Jason Aldean admittedly grew up being influenced by country music in the '90s, which is why he was drawn to the song, '1994.' The tune, which appears on his just-released CD, 'Night Train,' pays homage to one of his own musical heroes, Joe Diffie -- and the elder singer couldn't be happier with the end result.

"It's really an honor," Joe tells CMT. "It's kind of flattering, yet uncomfortable at the same time. Talk about unexpected, you know? Someone told me that Thomas Rhett had co-written a song that mentioned me. I thought, 'I wonder what he said about me in there?' Because we've all heard songs in the past that mention [Merle] Haggard or [George] Jones, so I thought it might be something like that."

Joe was even more honored that the song made it onto one of the most anticipated albums of the year. "When I heard it, I was stunned," he confesses. "I was like, 'You gotta be kidding me.' It's pretty flattering they went that far with it. It's one thing to hear a song title or your name mentioned, but when it started into the 'Joe. Joe. Joe Diffie' part, that's cool right there."

Jason, who never spoke to Joe about the song before he recorded it, hopes to have his idol collaborate with him on the tune in the future -- but only if Joe agrees to take a walk down memory lane.

"If at some point this song became a single, I would love to have him be in the video, make some sort of cameo in the video or something like that," Jason told the Boot and other reporters at a recent press event. "I think it would be cool. But if he does, I don't want him to be like clean-cut Diffie now. I want him to be like '90s, full-mullet Diffie. He needs to start growing his hair out a little bit."

Jason Aldean's 'Night Train' is available now. The album's first single, 'Take a Little Ride' has already hit No. 1.


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