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Addressing the backlash against his latest single, “Try That in a Small Town,” a defiant Jason Aldean vowed to continue performing the controversial track live during his Friday night concert in Cincinnati.
“I gotta tell you, it’s been a hell of a long week,” Aldean told the audience at the Riverbend Music Center. “It’s been a long week and I’ve seen a lot, I’ve seen a lot that suggests this is me, that suggests this is me. Hey, here’s the thing, here’s the thing I feel: I feel like everyone is entitled to their opinion. You can think anything you want, but that doesn’t mean it’s true.”
Aldean continued, “What I am is a proud American… I love our country, I want it to go back to what it was before all this nonsense happened to us. I love my country, I love my family and I’ll do whatever it takes to protect that, I’ll tell you right now.” Then came cries of “USA” from Aldean’s supportive fanbase. (On Friday, Aldean discussed the controversy publicly for the first time since his Thursday concert in Cleveland was canceled due to weather.)
The backlash against “Try That in a Small Town” began earlier this week when Aldean released the new video for the month-old song. The image shows the country singer performing outside a courthouse — reportedly in Columbia, Tennessee, the site of a 1933 lynching — and is interspersed with footage (including some from Canada) depicting protests as violent and lawless. (Aldean subsequently denied that the song was “lynching-promoting.”)
Country music cable network CMT quickly pulled the music video from its rotation, and some of Aldean’s peers condemned the singer, who is no stranger to controversy.
“Here’s what I want to say: There’s a lot of things out there, one thing I love, you know how that is, abandonment culture is one thing, it’s something where people try to cancel you out if they don’t like it, which means you’re trying to ruin your life, ruin everything,” Aldean said Friday. “One thing I saw this week was a lot of country fans who can see through a lot of the crap, okay? I saw country fans gather like I’ve never seen them before and it was pretty rad I have to say. Thanks to both of you.”
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Just as quickly as “Try That in a Small Town” was “cancelled,” the single was being touted by the right as an anthem in the ongoing culture wars. With that support behind him, Aldean promised fans Friday that he will continue to perform the single right after his speech in Cincinnati.
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“People have been asking me, ‘Man, that song is all right, are you going to play it tonight?’ Do you think you won’t play it?’ And I said, ‘You know, the people that come to my shows know what I’m about, they know what I stand for. I’ve never shied away from that,” Aldean said on Friday.
“And I know that a lot of people grew up like me, have a lot of the same values and principles that I did, which is that we want to take our kids to the movies and not have to worry about some asshole walking in there and ruining the theater.” So if someone asks me, ‘Hey, do you think you’re going to play that song tonight?’ The answer was simple, people were talking, and you’ve been talking really, really loud this week.’