Despite the controversy surrounding Jason Aldean, his song 'Try That In A Small Town' has been getting lots of play at his own bar.
As previously reported, the 46-year-old country singer has been met with backlash after releasing a song that critics say takes aim at Black Lives Matter protests that occurred after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, and also contains lyrics that warn those who cause trouble in the narrator’s neighborhood.
Examples of violent actions condemned in the song include: "Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk / Carjack an old lady at a red light / Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store" before Aldean sings: "Well, try that in a small town / See how far ya make it down the road / Around here, we take care of our own."
To add to this, the music video also featured shocking footage of Aldean performing in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee - which is the historic site where Black teenager Henry Choate was lynched in 1927.
In the wake of that heavy backlash, the music video has been withdrawn from rotation by the country music channel CMT, according to Billboard and Deadline.
State Representative of Tennessee, Justin Jones, condemned the song as a "heinous song for racist violence," and fellow country star Sheryl Crow, who hails from a small town herself, took to Twitter to slam Aldean directly.
"I’m from a small town. Even people in small towns are sick of violence," she wrote, tagging Aldean. "There’s nothing small-town or American about promoting violence. You should know that better than anyone having survived a mass shooting. This is not American or small-town-like. It’s just lame."
Despite the mounting backlash, Aldean's bar in Nashville, played the infamous song a few times in front of a packed house. Footage obtained by TMZ showed that the singer wasn't there himself on Wednesday (July 19) night, but Jamie Baxter was.
The 'Got What I Got' musician also released a statement defending the song on social media, penning: "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.
"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," he added.
Aldean explained that the song was intended to reflect "the feeling of a community that I had growing up" and argued that it contained no references to race. He also highlighted that the video clips were authentic news footage.
Furthermore, the 'Dirt Road Anthem' star paused his performance at Cincinnati's Riverbend Center on Saturday (July 22), to address "cancel culture".
"I love our country, I want to see it restored to what it once was before all this bulls**t started happening to us. I love my country, I love my family and I will do anything to protect that, I can tell you that right now," Aldean said before a thunderous "USA" chant broke out at the concert.
He then stated: "That’s something that if people don’t like what you say they try to make sure they can cancel you, which means try to ruin your life, ruin everything."
"One thing I saw this week was a bunch of country music fans that can see through a lot of the bulls***. I saw country music fans rally like I’ve never seen before and it was pretty badass, I gotta say. Thank you guys so much," Aldean added.