Jason Aldean is standing behind his choice to release “Try That in a Small Town” after the song’s lyrics — and subsequent music video — caused controversy.
“If you’ve got common sense, you can look at the video and see, I’m not sayin’ anything that’s not true,” Aldean, 46, claimed during the Wednesday, October 18, episode of Audacy’s “Coop’s Rockin’ Country Saturday Night” podcast.
The track, which was initially released in May, came under fire for allegedly promoting gun violence and vigilante justice. However, Aldean said on Wednesday that he was simply giving a window to the world we already live in.
“In the video, I’m showin’ you what happened — I didn’t do it, I didn’t create it — it just happened, and I saw it, and I’m not cool with it,” he explained, referring to the music video he dropped, which features 2020 footage of unrest from outside the Maury County Courthouse in Colombia, Tennessee. The location is the same spot where in 1927, Black man Henry Choate was lynched.
Aldean insisted during the podcast that he doesn’t “care which side of the political fence you want to stand on” and claimed he chose to sing about the ups and downs in small towns to shed light on what he felt was “wrong” about the current climate.
“What I was seeing was wrong, and nobody would say anything, especially in the music industry or entertainment industry,” Aldean explained. “It just kind of reaches a breaking point to where you’re like, ‘Somebody needs to say something, and if nobody’s gonna do it, then I’ll be the guy.’”
Looking back, the country singer said he thinks one line in the song is what led to some listeners calling him out for promoting violence.
“The biggest issue, I think, people had when we released the song was that it mentioned ‘having a gun that my grandfather gave me.’ I mentioned a gun, that’s a ‘no, no’ right now,” Aldean continued, referring to the verse, “Got a gun that my granddad gave me / They say one day they’re gonna round up / Well, that s—t might fly in the city, good luck.”
Aldean, however, vowed that he was just staying true to the genre. “Country music is blue-collar music, it’s for every man out there, and that was always my thing — it’s like, I feel like this,” he added.
Aldean originally made headlines in July after the song got new publicity with the release of its music video. While the video was pulled from CMT’s coverage after one week, Aldean continued to face criticism for allegedly being racially insensitive with the track — which he denied.
“In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests. These references are not only meritless, but dangerous,” Aldean wrote in a July statement via social media. “There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it — and there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage -and while I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music — this one goes too far.”
While the “She’s Country” singer tried to squash the issues surrounding his song, several country singers spoke out against him. Sheryl Crow tweeted her disappointment at the time, writing, “@Jason_Aldean I’m from a small town. Even people in small towns are sick of violence. There’s nothing small-town or American about promoting violence. You should know that better than anyone having survived a mass shooting.” (Aldean was on stage in 2017 when the Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting transpired in Las Vegas, leaving 58 dead and 546 injured.)
Maren Morris, meanwhile, seemingly commented on Aldean’s drama in September when she released her song “Get the Hell Out of Here.” In the corresponding music video, Morris, 33, showed a fake small town with a tree burning in the center of the locale.
The toy town included a fake billboard that read, “Welcome to our Perfect Small Town From Sunrise to Sundown,” which some fans thought was directed at Aldean’s track.
The public scrutiny over his song, however, didn’t keep Aldean from hitting a major milestone in August when “Try That in a Small Town” became his first ever No. 1 hit.
“Well, yesterday was a monumental day for @jasonaldean ❤️,” Jason’s wife, Brittany Aldean, wrote via Instagram at the time. “#1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart!! …A career first🙏🏼 That sure did backfire, didn’t it?? The best fans EVERRRR❣️❣️❣️❣️.” Jason, for his part, didn’t address his achievement via social media.
