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During his Friday night (July 21) concert in St. Louis, Cody Johnson offered his thoughts on the controversy surrounding Jason Aldean’s latest song and video “Try That in a Small Town,” which was pulled from CMT’s rotation earlier in the week.
Graham Allen, host of the Dear America podcast, released a video of “Til ‘You Can’t” hitmaker Johnson defending Aldean during the show at the Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis.
“We live in a time where everyone is criticizing Jason Aldean for putting out a song,” Johnson said, adding, “If you’re videotaping that and Jason Aldean, if you’re watching this video, keep it up bro.” You are, boo boo.”
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Cody Johnson endorsed Jason Aldean the other day!!!
“If my patriotism makes me an outlaw, then I will be an outlaw with God.” pic.twitter.com/5avT4uAvcn
— Graham Allen (@GrahamAllen_1) July 22, 2023
Johnson further noted that he interpreted the song as patriotic, saying, “If patriotism makes you an outlaw, then by God I’ll be an outlaw.”
Artists such as Travis Tritt, John Rich and Lee Greenwood have spoken out in favor of Aldean, while Aldean’s labelmate Blanco Brown defended Aldean but stressed that he strongly disagreed with the song itself. Artists such as Jason Isbell, Adeem the Artist, Margo Price and Sheryl Crow have all harshly criticized both the song and Aldean.
Aldean released “Try That in a Small Town” in May and performed it during his Nissan Stadium set at CMA Fest in June. However, the video for the song was released last week; The clip and song quickly drew criticism on social media from commenters who called the song racist and pro-gun. Commentators also noted the location of the video, which was filmed at the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee – the same place where an 18-year-old black man, Henry Choate, was lynched in 1927. CMT pulled the video from rotation on Tuesday (July 18), a move that drew both praise and backlash on social media.
In addition to releasing a statement on the controversy earlier in the week, Aldean also spoke in a lengthy speech during his own concert Friday night in Cincinnati, Ohio.
“It’s been a long week and I’ve seen a lot of things that suggest this is me, that suggest this is me,” Aldean told the crowd Video taken by fans. “I feel everyone is entitled to their opinion. You can think anything you want, but that doesn’t mean it’s true. What I am is a proud American. I’m proud to be from here. i love our country I want it to go back to how it was before all those cops happened to us. “I love my country, I love my family and I will do whatever it takes to protect it, I can tell you that now,” he said as the crowd began shouting “USA!” UNITED STATES!”
He also added, “You know what it’s like in today’s world, cancellation culture… Nowadays people try to make sure they can cancel you if they don’t like what you say, which means they’re trying to ruin your life.” Ruin everything. One thing I saw this week was a lot of country music fans who can see through a lot of the bullshit. I saw country music fans rally like I’ve never seen before and it was pretty badass I have to say. Thank you all. I know many of you grew up like me. You kind of have the same values, the same principles that I do, which is that we want to take our kids to the movies and not worry about some asshole walking in there and bombing the theater.”
Before beginning “Try That in a Small Town,” Aldean said to the crowd, “So someone asked me, ‘Hey man, do you think you’re going to play that song tonight?’ The answer was simple. People have spoken and you have spoken very, very loudly this week.”
After the controversy erupted, Aldean’s sales and streams skyrocketed, according to preliminary reports from Luminate, and the video has now racked up 14 million views on YouTube.