Jason Aldean recently nabbed a major career milestone when his 2023 single “Whiskey Drink” became his 30th No. 1 country music hit. Joining the ranks of George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, and more, the Macon, Georgia-born artist made it clear that retirement is not in his near future. He proved it during Thursday’s (June 5) CMA Fest set at Nissan Stadium, performing fan favorites like “Hicktown” and “Dirt Road Anthem.” To the crowd’s delight, Aldean welcomed to the stage another longtime country star who doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.
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Watch Jason Aldean Team Up With This Country Star at CMA Fest
Travis Tritt, a fellow Georgian who scored his first No. 1 in 1990, joined Jason Aldean onstage during his CMA Fest set.
“This next song’s not one of mine, but it’s by one of my musical heroes growing up in Georgia,” Aldean said. “This guy was from Georgia, and 25 years ago, he had a hit song… So we’re going to play this one for you.”
The multi-CMA Award-winning artist then began singing the opening lines to Tritt’s 2000 hit “It’s a Great Day to Be Alive”: I got rice cooking in the microwave / Got a three day beard I don’t plan to shave.
After completing the first run of the chorus, Aldean instructed the crowd to, “Make some noise for Mr. Travis Tritt!” And that’s exactly what they did, as the 62-year-old Grammy winner joined in.
“I would pay crazy money to be there,” commented one starstruck fan on a TikTok clip of the performance.
[RELATED: How Travis Tritt Made Hell Freeze Over and Sparked an Eagles Reunion]
The Story Behind “It’s a Great Day to Be Alive”
Twenty-five years after Travis Tritt made “It’s a Great Day to Be Alive” famous, he performed it at CMA Fest with Jason Aldean. However, Tritt was not the first country artist to sing those words.
Originally, the song appeared on Darrell Scott’s 1997 album Aloha from Nashville. Scott wrote the song after recovering from a back injury that left him bedridden for a week.
“After six or seven days when I could [finally] sit up, I was literally just heating rice in a microwave — and considering making soup. Just sitting at the table, which I hadn’t done all week,” the singer-songwriter said in a 2023 interview with The Bluegrass Situation. “It was the most blessed thing to do such simple things.”
Be sure to tune-in to CMAfest presented by SoFi on Thursday, June 26 at 8/7c on ABC to relive your favorite performances!
Featured image by Tammie/AFF-USA/Shutterstock
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