Jason Aldean on white privilege, Maren Morris and 'very cool' Donald Trump
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — It's empty inside E3 Chophouse a few hours before dinner service on a recent afternoon, but outside the blare of passing police cars keeps interrupting Jason Aldean as he sits on the restaurant's rooftop patio.
"I swear, it's nonstop every time I'm up here," says the 46-year-old country star, a co-owner of E3 with his fellow singer Luke Bryan and former pro baseball player Adam LaRoche. The eatery serves steaks from LaRoche's family ranch, though Aldean says the best thing on the menu is the lobster mac & cheese.
"We've got some other stuff that I was like, 'I don't know if people will eat that,'" he adds. "Bacon-wrapped dates? I never ate a date in my life until we opened this restaurant." He laughs. "Not bad."
Nashville has grown dramatically since Aldean moved here in 1998 from his native Macon, Georgia. New high-rise buildings seem to go up every day in the city's increasingly crowded downtown, where Aldean has another restaurant on the ever-bustling Broadway. The sound of country music has changed too, thanks in part to Aldean, who helped introduce bruising rock guitars and slick hip-hop beats to the genre as a giant of the bro-country movement. To listen today to the singer's 2010 smash "Dirt Road Anthem," in which he adopts a rap-like flow, is to hear the ground being softened for the arrival of country's current king, Morgan
