We Back

Album: 9 (2019)
Charted: 62
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Songfacts®:

  • Several of Jason Aldean's early singles, such as "She's Country," "My Kinda Party" and "Gonna Know We Were Here," were rockers. They tied in with the country star's live show, which is full of guitar-driven anthems about heartland America. However, his releases in the late 2010s were mainly slower love songs. With the release of Aldean's lead single from his 9 album, the singer declares he's ready to rock again.

    "We Back" is a country rocker in which Jason Aldean pays tribute to the good ol' days. He remembers fondly "the marshall stack" and guys with "steel toes covered in dirt." All good things come back around, and now the singer is "back in the saddle. Back on stage making the whole place rattle."

    "When I came into country music and made my mark, it was with a banger. But we haven't put out a lot of that stuff over the last couple years," Aldean said. "So we got this song and to me it just says what it says: 'Thought we were gone, but you're wrong - now it's on.'"
  • The song was written by Florida Georgia Line's Tyler Hubbard with Jordan Schmidt and the Warren Brothers. Aldean told Billboard that when Hubbard asked if there was anything he was missing for his 9 album, he replied, "I need anthems - things you play in a stadium or an arena, fist-pumping anthems."

    The very next day, Hubbard went in with Jordan Schmidt and the Warren Brothers to pen a rocker. The result was "We Back," which was just the anthem Aldean was looking for. He said: "It's cool that those guys are willing to go in and tailor-make a [song] for us and try and get on our record. It was a song that we needed."
  • Hubbard has contributed to several previous successful Aldean singles, including "Lights Come On" and "You Make It Easy," so it was a no-brainer to release "We Back" as the lead single from 9.
  • Aldean had always planned to name his ninth album after his favorite number. "Early on I always thought, if we ever got to make nine albums, I'm going to call it 9. It was my baseball number growing up, and it's just kind of always been my lucky number," Aldean said. "I remember cutting the first album and thinking, 'That's forever away,' and now here we are."
  • The song's black-and-white performance video was shot on the road during Aldean's Ride All Night tour. It was filmed by longtime collaborator Shaun Silva using eight 360 degree cameras. They were attached to Aldean's microphone, his band's instruments, and a beer can that was thrown to the singer at the end of the performance.

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