This Wednesday will be an especially exciting day in Jake Owen‘s career, as he heads to New York City for the sold-out opening night of Jake’s first-ever headlining tour! Officially titled CMT ON TOUR JAKE OWEN: THE SUMMER NEVER ENDS 2012, the big tour also welcomes special guests Love and Theft and Florida Georgia Line, and Jake says that with three boys from the Sunshine State — between him and Florida Georgia Line’s Brian Kelley and Love and Theft’s Stephen Barker Liles — this is one tour that’s definitely got that Florida vibe. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• Jake says that he’s really been looking forward to the chance to headline his first tour, and he tells us that one of the great things about having top billing is that it gives you the freedom to re-think everything about how you do a show. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Look for a tour date near you, with a complete list online at cmtontour.cmt.com.
• Love and Theft’s Eric Gunderson and Stephen Barker Liles are thrilled to be hitting the road with Jake, and they talked with us about it in this recent story.
• After back-to-back number-one hits from his Barefoot Blue Jean Night album, Jake is currently climbing the Top 10 with the album’s newest smash, “The One That Got Away.”
• And right in line with the summer feel of Jake’s tour and hot new Endless Summer EP, you can catch Jake on the new CMT special, Endless Summer, premiering this Tuesday, October 9th, at 9:30am, ET, on CMT.
• And be sure to pick up Jake’s four-song Endless Summer EP, available now, right here, on iTunes.

  Jake Owen is excited to be hitting the road for his first-ever headlining tour. (:33)
“Yeah, I’m headed out on the Summer Never Ends Tour, which is appropriately titled for a Florida boy like myself. And I’m gonna have my friends Florida Georgia Line on that tour, which are doing really, really well right now. There’s a Florida tie there, as well, you know, Brian Kelley’s from Florida. And then Love and Theft, who’s my labelmates, are gonna be on the tour. I’m really excited for them to be out there. They just had their first number-one hit. And one of the Florida boys there, in Love and Theft, so we got some Florida — we have a lot of Florida runnin’ through this tour, which is gonna be really cool.”

  Jake Owen says that being a tour headliner gives an artist the freedom to re-think every aspect of their show. (:35)
“Anytime you get to headline a show, much less your own tour, is something that every artist works really hard for. And after bein’ out there on the ‘Brothers of the Sun’ Tour, I took a lot of what I learned, and I’m implementing it into what this tour is going to be and how I can better myself and better the show and what it’s gonna look like and what aspects of our band I can make better and how I can treat my fans better, not only on the stage but off the stage, meet-and-greet-wise. What can I do differently in a meet-and-greet to entertain people that come through meet-and-greet? And those are the kinds of things, once it’s your own tour, you can do that.”