Travis Tritt and Jason Aldean are good friends, and Tritt couldn’t help but gush over the Georgia native during a recent interview with The Tennessean.
Travis Tritt Reflects On 20+ Year Friendship With Jason Aldean
“Great guy,” Tritt said of Aldean. “I’ve loved that guy from the very beginning. We just established a great relationship from the very first time I ever met him.”
That relationship goes back over 20 years, and Tritt shared that the first time the two met, Aldean revealed that he once won a talent show with a performance of one of Tritt’s songs.
“The first time I ever met Jason, he was telling me about the first time he won a talent contest,” Tritt recalled. “He sang my song, ‘I’m Gonna Be Somebody,’ I think. And it was like, first of all, it’s heartwarming to know that your music has gone out and affected other artists, other people that have come along. I think that was one of the things that sparked our relationship in the first place.”
Tritt and Aldean have been able to perform together numerous times since, including a recent team-up at CMA Fest where the pair duetted on Tritt’s hit song “It’s A Great Day To Be Alive.” Their performance will be featured on the upcoming television special CMA Fest presented by SoFi, airing June 26 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and next day on Hulu.
Jason Aldean Praised Travis Tritt In 2022
Aldean previously praised Tritt while speaking with Music Mayhem and other media outlets in 2022, sharing, “I remember going to see Travis Tritt at the Omni in Atlanta when I was a teenager, and he was one of those guys that did the country Southern rock thing, and I just thought that was so cool.”
At the time, Tritt was supporting Aldean on Aldean’s Rock N’ Roll Cowboy Tour, as was Tracy Lawrence, another one of Aldean’s musical heroes.
“I’m so excited,” Aldean said, adding that his present for his high school graduation was tickets to see Lawrence and that to have both of those artists as opening acts on his tour was “pretty wild.”
He also reflected on having another major inspiration, Alabama, open for him while playing Stagecoach years prior. “That was mind-blowing for me, because that’s my favorite band of all time,” Aldean said before continuing to praise Travis Tritt and Tracy Lawrence. “So it’s pretty wild to look at it sometimes like that, but I’m super stoked to have them out. I’m excited. I’ll probably turn into a teenager again, and be out there side-stage, checking it out and singing all the songs. That’s going to be fun. So I’m glad we were able to get them.”
Aldean and Tritt’s collaboration was just one of many team-ups during this year’s CMA Fest Presented by SoFi. The CMA Fest TV special will also feature dozens of other performances and duets, including Dierks Bentley and Zach Top performing a medley of Bentley’s “Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)” and Alabama’s “Mountain Music,” Brooks & Dunn and Lainey Wilson singing Brooks & Dunn’s “Play Something Country,” Cody Johnson and Carín León performing their own “She Hurts Like Tequila,” Rascal Flatts recruiting Carly Pearce for “My Wish,” Shaboozey and Jelly Roll singing their “Amen,” Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins rocking “Hillbilly Bone” and more. The special will also see a solo performance from Aldean, who sang his latest hit, “Whiskey Drink,” the song that recently hit No. 1 on the country charts, giving Aldean his 30th career chart-topper.
