Jason Aldean defends controversial Try That in a Small Town song during Ohio concert
Jason Aldean defended his controversial track Try That in a Small Town during a recent concert in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The country star defended the track, which was released in May, after the new music video was pulled from the CMT channel last week following backlash, with some people calling it pro-violence or pro-lynching.
Aldean addressed the controversy and stood by his song before he performed it at the Riverbend Music Center on Friday.
“I feel everybody’s entitled to their opinion. You can think something all you want to, it doesn’t mean it’s true. What I am is a proud American,” he stated, according to a TikTok video. “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.”
The singer then called out “cancel culture” and those who try to “ruin your life” and praised his country music fans for seeing through the backlash.
“I saw country music fans rally like I’ve never seen before and it was pretty bada*s to watch, I gotta say. Thank you guys so much,” he continued. “I know a lot of you guys grew up like I did. You kind of have the same values, the same principles that I have, which is we want to take our kids to a movie and not worry about some a*shole coming in there shooting up the theatre.
“So somebody asked me, ‘Hey man, you think you’re going to play this song tonight?’ The answer was simple. The people have spoken and you guys spoke very, very loudly this week.”
Aldean then launched into the song, which features the lyrics, “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.”
The music video, which was released last week, saw Aldean performing in front of a courthouse where a lynching once took place while visuals of social unrest were projected onto the building.
