Country singer Jason Aldean has been in the news lately for his new video/song, “Try That In A Small Town.” The clip shows footage of protests and robberies projected onto a Tennessee courthouse, the site where an 18-year-old black man was killed in 1927.
The video also shows footage from the 2020 riots following the death of George Floyd. The songs lyrics talk about the divide between people in cities and small towns. Aldean says: “Try that in a small town / See how far you make it down the road / Around here we take care of our own,” and references people who cuss at police officers or stomp on the American flag.
The lyrics also talk about gun ownership with Aldean singing: “Got a gun that my grandad gave me / They say one day they’re going to round up / Well that sh*t might fly in the city. Good luck.”
Ted Nugent talked about the song in a new interview with Fox News Saturday Night.
“I know there’s a bunch of idiots out there, but you need to learn to get a kick out of the idiots. The idiots hate this Jason Aldean song, because they hate when we push back against violence. They always get it 180 degrees wrong. The song is against violence. The song is about self-defense. The song is about protecting your loved ones in your neighborhood.”
Nugent continued: “If you find fault with a song that celebrates protecting your loved ones in your neighborhood, you might be going down to Target to the S*tan display and getting on your knees,” he continued.
“These are just weird people. We dismiss them out of hand because they’ve got no soul. I laugh in their face. I’ve actually responded to a bunch of social media posts about this, and I’ve said, ‘Jason, the best Americans…’ And not only just Americans, but because of the reach of social media, it’s almost like Radio Free Europe. The reach of social media gets to good people all over the world. And all the good people in the world are saying what the Nugent family says: Go, Jason, go… We salute you and we stand with you.'”
CMT decided not to air the video which caused backlash among some country music fans. The video has been viewed on YouTube 18 million times as of July 25.
Aldean previously defended the song: “In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests,” he tweeted. “These references are not only meritless, but dangerous. 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.”
“My political views have never been something I’ve hidden from, and I know that a lot of us in this country don’t agree on how we get back to a sense of normalcy where we go at least a day without a headline that keeps us up at night. But the desire for it to — that’s what this song is about.”
