Jason Aldean Announces Three Stadium Dates For 2013 Tour

There’s two big pieces of news for Jason Aldean fans this week. First, his new album, “Night Train,” is on track to debut at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart next week, with anticipated first-week sales of 400,000 copies. The new Billboard 200 chart will be revealed on Oct. 24.

Second, the singer was in Boston’s Fenway Park yesterday to announce that his 2013 Night Train Tour will include a date there on July 13, 2013. He’ll be the first country artist to have ever played that stadium.

He then traveled to Chicago’s Wrigley Field, where he announced his July 20, 2013 tour stop there. Finally, on the same day, he flew to Athens, Ga., where he made a third stop, surprising a group of UGA students with news that he’ll play their venue, Sanford Stadium, for the first time on April 13, 2013. The students thought they were attending a pep rally until a curtain dropped revealing Aldean, who performed for them following the concert announcement.

His Fenway show will include supporting acts Miranda Lambert, Jake Owen, and Thomas Rhett. The Wrigley Field show openers will be Kelly Clarkson, Owen and Rhett. The Athens show will include Aldean’s fellow Georgian Luke Bryan, as well as Owen and Rhett.

Back on the album sales front, if Aldean moves the numbers projected, he’ll not only have his first ever No. 1 on the Billboard 200, but also the second-largest debut of the year, behind only Mumford & Sons’ “Babel,” which sold 600,000 copies in its first week.

Billboard reports Aldean’s biggest sales week to date came with his fourth album, “My Kinda Party,” which debuted with 193,000 first-week sales in 2010 and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, blocked from the No. 1 slot by Taylor Swift's “Speak Now,” in its second week at No. 1. This time around, Swift’s new album is arriving a week after Aldean’s, on Oct. 22.