Country music star Jason Aldean is facing an intense media backlash following the release of the music video for his song “Try That in a Small Town,” which calls out gun control agendas, soft-on-crime policies, and widespread rioting across the US.
The song initially debuted in May, with an accompanying music video releasing on Friday. The video opens to Aldean standing outside the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee. Throughout the video, footage of the singer is cut together with clips of news reports showing carjackings, robberies, and the violent protests from the summer of 2020. In the wake of George Floyd’s death in police custody, mass riots, widespread looting, and “fiery but mostly peaceful protests” caused millions of dollars in property damage and claimed several lives.
Lyrics like “sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk/ carjack an old lady at a red light/ pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store” and “cuss out a cop, spit in his face/ stomp on the flag and light it up” highlight the issues of crime and lawlessness rampant in American cities. A later verse calls out the push for gun control, stating “got a gun that my granddad gave me/ they say one day they’re gonna round up/ well, that s**t might fly in the city, good luck/ try that in a small town.”
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Predictably, the reaction to the song was immediate and hysterical, with media headlines declaring it “racist,” “despicable,” and “pro-lynching.” As the criticism continued, Country Music Television (CMT) dropped the music video from its lineup—but even so, the song was able to reach #1 on iTunes as of Tuesday afternoon.
But perhaps the fiercest criticism came from anti-gun activist Shannon Watts, who accused Aldean of promising that “he and his friends will shoot you if you try to take their guns.”
Watts also called attention to the fact that Aldean was performing on stage at the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in 2017, during which a lone gunman opened fire into the crowd from a nearby hotel. That mass shooting, the deadliest in United States history, killed 60 people and injured an additional 413. Watts and others on social media claim that Aldean releasing a “pro-gun” song after this traumatic experience is hypocritical and insensitive.
.@Jason_Aldean – who was on-stage during the mass shooting at a Las Vegas concert in 2017 that killed 60 people and wounded over 400 more – has recorded a song called “Try That In A Small Town” about how he and his friends will shoot you if you try to take their guns. pic.twitter.com/hWGdEgS33v
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) July 17, 2023
On Tuesday afternoon, Aldean addressed the controversy, including references to the Route 91 shooting, in a lengthy tweet:
“In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song …These references are not only meritless, but dangerous,” he said in part. “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.”
He concludes his post by stating that the song goes beyond his well-known political beliefs and instead addresses the larger issues in American society. “I know that a lot of us in this Country don’t agree on how we get back to a sense of normalcy…But the desire for it to – that’s what this song is about.”
The lyrics of “Try That in a Small Town” are provided below in their entirety:
Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk
Carjack an old lady at a red light
Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store
Ya think it’s cool, well, act a fool if ya like
Cuss out a cop, spit in his face
Stomp on the flag and light it up
Yeah, ya think you’re tough
[Chorus]
Well, try that in a small town
See how far ya make it down the road
‘Round here, we take care of our own
You cross that line, it won’t take long
For you to find out, I recommend you don’t
Try that in a small town
Got a gun that my granddad gave me
They say one day they’re gonna round up
Well, that shit might fly in the city, good luck
Try that in a small town
See how far ya make it down the road
‘Round here, we take care of our own
You cross that line, it won’t take long
For you to find out, I recommend you don’t
Try that in a small town
Full of good ol’ boys, raised up right
If you’re looking for a fight
Try that in a small town
Try that in a small town
Try that in a small town
(See how far ya make it down the road)
‘Round here, we take care of our own
You cross that line, it won’t take long
For you to find out, I recommend you don’t
Try that in a small town
Try that in a small town
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