The Country Music Crossover of The Fearless Aaron Lewis

Country music is America’s truest music. It does not address every issue and problem in our lives, nor is it always uncompromisingly realistic. Sometimes it appeals to us through nostalgia or fantasy, the desire to go back to “the little cabin home on the hill” where we never lived, or to the life of “a happy, roving cowboy” that we never experienced .” Malone, 2002, 13

This statement of the country music scholar Malone perfectly described Aaron Lewis’s country crossover.

Aaron Lewis, Staind, and Country Music

Lewis spent a lot of time with his grandfather listening to Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Hank Williams.

Growing up, he felt like listening to country music was forced on him so he tried to stay away from the music genre and found himself with the heavy metal band, Staind. The band made a big name and sold over 15 million copies, but no matter how hard Lewis tried to veer away from his Country music roots, it soon came and knocked at his door.

It was in 1998 when he went touring with Kid Rock that brought him back into Country music.

“The whole time he is playing this old country music, and in my head, it’s replaying the soundtrack of my childhood. It was the first time I had let any of that style of music, that twang, come back into my life or listening choices.” Aaron Lewis

In July 2012, the band Staind announced that they are going on a hiatus. In that same year, Aaron Lewis released his first country album, The Road. Its debut single, “Endless Summer,” has also made the country charts. It reached No. 7 on the on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and sold 21,000 copies.

Lewis released his second studio album Sinner on September 16, 2016. It reached No.4 on the US Billboard 200 with 42,000 units sold. It also peaked at No.1 on the Top Country Albums chart. As of March 2018, the album has sold 146,800 copies in the United States.

State I’m In

State I’m In is the third album of Aaron Lewis that was released on April 12, 2019. It is a follow-up to his second album Sinner.  It debuted on Billboard’s Top Country Albums at No.2. It has sold 37,600 copies as of October 2019.

Buddy Cannon produced the 10-track project with Lewis. Lewis wrote six of the songs, penning three without collaborators. Dan Tyminski and the late Keith Whitley also contributed to the album.

His songs are introspective and written from his own experiences. His pains and confusions tap his vein of creativity. Little did we know that it is also is one of his ways of dealing with the state he is in.

In an interview with Taste of Country, the singer said he is ready to explore where all of the pain is coming from. That he might be ready to deal with things that have affected his life.

Here is a song from his latest album.