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Country star Jason Aldean’s song is causing a lot of controversy – but what exactly is the reason?
The singer has released the music video for Try That in a Small Town, the song he released in May, and now it’s blown up into a huge scandal.
While the lyrics didn’t garner too much controversy on their own, the clip has thrown the singer into a frenzy of online turmoil.
In the song, the 46-year-old compares things people do in large cities insinuating that the behavior would not be accepted in a small town, including the likes of spitting on police, setting the American flag on fire, and carjacking an old lady.
Jason’s song doesn’t directly state what would happen if someone were to do these acts, only that: “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.”
While most of the video shows Jason and his band in front of a courthouse in Tennessee overlapped with clips from riots, protests and CCTV footage of criminals.
This is where most of the controversy and claims against the singer have stemmed from, as the Maury County Courthouse was where 18-year-old Henry Choate was lynched in 1927 after being dragged behind a car through the city’s streets.
The courthouse was also where the Columbia Race Riots later took place in 1946, which was widely declared at the time the first major racial confrontation post World War Two.
The choice of location for his music video paired with the song’s inferred meaning sparked a widespread reaction on Twitter.
Some users claimed the singer was “pro-lynching” and called out the song’s anti-protest insinuations with others saying he is “promoting violence”.
Some of Jason’s fellow musicians even hit out at the star as a furious Sheryl Crow lashed out online.
She shared in a Twitter comment: “I’m from a small town. Even people in small towns are sick of violence. 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.”
The Real Gone singer was referring to the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest Festival in 2017 when 59 people died in a mass shooting while Jason was on stage.
Following the backlash, Jason released a statement declaring: “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 claimed the song is rather a simple callback to the “feeling of community that I had growing up”.
While the singer did receive some support from fans saying the song made them “nostalgic” for the small towns they had left behind, others decided to call him out for pretending to not be a “city boy”.
The singer was born in Macon, Georgia which has a population of roughly 153,000, and moved to Nashville at the age of 21.
In comparison, his fellow country singer Sheryl was born and raised in Kennett, Missouri which has just over 10,000 residents.
One Twitter user declared: “He grew up in a ‘small town’ of over 150,000 people and he feels the need to tell us about rural living…”
Another argued: “I live in small-town Lufkin, Texas. I can’t say that anyone here has ever had my back.
“I can say that many have stabbed me in the back, though.”
