Jake Owen Performs for Fans and Dishes On ‘Barefoot Blue Jean Night’

Even though Jake Owen's latest album, 'Barefoot Blue Jean Night,' is his third to date, the 29-year-old country hitmaker says it's his most real yet. Owen teamed up with Walmart's exclusive Soundcheck series to lay down some of his best tracks in a live studio setting, and also opened up about the inner-tanglings of his new album and single and how they came to be.

"I spent a lot of time this past year dedicating myself to really saying, 'OK, this is it for me,'" Owen spills. "I'm either going to make a record that changes my career, or I'm going to make a record that doesn't. I feel like every song that I recorded on this record is going to really help where my life goes."

'Barefoot Blue Jean Night,' which houses the catchy single with the same name, dropped just a few weeks ago on August 30. Though he wrote most of the songs on his first two records, Owen says that with his latest he wanted to try something different. "I just wanted to make an effort on this record embrace the songwriters in Nashville, and just started picking great songs. I really had not had the chance to do that in the first couple records. I thought the only way to identify myself was to write my own songs."

The Florida native looked at people he looks up to, like Kenny Chesney and George Strait, who all use other writer's songs to make their own hits. Owen explains that he was going through a breakup when 'Barefoot Blue Jean Night' came onto his radar, and his lady friend told him that he would be an idiot not to cut it. "So part of me instantly did not want to record the song," he explains with a grin. "I didn't want her to feel that she was going to get credit for an awesome song. But then I thought I would be an idiot if I didn't."

He adds that with his latest single, which peaked at No. 1 on the country charts, he really re-evaluated his youth and where his life is headed. "I'm pretty young and all my friends are young," he says, admitting that songs he wrote in the past outdated him. "You know, I'm not married. I don't come home after working all day to my wife. I don't have that! With this 'Barefoot Blue Jean,' it's like the biggest compliment I've had. People come up to me like, 'Dude. This song sounds like you!'"

While in the Walmart studio, Owen rocked out 'Alone With You,' 'Heaven,' 'Don't Think I Can't Love You' and more -- including, of course, 'Barefoot Blue Jean Night.'

Watch Jake Owen's Walmart Soundcheck Performance