To anchor his forthcoming album, Jason Aldean enlists Carrie Underwood for a soaring, heart-torn anthem called “If I Didn’t Love You.” The classic piano-based ballad, featuring plenty of electric guitars, of course, finds the two leads struggling with their heartbreak. If I didn’t love you I’d be good by now I’d be better than barely, getting by somehow, the duo laments on the chorus.
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“If I Didn’t Love You,” co-written by Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy, John Morgan, and Lydia Vaughan, was produced by Michael Knox, a frequent Aldean collaborator throughout the years, including hit singles “Dirt Road Anthem,” “The Only Way I Know” featuring Luke Bryan and Eric Church, and “Crazy Town,” as well as countless album cuts. Knox’s resume also includes work with Trace Adkins, Frankie Ballard, and Josh Thompson.
“We were pretty close to finishing up this album, but this song came in and we knew we had to record it. I went ahead and put my vocals down while we asked Carrie in the meantime,” Aldean says in a press statement. “Luckily she loved the song and it was kind of like a rocket from there. She did her thing like only Carrie can…and I don’t know how, but she made it sound even better than what we expected. It’s a really special song to start this album.”
Today (July 23), Aldean appears on Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen to further discuss the song, as well as his previous powerhouse collaboration on “Don’t You Wanna Stay” with Kelly Clarkson. “I remember with ‘Don’t You Want to Stay,’ Kelly was actually my first choice for that song, and I’ve just always been a fan of her voice,” Aldean tells radio host Kelleigh Bannen. “And then when you get on stage or in the studio and start trading vocals with them, you realize really quick who the better singer in the room is, you know what I mean?
“Those guys are amazing singers and really powerful and just a lot of range. It’s really cool for me to get to work with people like that and sort of find my spot in the song to make my voice work with theirs,” he adds.
Earlier this week, Aldean snagged his 25th No. 1 hit single with “Blame It On You.” In conversation with Bannen, he reveals he only “just got the memo on that yesterday morning, and it’s really cool. What to me is really cool about that song is a couple of the guys that are in my band who have been with me for over 20 years were co-writers on that song,” he says. “They had written some things that we had recorded before, and we had had singles and album cuts and things like that, but never had a number one together that they wrote, that I recorded. This was our first one. Even though we’ve been playing music together for 20 plus years, this was the first time they had written a number one for me, so it was just pretty special.”
Jason Aldean’s forthcoming 10th studio album is yet untitled.
Well we’ve all been there haven’t we. The sad thing is that the other person in this song that the singer is in love with? They don’t give a *blank* that the singer is agonizing. haha.
Good song that captures one of the hardest emotions we ever have to work through.