The outrage over Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town,' explained
Aldean defends “Try That in a Small Town”
The singer, however, has stood by the song and its video.
“In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song … and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide [Black Lives Matter] protests,” Aldean tweeted Tuesday. “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.”
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Aldean also noted that he survived a mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas in 2017, in which dozens were killed and hundreds injured. “Our community recently suffered another heartbreaking tragedy,” he tweeted. “NO ONE, including me, wants to continue to see senseless headlines or families ripped apart.”
The song, he said, “refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up.”
“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,” he wrote. “But the desire for it to- that’s what this song is about.”
Aldean’s wife, Brittany, criticized media coverage of the song, saying on Instagram that there should be more focus on “real” stories such as child trafficking.
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Source: The Washington Post
