Jason Aldean has a brand new album out today, his 11th career studio album titled Highway Desperado.
Naturally he’s been making the media rounds to promote the thing, with appearances on CBS Mornings, Fox News Digital and more, but if you read his new interview with the Los Angeles Times, you’d have no idea… because he wasn’t even asked about it.
Rather, he was grilled with more than 25 questions about politics, racism, Maren Morris, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, white privilege and COVID vaccines.
Of course, the COVID vaccine was, and still is in many ways, a hugely debated issue. It’s also perhaps one that even gets more complicated for a touring musician. During the height of the pandemic, some places required them to perform, and many restaurants in large cities even required them to dine in.
We saw acts like Travis Tritt, Kid Rock and The Steel Woods, cancel shows and/or refuse to play venues that required it, meanwhile other artists like Jason Isbell canceled performances if the venue didn’t require vaccinations to attend. We also saw Eric Church say he’d take a needle “in the eyeball” if it meant he could play shows again.
Now here we are, approaching 2024, and we’re still more concerned about which celebrities are vaccinated, rather than the thousands and thousands of business that were forced to permanently close their doors, people who lost their entire livelihoods, and the school kids who are now years behind.
But nevertheless, Jason was happy to offer his stance when asked if got vaccinated:
“No. I felt like I’m a healthy guy, and this was a vaccine that Trump was pushing at the end of his office and Biden was saying, ‘Oh, don’t do it… it’s too soon.’ Then as soon as Biden gets in: ‘Everybody get the shot.’
To me it was like, I don’t really know what’s going on here, so I’m just gonna stay away from it. That’s what I decided to do, and I’m very happy with my decision.”
And he’s not lying. According to the Washington Post, Joe Biden said in September of 2020 that he would get only if Donald Trump could provided honest answers about its safety and efficacy, reiterating that he didn’t trust his administration:
“I trust vaccines. I trust scientists. But I don’t trust Donald Trump… And at this point, the American people can’t, either.”
And that was just one instance… he undermined the vaccine on at least 4 other occasions from July to September 2020. But then a year later, Joe Biden’s White House said the unvaccinated would be looking at “a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm.”
While rather unsurprising, I’m sure Aldean’s vaccine revelation will bring about even more outrage from his opponents, and for those in Aldean’s corner, more praise… but when you have 28 number one singles, 17 billion streams and 20 million albums sold, you’re the reigning ACM Artist of the Decade, you recently wrapped a completely sold out, 40+ city headlining tour, and have a brand new album out… do you really care?
