Jason Aldean slams critics for calling Try That In a Small Town 'a lynching ... trends now
Country music star Jason Aldean slammed critics for calling his hit 'Try That In a Small Town' a 'lynching song' - claiming there were 'people of all color' in his music video that featured BLM riots.
Aldean, 46, defended the song and music video in his first network news interview about the controversy.
'There was people of all color doing stuff in the video. That's what I don't understand,' he told CBS News. 'There was white people in there. There was black people. I mean, this video did not shine light on one specific group and say, 'That's the problem.'
'And anybody that saw that in the video, then you weren't looking hard enough in the video, is all I can tell you.'
The song faced severe backlash over the summer for its controversial music video and lyrics, which interlaced clips of BLM protestors vandalizing cities with lyrics endorsing traditional values, such as 'taking care of our own.'
Country music star Jason Aldean slammed critics for calling his hi t 'Try That In a Small Town' a 'lynching song' - claiming there were 'people of all color' in his music video that featured BLM riots (Aldean is pictured at the CMA Fest 2022 in Nashville, Tenn., on June 9, 2022)
In the music video, Aldean sings before large white property and an American flag interlaced with clips of BLM protests
Jason Aldean's video for 'Try That in a Small Town' shows a flag being burnt during BLM protests
Critics accused the track of glorifying violence and fueling racism, but Aldean denied the song has any racist connotation.
The video was shot in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee - the site of a 1927 mob lynching of an 18-year-old black man named Henry Choate and the site of a race riot in 1946.
Regarding the controversial location, Aldean said, 'I don't go back a hundred years and check on the history of a place before we go shoot it either.'
'It's also the place that I go get my car tags every year. It's my county that I live in.'
Aldean also said that in the South, it would be nearly impossible to film in a location that did not involve some racial issue at some point in history.
'I don't feel bad about that because I know my intentions behind, you know, shooting the video there and recording the song and everything,' he said.
'I would do it over again, every time ... minus the setting, knowing what I know now, obviously, you know, knowing that that was gonna be a thing, you know, maybe you look at doing it somewhere else,' he said.
As well as the video, Aldean has been criticized for the lyrics of the song that suggest small town 'good ol' boys' will use the 'gun that my granddad gave me' on carjackers and robbers - but also those who 'cuss out a cop' and 'stomp on the flag and light it up.'
Many have also pointed out the apparent contradiction from Aldean whose lyrics appear to promote gun ownership and vigilantism despite the singer's 2017 concert being one of history's deadliest mass shootings - where 61 people were gunned down and more than 400 were wounded.
'I know what the intentions were behind the location, the video, the song, all of it. And, you know, and I stand by all that,' he told CBS.
'My pregnant wife was there. Our fans were there watching the show,' he said. 'All hell breaks loose and you're not prepared, you know, it's like, 'I got a guitar, what am I gonna do?''
'I do think it makes you look at things a little different when you go through something like that,' he
