It's both a compliment and something of a throwdown, especially for a self-confessed competitor like Aldean, to be asked to co-headline stadiums with him. 1), sells more than 1 million tickets to his tours and is the only country act to make Billboard's list of the top 10 touring acts of the last 25 years.

He's been putting out albums for more than 20 years (2014's 'The Big Revival' was his 13th to debut at No. We've always got a lot of photographers for those shows to capture that stuff, because it's a pretty cool moment.'Īldean and Chesney have known each other for a long time.Ĭhesney, 47, is one of those performers every country act strives to match, Aldean said. That's kind of what it reminds me of when you look out and see a sea of people. 'I remember watching footage of old rock bands like Guns N' Roses and watching them play these big shows where there were just thousands and thousands and thousands of people. 'Now to look at how far it has come in the last 10 years and realize you can go in and play a stadium and that many people have been affected by what you do and still want to come see you perform, that's a pretty cool deal. 'When we first started, back in the day, we would go into a club that held maybe 1,000 people, sometimes less than that, 500, and have a hard time selling that out,' he said. Playing for masses that stretch beyond end zones and center field walls is a far cry from those early days leading up to his self-titled debut in 2005. Saturday's crowd is expected to be 50,000 strong to hear Aldean and his hardcore band rip through 'Hicktown,' 'Dirt Road Anthem,' 'Johnny Cash' and 'My Kinda Party' - a string of hits that have made him a three-time Academy of Country Music Male Vocalist of the Year. To do it once and sort of cross it off your bucket list is pretty special.'

I don't know how many times I'll get a chance to play it from here on out. 'To me, it's one of those things where I don't know how many times I'll play it in the future. 'For me to go and play some of these places where I grew up watching all these guys play football or baseball, to me, there's something special around those shows, especially when it's an iconic stadium like Lambeau or like when we played Fenway (Park) or Wrigley (Field) or any of those kinds of places. That was always kind of my first love,' Aldean said. It's a first go-round for Aldean, whose history in Green Bay includes a date with Lady Antebellum at the 2,000-seat Weidner Center in 2008 and a 2012 show at the Resch Center that sold out in an hour and featured another former-opener-turned-stadium-star, Luke Bryan.įor the 38-year-old Georgia native who had his eye on a baseball career all through high school - until music took over - the chance to play historic sports venues like Lambeau has a thrill a level above packed arenas and amphitheaters. It's a return trip to Lambeau for Chesney, who became the first major act to play the stadium in 2011 with the Zac Brown Band. Both are now mighty enough to sell out stadiums on their own, but they're also doubling down on their drawing power for select dates like the one Saturday at Lambeau Field that pack both Chesney's The Big Revival Tour and Aldean's Burnin' It Down Tour into one co-headlining night.

Given their current clout in country, it's hard to imagine a time when either Chesney or Aldean were still at opening-act status. 'I was probably about 19 or 20 years old. 'Kenny was actually the opening act for Clay Walker, and I opened for both of them,' Aldean said by phone from a tour stop in West Virginia. There was that time long before Aldean ever moved to Nashville. The dozen stadium shows Kenny Chesney and Jason Aldean are doing this summer aren't the first time the two country music powerhouses have played together.

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