On top of taking home two awards at the 2022 CMT Awards, country rocker Jason Aldean teamed up with Bryan…
Jason Aldean, Bryan Adams; Photo by Getty Images
On top of taking home two awards at the 2022 CMT Awards, country rocker Jason Aldean teamed up with Bryan Adams to give the fans a performance of “Heaven.”
Aldean often performs Adams’ 1983 hit and recorded his own version for his latest album, Macon, Georgia. Aldean’s rendition recently gained popularity on TikTok. This is Aldean and Adams’ first performance of “Heaven” since they shared the stage at the CMT Crossroads in 2009.
Jason Aldean, Bryan Adams; Photo by Getty Images
“When I first met Bryan, you know, he was a guy that I had sort of grown up listening to and he was one of the guys that I wanted to be… I wanted to be a rock n’ roll guy. I used to cover a lot of his songs in the bars and just coming up through the years and to finally get a chance to share the stage with him [in 2009] was just a really cool moment for me and he couldn’t of been nicer,” Aldean explained ahead of the show.
“He was very complimentary of me and my band and just everything. It was just a really cool thing. We’ve kept in touch over the years, and it was fun, so I’m looking forward to getting to perform with him again and getting a chance to revisit that,” he went on to say. “We did ‘Heaven’ the first time on the Crossroads, it kind of became the little underground hit almost, so it’s going to be fun to get to share the stage with him again. Now, that I put the song on an album get to perform it with him, it’s going to be fun.”
The duet took place right in the middle of lower Broadway in downtown Nashville. With the road blocked off, and hundreds of fans surrounding them on the street beside the stage, the entertainers rocked the house with a full band in the honky-tonk glow.
“The way we ended up recording ‘Heaven’ was because we done it on CMT Crossroads and I don’t know it just got so much attention when we did it on that show I just kind of kept hearing fans ask for years if we were ever going to cut that and put it on an album. I kind of always wanted to do that and with this album being a double album, we had a lot more slots on the album to put songs, and it just kind of felt like the right time,” Aldean added. “So, obviously, Bryan was aware of that and as soon as he heard the version, he hit me and told me how much he appreciated it and that he loved our version of the song. And obviously to get his blessing is just kind of the cherry on top.”
To watch the live performance from the CMT Awards, click the video above.
Jason Aldean and Brittany Aldean; Photo by Getty Images for CMT
The 2022 CMT Music Awards featured performances from Kane Brown, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Walker Hayes, Old Dominion, Carrie Underwood, Jason Aldean, Cody Johnson, and more.
Also taking the stage with never-before-seen collaborations were Maren Morris and Ryan Hurd, Jason Aldean and Bryan Adams, Jimmie Allen with Monica and Little Big Town, Mickey Guyton and Black Pumas, Thomas Rhett and Riley Green, Cole Swindell and Lainey Wilson. The Judds also joined forces for their first televised performance in over two decades.
Presenters for Country Music’s Biggest Party included Gabby Barrett, Faith Hill, Isabel May, Jimmie Allen, Rob Corddry, Jordan Davis, Billy F. Gibbons, Gayle King, Taylor Lautner, Dustin Lynch, Martina McBride, Joel McHale, Kacey Musgraves, Queer Eye’s Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France + Antoni Porowski, LeAnn Rimes, Dylan Scott, and Dennis Quaid.
