Country music is the music of America. Country music star Jason Aldean knows this. He grew up in Georgia, experiencing farm life and attending concerts, dreaming that one day he would play to sold out audiences. His dreams are now a reality.

Recently, Aldean announced the first dates of his forthcoming U.S. tour. He will be accompanied by Eric Church and JaneDear Girls, two up-and-coming acts he hopes will gain exposure from the tour. Tentatively, the tour kicks off mid-January in Little Rock, Arkansas, and continues through the end of January, where he will perform shows in Texas.

Aldean, whose last album, "My Kinda Party," debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, says that this is "the tour I've dreamed about putting together my whole life." When he was growing up, Aldean says his mother would "drive me to clubs when I wasn't even 16 yet, wait on me to play the same covers every night, then drive me home and make me do my homework before bed."

Aldean says he was often underestimated by record executives, but he is having the last laugh. "Don't count out the kids who live in the sticks, drive pickup trucks, wear John Deere hats" and love their country music, he asserts. Anyone who misjudged him is surely regretting that now.