Following the controversy of Jason Aldean’s latest music video, the musician has shared a message with the world.
Aldean has faced mounting criticism in the last few days.
But now, he’s spoken out on the backlash.
Read on for the full story.
Aldean’s new track has left people divided due to its controversial content.
‘Try That In A Small Town’ has been faced with huge criticism from many people.
Aldean has found himself landed in controversy following the release his new track.
However, it’s not just the song itself that is facing backlash, but also the music video.
The song’s music video was taken down by the country network CMT, as confirmed on Wednesday.
Despite the fact that the song came out back in May, the music video didn’t come out until July 14.
The track, according to detractors, contains themes of racism and vigilantism.
The video depicts Black Lives Matter protests and flag burning, and the track even talks about sundown towns.
Sundown towns, for those who don’t know, were all-white communities…
Where people of colour were subject to hate and violence if they didn’t leave by the time the sun went down.
The recently released music video for the song “Try That in a Small Town” brought the debate surrounding the song to a new level.
Some viewers noted that the video featured sequences that appeared to have been taken in front of Columbia, Tennessee’s Maury County Courthouse.
Several instances of racial violence have taken place at the courtroom, including the hanging of a Black man called Henry Choate in 1927.
Additionally, it provided a setting for the Columbia Race Riot in 1946.
On top of this, Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme Court justice, came dangerously close to being killed as a result of the unrest.
So there is a lot of history there.
The music video also contains clips from demonstrations against police violence…
And images captured by security cameras showing criminal activity.
Aldean responded to the criticism in a tweet on Tuesday, saying:
“There isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage.”
However, dozens have called the singer out, with one even calling it a “modern lynching song.”
His lyrics also sparked backlash.
In part of the song, he sings: “Cuss out a cop, spit in his face / Stomp on the flag and light it up.”
“Yeah, ya think you’re tough / Well, try that in a small town / See how far ya make it down the road / Around here, we take care of our own / You cross that line, it won’t take long / For you to find out, I recommend you don’t / Try that in a small town.”
But Aldean is sticking with his defence, writing in a Tweet:
“Try That In A Small Town, for me, refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up.”
“We took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief. Because they were our neighbors, and that was above any differences.”
Despite this, Tennessee State Representative Justin Jones tweeted his own thoughts.
He wrote: “As Tennessee lawmakers, we have an obligation to condemn Jason Aldean’s heinous song calling for racist violence.”
“What a shameful vision of gun extremism and vigilantism. We will continue to call for common sense gun laws, that protect ALL our children and communities.”
Although singing about firearms is typical in country songs, and has been mentioned in many over the years…
Several fans found Aldean’s unfortunate past with gun violence made the lyrics a little perplexing.
In 2017, a shooter opened fire repeatedly into the audience while the performer was doing a concert at the Route 91 Music Harvest Festival in Las Vegas.
The shooting tragically killed 60 people and wounded over 400.
What makes his song more confusing is that Aldean opened out about his emotional experience following the tragedy…
He revealed that he was in favour of stronger gun control legislation.
The deadly shooting was mentioned in his social media message on Tuesday…
He wrote: “NO ONE, including me, wants to continue to see senseless headlines or families ripped apart.”
Despite the backlash, Aldean’s new track was played at CMA Fest.
However, they steered clear of showing the music video.
Since the music video came out, dozens of people have shared their thoughts, and even Sheryl Crow joined in on the debate.
She opened up on Twitter, saying he should know better.
She wrote: “@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,” she tweeted.
“This is not American or small town-like. It’s just lame.”
Aldean didn’t let Crow’s comments go, however…
The backlash has clearly gotten too much for him, as he took to Twitter to dismiss the negative comments he’s been receiving.
“In the past 24 hour 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, he began his post.
He continued: “These references are not only meritless, but dangerous.
“There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it – and there isn’t a single 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.”
He concluded, writing: “My political views have never been something I’ve hidden from…
“And I know that a lot of us in this country don’t agree on how we get back to a sense of normalcy where we go at least one day without a headline that keeps us up at night. But the desire for it to.”
“That’s what this song is about.”
Aldean’s wife, Brittany Kerr, has also rushed to her husband’s defence.
Kerr has been married to Aldean since 2015.
The pair have 2 kids together, and also parent Aldean’s 2 children from his former marriage to Jessica Ann Ussery.
She is known for being a vocal defender of her husband.
Aldean has frequently found himself in hot water as a result of various controversies, but Kerr has always stood by her man.
“Never apologize for speaking the truth,” she wrote in an Instagram post.
In a second post, she addressed her husband’s fans: “Man do we love y’all. Free thinkers, lions not sheep… thankful for the support, always!”
Despite Kerr’s defence of her husband, it hasn’t stopped the criticism of Aldean from keeping coming.
The latest person to weigh in on the debate is fellow musician Jason Isbell.
Isbell is known for his own music, as well as working with the band The 400 Unit.
Throughout his career, he has won an impressive 4 Grammys.
He is also known for his outspoken political views.
Isbell hasn’t shied away from making his left-view opinions clear.
And so, it comes as little surprise that he vehemently disagreed with Aldean’s controversial song.
But the brutal way in which he shared his views this time round has left lots of fans laughing…
So much so that even fellow country musician Jake Owens felt the need to call out Isbell for his comments.
“Jason, you’re always the first to get behind your keyboard and spout off with this stupid shit. In ‘my small town’ you just walk up to the guy and be a man to his face if you want the smoke… not tweet it at him…. Tough guy,” he said in a now-deleted tweet, via HuffPost.
“Dare Aldean to write his next single himself. That’s what we try in my small town,” Isbell said in his original tweet.
Adding in a second tweet: “Ok here ya go @Jason_Aldean. I’m challenging you to write a song yourself. All alone. If you’re a recording artist, make some art. I want to hear it.”
Despite all the backlash, it is having little detriment to the song’s charting.
In fact, it’s quite the opposite…
Per Fox News, ‘Try That In A Small Town’ has seen a surge in sales.
So much so that it even reached the top spot on the US iTunes chart!
In total, the track has reached sales of 23.9 million.
As well as combined streams of audio and visual of 11.6 billion.
Despite the song’s chart success, its content is still being ripped apart by commentators
The latest to criticise the song are the hosts of The View, including Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and Sunny Austin.
Goldberg in particular had a lot to say about Aldean’s video, deeming it as having gone “too far”.
“He talks about life in a small town, and it’s different, and he chose these images,” she began, via Entertainment Weekly.
“He’s got folks from the Black Lives Matter movement, and he’s talking about people taking care of each other, and I find it so interesting that it never occurred to Jason or the writers that that’s what these folks were doing,” she said.
She continued: “They were taking care of the people in their town because they didn’t like what they saw.”
“Just like you talk about people taking care of each other in small towns, we do the same thing in big towns.
“You just have to realize that when you make it about Black Lives Matter, people kind of say, ‘Well, are you talking about Black people? What are you talking about here?'”
Sunny Hostin and Joy Behar agreed with Goldberg.
Behar went as far to call the song “deplorable” and “annoying”.
Alyssa Farah Griffin said she was willing to give Aldean the benefit of the doubt “that his intent wasn’t to stoke division, glorify violence or racism.”
However, she still maintained that the track reminded her of the 2020 murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a “Black man in a small town in the South who got shot for doing nothing wrong.”
Some of the biggest names of country music have rushed to defend Aldean in recent days.
Pat Boone and Travis Tritt have spoken out to defend the star.
Tritt urged Aldean to “damn the social media torpedoes”, per the Mail Online.
He added that Aldean should “say what you want and be who you want to be.”
Boone, on the other hand, said: “It’s gotten sick, I can’t believe it is country music. I’m thinking about Trace Adkins, and of course, many of [his] songs were very supportive of opposing America’s enemies.
“What we’re not taking into account is that many of our enemies are in our own house and they’re in our own countries and our own streets.”
Aldean has since addressed the controversy once more, with a new message to the world.
“I love our country, I want to see it restored to what it once was before all this bulls**t started happening to us. I love my country, I love my family and I will do anything to protect that, I can tell you that right now,” Aldean said at a Cincinnati concert this weekend.
He went on: “That’s something that if people don’t like what you say they try to make sure they can cancel you, which means try to ruin your life, ruin everything.”
“One thing I saw this week was a bunch of country music fans that can see through a lot of the bulls***. I saw country music fans rally like I’ve never seen before and it was pretty badass, I gotta say. Thank you guys so much.”
“The answer is simple,” he said. “The people have spoken and you guys spoke very, very loudly.”
“The people have spoken and you guys spoke very, very loudly.”