Country singer Jason Aldean responded to the controversy of his song “Try That in a Small Town,” CBS News reported.
Released in May, the song was described by Aldean at the time as summarizing how many people “feel about the world right now.”
The song criticizes the behavior of rioters in large cities and warns them to “try that in a small town.”
After the video was released on CMT and put into the network’s rotation last weekend, some gun control activists demanded that the network stop airing it. Unsurprisingly, CMT, which is owned and operated by MTV Networks caved to the mob and yanked the video.
In response, Aldean released a statement on Twitter responding to the more outlandish accusations.
Noting that he was “accused of releasing a pro-lynching song,” Aldean called the claim “meritless” and “dangerous.” He points out that the lyrics to “Try That in a Small Town” make no mention of race nor is there any footage in the video that isn’t “real news footage.”
He said while he tries to respect that others might have different interpretations of the lyrics, the accusation that it is pro-lynching “goes too far.”
Aldean points out that he was in attendance at the 2017 country music festival in Las Vegas that was targeted by a shooter and added that nobody, including him, wants to see headlines about mass shootings or “families ripped apart.”
He argued that his song is about the community in which he grew up “where we took care of our neighbors” regardless of their differences.
Aldean closed by pointing out that he never hid his political views and while many in the US may not agree on how to return to “a sense of normalcy,” there is a desire to return, and “that’s what this song is about.”
