Aaron Watson Can’t Hold Back: New Country, Zach Bryan + Modern ‘Outlaws’ [EXCLUSIVE]

Aaron Watson has a funny Ella Langley story that kind of paints a picture of where he's at in life and country music. The "Choosin' Texas" singer is a passive player in this (admittedly unchecked) Texas yarn.

Talking to Evan Paul, Watson began praising "Choosin' Texas," Langley's career-defining hit. "When I heard that song, I kind of freaked out," he says of the Miranda Lambert-co-written song about his home state.

"One day my daughter says, 'Dad, do you think that Ella Langley knows who you are?' and I was like, 'Heck yeah. They all know who I am, baby.'"

• Aaron Watson's new Horse Named Texas album was released last month.
• In 2015, his album The Underdog reached No. 1 on Billboard's Country Albums chart, a rare accomplishment for an independent artist.
• Since 2025, his "Tailgate Talks" have become popular on social media.

Spoiler alert: Ella Langley may not know who Aaron Watson is. At the very least, she's not enough of a fan to follow him on Instagram. His daughter pointed that out, so he got to work on a video that humbly asked Ella to follow him, just so he looked cool in the eyes of his 16-year-old daughter.

"She didn't follow me," he says. "She literally made a comment that said, 'You seem like you're a lot.'"

"I don't know what that means, but I am. I'm a lot."

The 48-year-old is a country music boll weevil known for pushing change while remaining rooted in tradition because — in 2026, anyway — tradition is change. Watson has big energy, with as many opinions on modern country and modern country artists as he has songs in his expansive, 27-year catalog.

He's also a dedicated husband, doting father and son to two parents in poor health. For every aggressive take in a Tailgate Talk, there is a moment of humility on songs like "Gone Fishin'," one of several quiet-the-room tracks he recently released. We wanted to talk about all of it, and for this Taste of Country Nights, On Demand conversation, he obliged.

A planned 15-minute conversation stretched past 30, but that's par for the course. In fairness, it's been three years since Watson visited with Taste of Country Nights, so there was plenty to catch up on, starting with his brand-new album, Horse Named Texas.

Taste of Country: It's been three years between albums. How come?

Aaron Watson: You know, we were talking earlier about when people say, "How you been?" Even if you haven't been good, you don't tell them the truth because you don't want to have to elaborate.

But man, the last four years I've had two vocal cord surgeries, and it kind of made me push the pause button multiple times. Coming out of that I'm doing great now. I have a newfound appreciation for my career, for the fans. This new record Horse Named Texas has got 26 songs on it. The platinum edition or whatever we're going to call it, it's going to have 40. But I've already got the next record finished. Horse Named Texas is chapter one of the next era.

The house is paid off and the kids are grown, and I'm about to go for broke. I'm going to be all up in in country music's kitchen for the next five years, and then I'll probably just stay in the kitchen. I got nowhere else to go.

Do you plan to continue doing the producing and writing by yourself?

I probably wrote 99 percent of this record by myself. I love co-writing when you have the opportunity but we play so many shows. And then you know — I was at one publishing company when we were working on this record and a guy actually told me — and I'm kind of friends with him — he said "Don't take this wrong, but a lot of my best writers, they wouldn't be interested in writing with a writer of your level." And he did this (holds hands about chest high).

At least he didn't do this (lowers hands). You can let that discourage you or you can let that fuel your fire and piss you off a little bit.

Related: 24 Artists Proving Traditional Country Is Alive and Well

Do you think that not being a part of the Nashville machine costs you anything?

Yeah, 110 percent. For the first half of my career everyone in this town was like how committed are you to your cowboy hat and your boots and your buckle? We don't do hat acts.

It was one of those deals, "Oh, Texas music doesn't work." I mean, it's wild, but suddenly, like in 2019, the last time I went to an award show, it's me and about three other dudes wearing cowboy hats. And now, it blows my mind to see some of these guys that were shopping at the Buckle. They went from the Buckle to the to the Boot Barn. Well, bam!

Some of these guys, I'm like — have you ever seen a bad movie, a bad Western? This Western takes place in 1850. You live in a town with dirt roads and you ride horses all day, but you see their clothes and they're brand new. Like they almost don't have the unfolded marks in them. These guys need to at least like like get their hat shaped, wash the new clothes that they got at Boot Barn and before you take a press photo with your boots kicked up like go out in the parking and scrape them up or something.

But I will tell you this, I love it. This is country music. I'm an artist's artist. I love art. I love all the different flavors of country music now. As an independent artist I love it. But for a while mainstream country music, they kept out the cowboy. I like the fact that for the first time in my life, I've actually kind of been in style.

Now I'm sure it's an ever-changing thing. You know, I'll lose my fashion cred here, but I love where country music's at, and I love Nashville. I mean, I've done so much business in Nashville, and also the labels have become much more receptive to me. It was frowned upon when I had a No. 1 record independently. It was a threat to the system that there's this guy that didn't sign a deal, that's getting some radio play and he has the No. 1 album? I mean, I felt that, but I also kind of like being that guy.

It's kind of an outlaw deal? 

I don't know. I don't really talk about being an outlaw but when you don't even care what the outlaw Instagram accounts say and all that stuff. I don't have to say I'm an outlaw. We've got 20 independent albums. It's just one of those things. Like, you don't have to drink whiskey and snort cocaine to be an outlaw. Actually, you got to be more of an outlaw to not.

And my mom won't let me. And outlaws love their mamas too, right?

On social media, you took exception with what Kacey Musgraves said about watching Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl Halftime show. Do any of these artists that you take on during your Tailgate Talks every reach out to you? 

Zach Bryan started making comments on some of my posts. He said some weird stuff. On a random post he said, "Hey Aaron, where are all the dead bodies at?" I responded back to him, "Why don't you come to the ranch, and I'll show you?"

Here's the deal. Bro, 3,000 honky-tonk shows later I'm scrappy. I'm going to get in a couple good punches. If I get my rear kicked it's gonna be good for social media, and if I whip the fire out of somebody it'll be (too).

Let's talk about "Gone Fishing." Give me the story behind it, because that kind of acknowledges aging.

I've had some very impactful moments sitting bedside with some old men that meant the world to me. Those are the kind of things that change you, when you're sitting there with your granddad in his last moments and you realize, "This is it. I'm going to live the rest of my life without this hero of an old man.

"Gone Fishin'" is, "Don't think of me as gone. I'm not gone, I'm gone fishing. And it's very much kind of a little gospel song because that's the thing. The peace that I have losing loved ones — and I, I lost a daughter — the peace that I have in losing a child and losing my grandparents, and my mom and dad are not in great health. I find peace knowing that because of Jesus, I'm going to get to see them again someday.