With a new album on the way – Greetings From… Jake, out March 29 — one would think Jake Owen would already be hearing the hum of his summer tour bus.

After all, the 14-track album is already equipped with the No. 1 single “I Was Jack (You Were Diane),” the award-nominated “Down to the Honkytonk” and a stack of radio-ready jams; including a collaboration with Kid Rock (“Grass is Always Greener”).

However, Owen stunned a media roundtable in Nashville this month by announcing he doesn’t have a summer tour planned to support the release.

“I don’t have a tour put together this year,” says Owen. “I’m playing a lot of shows, but they’re going to be more festival dates. A lot of artists are going to tell you, we’re going to be out there just kickin’ this year, or whatever — not me. I’m not. I want to enjoy my life this year. I’m having a child. I’m putting out a record. I’m in a place in life where I feel really happy and blessed, and I want to keep it that way.”

The keynote in Owen’s decision to abandon a full-fledged summer tour is that he’s welcoming his second child this spring (his first with girlfriend Erica Hartlein), expected shortly after Greetings From… Jake drops.

“I’ve never put money and fame and fortune ahead of what’s most important to me,” says Owen. “Thankfully, financially I’m able to take a little time off and enjoy the birth of my new daughter, which I didn’t have that opportunity when [Owen's first child] Pearl was born. She went like, literally from the hospital to the bus with us and we were still touring.

"So I’m just at a place now where I’m able to take a few weeks off, and just love having a new addition to the family and just living life and enjoying that.”

At a previous Nashville media roundtable in December, Owen noted that 6-year-old Pearl is excited to be a big sister. He originally shared the news about his second daughter in November 2018.

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