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Jason Aldean is standing his ground after people slammed his latest music video, “Try That in a Small Town,” for racist and “pro-lynching” connotations.
“‘I’ve seen a lot of stuff suggesting I am this, suggesting I am that,” he said while onstage in Cincinnati, Ohio, Friday night in a video posted to Twitter.
“Here’s the thing, I feel like everybody is entitled to their opinion you can think something all you want to, it doesn’t mean it is true.”
In the clip, the audience cheered as the country star declared himself a “proud American.”
“I love our country, I want to see it restored to what it once was before all this bulls—t started happening to us,” he added.
The crowd then erupted in a “USA” chant.
Aldean went on to speak about his feelings towards the backlash over his music video before playing the contentious song for his fans.
The music video, released last week, features the “Dirt Road Anthem” crooner singing in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tenn., with an American flag draped over the front of the building.
Videos of protesters going up against police officers and burning American flags were projected onto the building as Aldean, 46, belted out the controversial lyrics.
“Cuss out a cop, spit in his face / Stomp on the flag and light it up / Yeah, ya think you’re tough / Well, try that in a small town / See how far ya make it down the road,” he sang.
While Aldean is the voice of the song, the lyrics were originally written by Kelley Lovelace, Kurt Allison, Neil Thrasher and Tully Kennedy.
As Page Six previously reported, fans and critics quickly took to social media to point out a historical reference to the Grammy nominee’s location choice in the music video.
The courthouse that Aldean proudly sang in front of was the location where an 18-year-old African-American man named Henry Choate was lynched in the 1920s.
Aldean initially spoke out against the backlash on Tuesday after CMT pulled his music video from their broadcast channel.
“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 posted on his Twitter account.
“These references are not only meritless, but dangerous.”
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Aldean also defended the lyrics, writing that there is “not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it.”
Despite his defense, Variety has labeled the piece as “the most contemptible country song of the decade” and social media users have called out the dad of four for promoting violence.
On Thursday, “The View” hosts used their platform to call out Aldean’s questionable music video and lyrics.
“He talks about life in a small town, and it’s different, and he chose these images,” Whoopi Goldberg began.
“He’s got folks from the Black Lives Matter movement, and he’s talking about people taking care of each other, and I find it so interesting that it never occurred to Jason or the writers that that’s what these folks were doing: They were taking care of the people in their town because they didn’t like what they saw.”
Continuing, she said, “You just have to realize that when you make it about Black Lives Matter, people kind of say, ‘Well, are you talking about black people? What are you talking about here?’”
Aldean and his wife, Brittany Aldean, have been under fire in the past for their controversial views.
In September 2022, the “Tonight Looks Good On You” artist was dropped by his publicity firm of 17 years after Brittany, 35, made transphobic comments on Instagram.
At the time, she thanked her parents for “not changing [her] gender” during her “tomboy phase” as a child in a clip posted to her Instagram last August.
“Lmao!! I’m glad they didn’t too, cause you and I wouldn’t have worked out,” Jason wrote in the comment section at the time.
Though the conversation drew major backlash, the singer came to his wife’s defense again after she called parents allowing their trans children to transition “one of the worst evils.”
