Long before he picked out its cover artwork, track list or release date, Jason Aldean knew he wanted to title his forthcoming new record 9. For one thing, that's because it's his ninth studio record to date -- but the singer says that's just the beginning of the album title's significance.

"I told myself early on in my career, 'Man, if I ever made nine albums, it'd be cool to call the album Number 9,'" he explained to The Boot and other outlets during a recent press event. "That was my baseball number when I was growing up. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a huge baseball fan, and played for a long time. When I was in high school, I used to sign everything with my name and then the number 9 under it."

When he first came up with the idea to use the number as a title for his ninth studio album, Aldean admits he was thinking primarily in hypotheticals. "At the time, album one, thinking about album number nine seemed an eternity away," he admits. Flash forward to 2019, however, and the title still seemed like a fitting one.

"It was more just kind of a personal thing for me. I looked at the songs on it, and it wasn't like we really had a song title the stood out, that I thought was gonna change the game or anything like that," the singer points out. "So it was just something that I'd wanted to do for a long time. Then you blink and turn around, and here we are making the ninth record. Pretty simple, but kind of cool to me."

One aspect of the title has changed in the years since Aldean originally thought of it, though: He'd originally planned to call it No. 9 or #9. "And you fast forward, now the number sign is kind of known as a hashtag," he adds with a laugh. "So I figured people would be calling it Hashtag 9. So we dropped that altogether and called it 9."

Do Y'all Know These 10 Facts About Jason Aldean?

Test Your Jason Aldean Knowledge!

More From 95.7 KEZJ