Jason Aldean admits it was really hard to keep his big announcement a secret. It was a doozy, after all.
The hard-rocking country music star made a whirlwind run around the eastern U.S. on Thursday, announcing shows at Boston's Fenway Park, Chicago's Wrigley Field and on the University of Georgia campus in the space of 12 hours.
"I've known about these shows for a while so it's been hard for me to keep quiet, you know?" Aldean said. "I found myself every now and then telling a friend, 'You can't tell nobody, but, uh, guess what?'"
Aldean will make the first appearance by a country music performer at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. And the show at Georgia's Sanford Stadium next spring will be the first — and mostly likely the last — between the hedges.
"This was No.1 on my list and to say I'm excited about this show, this is probably the most excited I've ever been about any of my shows," the Macon, Ga., and lifelong Bulldogs fan said.
The singer will perform July 20, 2013 at Wrigley Field. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Nov. 3. To purchase tickets, visit LiveNation.com, Tickets.com or call (800) THE-CUBS.
Aldean managed to keep secret the announcement in Boston, where Red Sox players David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia and Jarrod Saltalamacchia helped announce the show as part of a clip played on the video board. But by the time he took to the air for Chicago, fans were on to him. One tracked his private plane and gave updates along the way. And as sundown came, students and even university officials were tweeting about the impending announcement, made by coach Mark Richt, and a surprise performance.
He played a handful of hits for more than 1,000 enthusiastic fans who turned out to Legion Field before getting aboard his bus to head to out on a short vacation with his family.
It's a well-deserved break. The singer released his fifth album, "Night Train," last week. That title is an apt metaphor for his career, which has been steaming along on a steep trajectory. About the only thing he hadn't attained yet was a series of stadium shows, and he's crossing that goal off the list on the "Night Train" tour in 2013.
The stadium tour isn't the only sign Aldean's career continues to pick up speed. Billboard predicts "Night Train" will sell more than 400,000 in its first week, which would make it the year's No. 2 debut behind Mumford & Sons' "Babel." That's roughly two times what his multi-platinum fourth album "My Kinda Party" sold in Week 1.
And the 35-year-old singer is up for three awards, including top honor entertainer of the year, at the Country Music Association Awards on Nov. 1. The first single from "Night Train," ''Take a Little Ride," had the highest-selling digital debut for a solo male country artist and was the fastest rising No. 1 on the country song charts this year.
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