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There aren’t too many country music stars bigger than Jason Aldean. He is friends with Carrie Underwood, but his reputation isn’t always as clean as hers. The controversy over Aldean’s song “Try That in a Small Town” wasn’t the first time he faced backlash and public outcry in his career.

Other times Jason Aldean encountered controversy in his career

The brouhaha over “Try That in a Small Town” is just the latest in a career full of backlash over Aldean’s music and comments. 

Morgan Wallen co-wrote Aldean’s first major hit, “You Make it Easy,” along with Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley of Florida Georgia Line. Aldean became guilty by association when Wallen uttered a racial slur years later. It was far worse for Aldean when he attended a Halloween party in blackface in 2015, as The Guardian reported.

The “Dirt Road Anthem” singer continued wearing clothes that prominently displayed the confederate flag as late as 2019, according to the Charlotte Observer.

Aldean’s public relations firm cut ties with him over his wife Brittany Aldean’s Instagram post in 2022. The video post showed her applying makeup. In the caption, she wrote, “I’d really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase.” 

Also in 2022, Aldean called out Maren Morris at one of his concerts. The crowd quickly put him in his place by booing him. The singer and his wife leaned into that controversy, which tied into her Instagram post, by sharing video amid the drama that featured them parodying a news broadcast.

Another round of backlash stemmed from Aldean’s lyrics for “Try That in a Small Town” and the song’s video.

Aldean faced backlash over his video for ‘Try That in a Small Town’

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In “Try That in a Small Town,” Aldean sings lines such as “See how far ya make it down the road / Around here, we take care of our own,” “Got a gun that my granddad gave me / They say one day they’re gonna round up / Well, that s*** might fly in the city, good luck,” and “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 / Full of good ol’ boys, raised up right.” Those words would be enough to rub some people the wrong way.

His video for the song was what really brought attention and controversy Aldean’s way.

Before he sings a word, the video shows several images many people find tasteless, especially when coupled with the lyrics:

  • An aerial flyby of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, opens the video. The clocktower shows the time being past 9 p.m., a subtle reference to sundown towns where outsiders faced threats of violence if caught after dark
  • The courthouse was also the site of a 1927 lynching of an 18-year-old Black man, according to the Los Angeles Times
  • A hooded figure wielding a baseball bat in front of a bonfire
  • Several riot police riding on horseback
  • Someone lighting a Molotov cocktail

The video includes what seem to be shots of a carjacking and convenience store robbery. It then segues to show people protesting in the face of police officers.

Aldean’s video for “Try That in a Small Town” quite nakedly conflates actual criminals with people protesting law enforcement. When paired with the song’s lyrics and the video’s first moments, it’s little wonder it caused enough controversy that Country Music Television pulled the video (you can still watch it on YouTube).

Given his history of courting trouble (or at least not backing down from it), it doesn’t seem like a stretch to say “Try That in a Small Town” won’t be the last controversy of Jason Aldean’s career.

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