Jason Aldean Never Wanted to Be a Songwriter, Only Writes When Inspired

Jason Aldean certainly knows a hit song when he hears it. His last five singles -- 'My Kinda Party,' 'Don't You Wanna Stay,' 'Dirt Road Anthem,' 'Tattoos on This Town' and 'Fly Over States' -- have been back-to-back No. 1s from his 'My Kinda Party' album. His latest single, 'Take a Little Ride' debuted on the charts this week at No. 19 and shows that his streak atop the charts will not soon be broken.

One thing fans may have noticed when looking at the track listing on Aldean's last three albums, however, is that there aren't any songs penned by the Georgian himself. On his debut self-titled project, the singer took part in writing three of the album's 11 tracks, but has since left the lyrical side of things in the hands of Nashville's hit songwriters -- something he's content with.

"When I first moved to town, I was signed here as a songwriter," Aldean tells Taste of Country. "I was signed to Warner-Chappell and wrote there for five years. It was something that I did everyday. I went and locked myself in a room for most of the day and wrote songs for five years.

He admits, "I never wanted to be a songwriter. I always wanted to be an artist."

"Now, I still write," he continues, sharing that he's even written some new tunes while on the road during his My Kinda Party Tour with opening act, Luke Bryan. "I still do it, but I'm probably more critical than anybody of my own songs. I'll have a song that could possibly be a big hit, and I will be the first one to not want to cut it or put it on the record, just because I'll think it's not as good as some of the other stuff we find."

Luckily for Aldean, he doesn't have to dig around for hits anymore, because the most successful writers in town have been knocking down his door, trying to get a cut on one of his albums. "I just find that I like the process of going out and finding songs for the record ... hearing different ideas from different people," the No. 1 hitmaker notes. "That's just part of the fun of it for me. I write when I feel like writing, but I don't have to do it now unless I want to; not because I have to. It will always kind of be like that."

But Aldean reveals that someday, that may change. "I think there will be certain albums that will maybe have a couple of songs that I wrote on it, then there will be a couple of albums where I don't write anything on them, then the next record, I may write two or three more songs," he explains. "That's just kind of the way it's kind of worked out so far."

Jason Aldean's fifth studio album -- featuring 'Take a Little Ride' -- is slated to hit stores this fall.