CMT pulls Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That In a Small Town,’ which is still available on services like Spotify and Apple Music. The singer defends the song, calling claims against the track ‘not only meritless but dangerous.’
Country singer Jason Aldean is defending his controversial song and music video that CMT pulled off the air, calling claims made against the track “not only meritless but dangerous.”
After Aldean released “Try That In a Small Town” in May, with its accompanying music video debuting on Friday, it received criticism for promoting gun violence and disparaging the Black Lives Matter movement.
The video features the burning of the American flag, protests, and looting, with lyrics like “Cuss out a cop, spit in his face/Stomp on the flag and light it up/Yeah, you think you’re tough/Well try that in a small town/See how far you make it down the road,” and “Got a gun that my granddad gave me/They say one day they’re gonna round up/Well, that sh*t might fly in the city, good luck.”
In response to the video getting pulled from CMT’s rotation on Monday, Jason Aldean denied the allegations against his song in a tweet the following day.
“In the past 24 hours, I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (…) 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,” wrote Aldean. “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.”
“As so many pointed out, I was present at Route 91 — where so many lost their lives — and our community recently suffered another heartbreaking tragedy,” he continued, referencing the 2017 Las Vegas shooting which broke out while Aldean was performing on stage. “NO ONE, including me, wants to continue to see senseless headlines or families ripped apart.”
“‘Try That In a Small Town,’ for me, refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or beliefs,” Aldean explained, “because they were our neighbors, and that was above any differences.”
The singer concluded his tweet by saying that while many may disagree on “how we get back to a sense of normalcy,” the desire to go “at least a day without a headline that keeps us up at night” is what the song is about.