Jason Aldean, Lanie Gardner, Dee Jay Silver, Chase Matthew, and Elizabeth Nichols

The trajectory of Aldean’s career to date serves as a sharp example of the old adage that good things come to those who wait, although you could certainly forgive him for wishing that things had panned out a little more simply for him. He seemed to have the world at his feet in 1998; at the age of twenty-one, he signed a record deal with Warner-Chappell. He was subsequently, and repeatedly, dropped, and spent some years struggling to get his music career - something which had once looked like a dead-cert - off the ground. It meant that he didn’t manage to get his self-titled debut record out into the world until 2005, although it brought the success that his talent had always promised; “Why” became his first number one single on the U.S. Country charts, and the album itself would eventually go platinum in his homeland, too.

Since then, he’s released a further three platinum albums and another, November 2010’s “My Kinda Party”, that was certified triple-platinum. He’s a bona fide country titan now, with a slew of Grammy nominations and another Billboard number one position for his latest album, October 2010’s Old Boots, New Dirt, proof of his national stardom.