Country Music Television (CMT) has stopped airing country music star Jason Aldean’s song “Try That in a Small Town” and its accompanying music video which features footage of left wing rioters, a CMT spokesperson told Axios Tuesday.
The single was released in May of 2023, but its music video was not released until July 14.
Aldean has been accused by commentators of writing “the modern lynching song,” due to some shots of the music video being shot in front of what appears to be the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee.
The Maury Courthouse was the site of the 1927 lynching of an 18-year-old Black man Henry Choate, and the 1946 Columbia Race Riot.
Critics point to the songs lyrics, which one Tennessee lawmaker described as a call to “racist violence”:
Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk
Carjack an old lady at a red light
Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store
Ya think it’s cool, well, act a fool if ya likeCuss out a cop, spit in his face
Stomp on the flag and light it up
Yeah, ya think you’re toughWell, try that in a small town
“Try That in a Small Town” by Jason Aldean
See how far ya make it down the road
Around here, we take care of our own
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
“As Tennessee lawmakers, we have an obligation to condemn Jason Aldean’s heinous song calling for racist violence. What a shameful vision of gun extremism and vigilantism,” Democratic Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones tweeted Tuesday. “We will continue to call for common sense gun laws, that protect ALL our children and communities.”
Shannon Watts, founder of the gun control activist group “Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America,” said that Aldean’s song was about “how he and his friends will shoot you if you try to take their guns.”
Aldean responded to criticism of “Try That in Small Town” in a tweet Tuesday.
“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,” Aldean wrote.
“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 said.
Aldean referenced his experience performing at the 2017 Route 91 Music Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, where a gunman killed 58 people in the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
“As so many pointed out, I was present at Route 91-where so many lost their lives- and our community recently suffered another heartbreaking tragedy. NO ONE, including me, wants to continue to see senseless headlines or families ripped apart,” he wrote.
“Try That In A Small Town, for me, refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief,” the country music star explained.
“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. But the desire for it to- that’s what this song is about,” he added.
Since CMT censored the music video, it has reached the number-one spot on the American iTunes chart.
Ever heard the saying ‘you can’t handle the truth’. Once again our soft asses can’t accept the cold hard truth. Jason just laying it out there. Bring it Jason, preach it up and if these soft people wanna cry, let em.