Jason Aldean was shocked when he heard that Garth Brooks recently praised him during a press conference.

"For me, growing up and watching Garth's career and how big he was and is, to sit here and even talk about competing with him is almost comical to me," Aldean says. "I never in a million years thought that the guy would even know who I was, much less we'd be sitting and battling it out on the charts or whatever."

Brooks praised Aldean's game-changing step into the country music scene, saying that he's a fan of Aldean's work.

“Guys like Jason Aldean, who came out with what I call ‘muscle country,’ (the) poor guy came out and did it, and he was the only guy doing it — and then everybody jumped on it,” Brooks says. “Everybody tried to do that Jason thing. So he’s now in the point of trying to figure out how to reinvent himself. I wish him well with that because the kid’s a good talent, and I’d like to see him around with some new music.”

Hopefully all of the compliments going back and forth could lead to a collaboration between the two artists. Aldean says he would definitely like to work with Brooks in the future.

"I think it's cool that he's back," he says. "I think it'd be cool to get to work with him, so hopefully at some point I'll get the chance to do something with him."

More From TheBoot