Jason Aldean defends controversial song — again. ‘Not saying anything that’s not true’
People can not — and will not — stop talking about Jason Aldean’s contentious country song “Try That in a Small Town” that dropped in May, especially Aldean himself.
The singer/songwriter was a guest on “Coop’s Rockin’ Country Saturday Night” podcast and talked about the controversial takes on the song itself along with the music video. The video was pulled from the Country Music Television network in July after backlash of it being filmed in front of a courthouse in Tennessee where Henry Choate, a Black teenager, was lynched publicly in 1927 by 350 white men, The Washington Post reported.
The song has been referred to as “pro-gun” and “pro-lynching” by critics, so Aldean attempted to clear the air regarding one lyric.
“We put the song out in, I think it was May or something — and the biggest issue, I think, people had when we released the song was that it mentioned ‘having a gun that my grandfather gave me,’” Aldean said on the podcast. “I mentioned a gun, that’s a no, no right now, and I just remember thinking, ‘Man, you guys haven’t even seen the video yet.’”
Regardless of the song backlash, Aldean approved releasing the video.
“Between mainstream media and social media, things kind of take on a life of their own,” he said. “They start making the song and the video into something that it’s not. It’s fine, we just live in a world that does that right now, and I’m not gonna go out and explain myself every time somebody gives their own opinion of what my song or video means.
“If you’ve got common sense, you can look at the video and see, I’m not sayin’ anything that’s not true 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.”
Aldean previously said that the accusations of “racial undertones” in the song are “not only meritless, but dangerous,” McClatchy News reported.
The song and the music video have been defended by some big names, including Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr.
“Jason Aldean is a fantastic guy who just came out with a great new song,” the former president said on his social media website, Truth Social. “Support Jason all the way. MAGA!!”
This story was originally published October 19, 2023 at 12:11 PM with the headline "Jason Aldean defends controversial song — again. ‘Not saying anything that’s not true’."