Jason Aldean’s Wife Slams Billboard for Excluding Him: ‘Sad’

Jason Aldean‘s wife Brittany is calling out Billboard for playing politics after the publication failed to include him on its recent staff-compiled list of the best country singers of all time.

In an Instagram Stories slide, Brittany theorizes that Billboard intentionally excluded Aldean from the list due to his conservative political beliefs.

She notes that this is just one example of the industry setbacks she and her country star husband have faced due to their political views and their public support of U.S. president elect Donald Trump.

“Remember when I said it’s been a journey standing up for what we believe in??” Brittany writes.

“This is a prime example of Jason being left out of things in the industry,” the singer’s wife goes on to say. “[Billboard] your wokeness obviously overrides your ability to give credit where it’s due, and it’s sad.”

• The Aldeans have spoken openly about their political leanings for quite a while, and they’ve grown more vocal over the past several years.
• In 2022, Brittany and Maren Morris got into a heated social media feud over trans rights and gender-affirming care for teens. Brittany subsequently appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight to elaborate on her position.
• The couple has supported Trump’s candidacy for U.S. presidency in 2024, both meeting him several times and counting him as a personal friend.
• Aldean performed at the Republican National Convention and spoke at a Trump rally in Georgia.
• The singer’s conservatism has showed up in his music; notably, his song “Try That in a Small Town” espouses conservative, traditional social values. That song drew significant criticism upon its release in 2023, with many listeners calling it racist dog-whistling and a glorification of gun-based vigilante justice.

Brittany’s Instagram Story included a link to a post shared by Tully Kennedy, who is Aldean’s bassist and one of the writers behind “Try That in a Small Town.”

Kennedy also seemed to take offense to Billboard leaving Aldean off its Top 100 list, and he also seemed to think the exclusion had to do with the singer’s political views.

“I don’t know what’s funnier [Billboard] … How ridiculous this makes you look or the fact that you think it would bother us,” he writes in the caption of his post. “Thx for making that chip on our shoulder just a little bit bigger.”

Aldean hasn’t weighed in on this issue on his own social media, but he did comment on Kennedy’s post with a “100” emoji.

Billboard‘s list of of the Best 100 Country Singers of All Time includes legends like Kris Kristofferson, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash, as well as more modern stars like Luke Combs and Eric Church.

Two of Aldean’s closest parallel contemporaries — Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton — come in at No. 96 and No. 73, respectively.

However, the list does include some singers who’ve publicly espoused conservative political views: Hank Williams Jr. and Toby Keith both make the list.