarks on behalf of the label. “Jason Aldean is an artist that consistently puts out incredible music while staying super true to who he is,” said Katz. “That’s why there are 19 No. 1’s. I’m confident there are going to be another 19, and another 19…What I will say is Jason Aldean means the world to Broken Bow and BMG. He is the reason why Broken Bow is where it is and one of the main reasons, if not the main reason, BMG decided to come in and partner with Broken Bow. Big congrats to Jason. You are one in a billion.”

BBR’s Jon Loba concluded label remarks by thanking the BBR promotion staff and recalled signing Aldean many years ago. “When he said it was someone that MCA Records and Capitol Records dropped, I said ‘Great, it’s a guy nobody wants.’ By the third song I said, ‘We better run backstage before MCA and Capitol realize what they just got rid of.’ Nineteen No. 1’s later, here we are.”

Collins and Brinker acknowledged producer Michael Knox, who marks 20 No. 1’s.

“Jason and I have been working together for over 15 years,” said Knox. “When you’re going through [the song selection] process with Jason, you notice he picks quality and believability over anything else. In Nashville he’s one of the rare artist that 90 percent, if not 100 percent of his album is outside songs. It’s a privilege to be a part of the quality he brings to our sessions. We’re in the middle of cutting the new record right now and I can promise you, [Jason] is in an incredible place and the songs are awesome.”

“Lights Come On” (Brad Warren, Brett Warren, Tyler Hubbard, Brian Kelley, Jimmy Robbins, Jordan Schmidt)

Collins introduced his BMI songwriters including Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard (Florida Georgia Line), who alone have written eight of their 13 No. 1’s, mark their third No. 1 with outside cuts as songwriters for ”Lights Come On.” Their first was “Burnin’ It Down” in addition to a album cut Hubbard wrote for Night Train, “Black Tears.”

“[Jason] has created a path for guys like us who wanted to do things our way,” said Hubbard in remarks Kelley echoed. “Thanks for believing in this song, and thanks for letting us be songwriters.”

“It’s funny when you have artists who write songs too, sometimes artists want to hoard all their songs because they want to cut them, but that’s one thing I will say about these guys, is on top of being artists, they are songwriters,” praised Aldean who reminisced about the song’s last minute inclusion on They Don’t Know. “Michael Knox and I were last day in the studio tracking, not really looking for anymore songs. I checked my email on a lunch break and BK had sent me this song. I pulled Michael out of the control room and said, ‘I think I just found our first single so we might need to tell [the band] to stick around for the next hour.’ About four weeks later we sent it to radio.”

BMI writers also included sibling writing duo Brad Warren and Brett Warren (The Warren Brothers), also have written eight No. 1’s, with “Lights Come On” as their sixth No. 1 with more recent No. 1’s “Sober Saturday Night” (Chris Young) and “Every time I Hear That Song” (Blake Shelton).

ASCAP’s Jimmy Robbins celebrated his seventh No. 1 with “Lights Come On.”

Additionally, Jordan Schmidt celebrated his first No. 1 with “Lights Come On.” ASCAP will present him with an ASCAP-branded YETI cooler.

Collins also noted the publishers on “Lights Come On,” Big Loud’s Chief Zaruk and Matt Turner, and Round Hill’s Mark Brown. Brinker noted Tree Vibez, Extraordinary Alien and Major Bob.

“A Little More Summertime” (Wendell Mobley, Jerry Flowers, Tony Martin)

Collin’s BMI writers included Wendell Mobley, who celebrated his 10th No. 1 with “A Little More Summertime.” Mobley has been atop the charts for 23 weeks for additional hits including Aldean’s “Tattoos On This Town,” and his songs have been on albums which have sold over 53 million copies.

Tony Martin is also a BMI writer. Martin celebrated his 16th No. 1. Martin is a 2017 nominee for the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

ASCAP’s Jerry Flowers celebrated his second No. 1 with “A Little More Summertime,” as his current “Do I Make You Wanna” (Billy Currington) is atop the charts.

“I met Wendell in 1998 when I was writing for Warner/Chappell,” recalled Aldean. “The way this song came about is my wife and I were headed to our house in Florida and I had a CD of songs to possibly record for the next album. This song was almost like a picture being painted as we were driving through this beach town. The problem I had was Wendell is such a great singer that I thought, ‘It will be hard to top the demo, but we’ll do our best.'”

Collins thanks publishers Josh Van Valkenburg at Sony/ATV, John Ozier at ole, and BJ Hill at Warner/Chappell. Brinker noted Warner/Chappell and Atlas.

“Any Ol’ Barstool” (Josh Thompson, Derek Ruttan)

Collin’s BMI writer was Josh Thompson, who also has a previous cut with Aldean, “Church Pew Or Barstool.” ”Any Ol’ Barstool,” however, was Thompson’s first No. 1, and he received a BMI No. 1 guitar. In the last 18 months, the industry veteran has had 27 cuts.

Brinker’s ASCAP writer is Derek Ruttan, who celebrated his fourth No. 1 and is also Grammy nominated for Shelton’s 2013 “Mine Would Be You.”

“I think people are used to us putting out uptempo rockers” Aldean said, praising the writers, “but I grew up listening to a lot of traditional country music. On most every record we’ve put out there’s been traditional things on there, like ‘The Truth.’ This song is just killer. You might not expect a [slower song like this] to get a big reaction from the crowd, but when you sing it live we crank into it and people go crazy.”

Brinker thanked THiS Music and Warner/Chappell while Collins noted Big Machine Music.