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During his concert on Friday night (July 21) in St. Louis, Cody Johnson let his thoughts be known about the controversy surrounding Jason Aldean‘s latest song and video, “Try That in a Small Town,” which was removed from rotation by CMT earlier in the week.
Graham Allen, host of the Dear America podcast, posted a video of “Til ‘You Can’t” hitmaker Johnson coming to Aldean’s defense during the show at St. Louis’ Chaifetz Arena.
“We live in a time where everyone gets p—-ed off at Jason Aldean for putting out a song,” Johnson said, adding, “If you’re videoing this, and Jason Aldean if you’re seeing this video, you keep it up, brother. You do you, boo boo.”
Cody Johnson threw his support behind Jason Aldean the other night!!!“If being patriotic makes me an outlaw, then by God, I’ll be an outlaw.” pic.twitter.com/5avT4uAvcn— Graham Allen (@GrahamAllen_1) July 22, 2023
Johnson went on to note his interpretation of the song as a patriotic one, saying, “If being patriotic makes you an outlaw, then by God, I’ll be an outlaw.”
Artists including Travis Tritt, John Rich and Lee Greenwood have spoken out in defense of Aldean, while Aldean’s labelmate Blanco Brown defended Aldean, but emphasized that he strongly disagreed with the song itself. Artists such as Jason Isbell, Adeem the Artist, Margo Price and Sheryl Crow have slammed both the song and Aldean.
Aldean released “Try That in a Small Town” in May, and performed it during his Nissan Stadium set at CMA Fest in June. However, the video for the song was released last week; the clip and the song quickly began to draw criticism on social media from commenters who called the song racist and pro-gun. Commenters also noted the location of the video, which was filmed at the Maury County courthouse in Columbia, Tenn. — the same location where an 18-year-old Black man, Henry Choate, was lynched in 1927. CMT pulled the video from its rotation on Tuesday (July 18), a move that sparked both praise and backlash on social media.
In addition to releasing a statement about the controversy earlier in the week, Aldean also spoke out in a lengthy speech during his own concert on Friday night in Cincinnati, Ohio.
“It’s been a long week and I’ve seen a lot of stuff suggesting I’m this, suggesting I’m that,” Aldean told the crowd in a fan-captured video. “I feel like everybody’s entitled to their opinion. You can think something all you want to, it doesn’t mean it’s true. What I am is a proud American. I’m proud to be from here. I love our country. I want to see it restored to what it once was before all this bulls— started happening to us. I love my country, I love my family, and I will do anything to protect that, I can tell you that right now, he said, as the crowd began to chant “USA! USA!”
He also added, “You guys know how it is this day and age, cancel culture… This day and age, if people don’t like what you say, they try to make sure they can cancel you, which means try to ruin your life. Ruin everything. One thing I saw this week was a bunch of country music fans that can see through a lot of the bullshit. I saw country music fans rally like I’ve never seen before and it was pretty badass, I gotta say. Thank you guys so much. I know a lot of you guys grew up like I did. You kind of have the same values, the same principles that I have, which is we want to take our kids to a movie and not worry about some asshole coming in there shooting up the theater.”
Before launching into “Try That in a Small Town,” Aldean told the crowd, “So somebody asked me, ‘Hey man, you think you’re going to play this song tonight?’ The answer was simple. The people have spoken and you guys spoke very, very loudly this week.”
After the controversy erupted, Aldean’s sales and streams have surged, according to preliminary reports from Luminate, and the video has now earned 14 million views on YouTube.
Jason Aldean addressed the backlash of his new song “Try That in a Small Town” during his Ohio concert on Friday (July 21).
The 46-year-old country star took a moment during his Highway Desperado Tour stop at Cincinnati’s Riverbend Music Center to reflect on the recent controversy that erupted surrounding the track and its corresponding music video. Many have called the lyrics and imagery racist and anti-protest.
“It’s been a long week and I’ve seen a lot of stuff suggesting I’m this, suggesting I’m that,” Aldean told the crowd in a fan-captured video. “I feel like everybody’s entitled to their opinion. You can think something all you want to, it doesn’t mean it’s true.”
He added, “What I am is a proud American. I’m proud to be from here. I love our country. I want to see it restored to what it once was before all this bulls— started happening to us. I love my country, I love my family, and I will do anything to protect that, I can tell you that right now.”
Aldean’s words were met by roaring cheers from the audience and a chant of “USA! USA!”
Earlier this week, a CMT representative confirmed to Billboard that the outlet had pulled the video for “Try That in a Small Town” after playing it for three days, but did not comment further. The controversial clip features footage of an American flag burning, protesters having confrontations with police, looters breaking a display case and thieves robbing a convenience store.
After releasing a statement on Tuesday (July 18) in response to claims that “Try That in a Small Town” is pro-gun, pro-violence and a “modern lynching song,” Aldean further expanded on the backlash from the stage during his Cincinnati show.
“You guys know how it is this day and age, cancel culture is a thing. If people don’t like what you say, they try to make sure that they can cancel you, which means try and ruin your life, ruin everything,” the singer told audience members. “One thing I saw this week was a bunch of country music fans that can see through a lot of the bulls—. I saw country music fans rally like I’ve never seen before and it was pretty bada– to watch. Thank you guys so much.”
Prior to performing “Try That in a Small Town,” Aldean noted that many people had asked him whether he’d be performing the song live.
“I said, ‘You know, people that come to my shows, you guys know what I’m about. You know what I stand for.’ I never shied away from that at all,” he said. “You have the same values, the same principles that I have, which is we we want to take our kids to a movie and not worry about some a–hole coming in there shooting up the theater, right? So when somebody asked me, ‘Hey man, do you think you’re going to play the song tonight?’ The answer is simple. The people have spoken and you guys spoke very, very loudly this week.”
Watch Aldean address the “Try That in a Small Town” backlash on Twitter below.
🇺🇸 USA Chants Break Out as Jason Aldean Addresses the Media Attacks on Him This Week“I love our country. I want to see it restored to what it once was before all this bullsh*t started happening to us.”*From last night’s show in Cincinnati, OH (7/21) pic.twitter.com/VKGRIp0PvD— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) July 22, 2023
Following a satire site posting a story that Luke Bryan, in solidarity with his friend Jason Aldean, has asked CMT to pull his music videos from the channel, posters on social media have run wild with the untrue story.
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Earlier this week, a CMT representative confirmed to Billboard that the outlet had stopped playing the video for Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” after playing it for three days following its July 14 release but did not comment further. The controversial video features footage of lootings, protesters taunting police, flag burnings and a convenience store robbery taking Aldean’s song about small town residents not allowing such actions within their city limits to a new level.
On Friday (July 21), satirical website Uplifting Today posted a story with the headline, “Luke Bryan pulls his videos from CMT over Jason Aldean debacle: ‘Folks, it’s time for the Bud Light Treatment.’” Though it’s almost immediately clear upon reading the accompanying story that it is satire—the article claims that the President has canceled his CMT subscription and that Billy Ray Cyrus, following a challenge by Bryan, is writing a follow up to “Achy Breaky Heart” called “Achy Breaky Cart” about “a dangerous run-in at a rural Walmart”—but it would seem that many readers did not read beyond the headline and began posting the headline on social media, including Twitter.
They also missed the small print at the end of the story: Uplifting Today produces news satire and parody for global publication. Some of the content contained within this website and on accompanying social media accounts, however similar to real events, is fictitious and will also include this disclaimer. Any real, semi-real or similar names, places, people, products, services and locales are used purely for satirical purposes, and the corresponding story details are purely fictional.
That hasn’t stopped Aldean supporters posting the headline across social media and even chatter within the country music community wondering if other artists were asking for removal.
A representative for CMT confirms that Bryan, nor any other artist, has requested their videos be pulled from the channel. Bryan’s publicist did not reply to a request for comment.
In related news, Nashville’s E3 Chophouse, which Bryan and Aldean are both investors in, posted today on Twitter that it is not playing CMT. “We stand with Jason! E3 supports the small town because that is who we are! We will not air CMT at any of our restaurants until a formal apology is made and Jason’s music video is reinstated.”
Billboard has reached out to E3 Chophouse asking if the restaurant had been playing CMT in its restaurant prior to CMT’s action but has not heard back.
Sales and streams of Jason Aldean‘s single “Try That in a Small Town” have surged, following controversy that erupted this week surrounding the song and its corresponding music video.
After selling around 1,000 copies of the song each day from July 14 through July 17, according to preliminary reports from Luminate, sales rose after Billboard’s July 18 exclusive that CMT had pulled the video. The song earned 12,000 in sales on July 18, before surging to 108,000 in sales on July 19 and 103,000 in sales on July 20. The latest sales total for the week (July 14-20) is 227,000, according to the preliminary reports.
U.S. official on-demand daily streams of “Try That in a Small Town” also exploded over the past week.
After earning 204,000 official U.S. on-demand streams on July 14, and then dipping to 194,000 on July 15 and 174,000 on July 16, streams rose 24.3% to 216,000 on July 17, then surged 178% on July 18 to 600,000. On July 19, U.S. official on-demand streams of “Try That in a Small Town” skyrocketed to 3.2 million, a 440.2% increase.
The sales and streaming spikes come the same week social media commenters began questioning the song’s lyrics and the video’s imagery — with many calling it racist and anti-protest. “Try That in a Small Town” was written by songwriters Kelley Lovelace, Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy and Neil Thrasher. The video features Aldean performing in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tenn. — the same location where a lynch mob murdered a Black man, Henry Choate, in 1927 — with an American flag hanging from the entrance. The performance is interspersed with footage of a flag burning, protesters screaming and attacking police in various scenarios as well as looting and robbing a convenience store.
Artists including Sheryl Crow and Margo Price have spoken out against Aldean and/or the song and video, while others, including Aldean’s labelmate Blanco Brown, have defended the singer.
Aldean issued a statement on July 18 that read in part, “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 a comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests. 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.”
In the week since it was released, the official music video for “Try That in a Small Town” has now been viewed more than 9 million times on YouTube. On the morning of July 18, before the controversy broke, it had been viewed around 350,000 times.
In terms of radio airplay, on last week’s Country Airplay chart (dated July 15), “Try That in a Small Town” rose one spot from 26-25, though it declined 2% in audience impressions for the week. On this week’s Country Airplay chart (dated July 22), the song holds at No. 25 but gained 16% to 6.5 million audience impressions in its ninth week on the chart.
Luke Combs’ version of Tracy Chapman’s 1988 Billboard Hot 100 top 10 “Fast Car” rules Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated July 29) for a fourth week. It drew 34.8 million in audience, up less than 1%, July 14-20, according to Luminate.
The cover now solely boasts the longest Country Airplay domination among remakes of pop hits. It passes two three-week leaders: Brooks & Dunn’s cover of “My Maria,” the duo’s ninth of 20 chart-toppers, led for three weeks in May 1996. The song was originally a No. 9 Hot 100 hit for B.W. Stevenson in 1973. Plus, Alan Jackson’s interpretation of Eddie Cochran’s early rock anthem “Summertime Blues” topped Country Airplay for three frames starting in July 1994. Cochran’s original reached No. 8 on the Hot 100 in 1958.
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After Chapman provided Billboard with a statement revealing how “honored” she was to have a No. 1 on the chart (July 6), Combs replied in kind. “Oh man, ‘Fast Car’ has surprised me more than you can imagine. Tracy Chapman wrote this perfect song that that I first heard with my dad and it has stayed with me since,” Combs told Billboard. “I have played it in my live show now for six-plus years and everyone – I mean everyone – across all these stadiums relates to this song and sings along. That’s the gift of a supernatural songwriter. The success of my cover is unreal, and I think it’s so cool that Tracy is getting recognized and has reached new milestones. I love that she is out there feeling all the love and that she gave me a shout-out! Thank you, Tracy!”
“I never expected to find myself on the country charts, but I’m honored to be there,” Chapman told Billboard. “I’m happy for Luke and his success and grateful that new fans have found and embraced ‘Fast Car.’ ”
Meanwhile, Combs’ official concert video for his cover premiered July 18.
‘Wings’ Flies
Elsewhere, Thomas Rhett banks his 22nd Country Airplay top 10 as “Angels Don’t Always Have Wings” rises from No. 11 to No. 10. In the July 14-20 tracking week, the song increased by 1% to 17.7 million impressions.
The Valdosta, Ga., native co-penned the track with Julian Bunetta, Teddy Swims and Josh Thompson. It’s the third single from Rhett’s LP Where We Started, which began at its No. 2 Top Country Albums high in April 2022, becoming his sixth top 10.
The song follows Rhett’s “Half of Me” (featuring Riley Green), which became his 18th Country Airplay No. 1 last November. Before that, “Slow Down Summer,” the lead single from Where We Started, peaked at No. 2 in May 2022.
Rhett’s third of his 29 entries, “It Goes Like This,” became his first Country Airplay top 10 and first leader. It reigned for three weeks starting in October 2013.
Morgan Wallen has become a commercial supernova, thanks to hits like “Last Night,” which just logged its 14th week atop the Billboard Hot 100. His two most recent albums — 2021’s Dangerous: The Double Album and 2023’s One Thing at a Time — both entrenched themselves atop the Billboard 200. Dangerous: The Double Album landed […]
Chris Stapleton is back with a new song and an upcoming new album. The country star revealed he will release his new album, Higher, on Nov. 10, and revealed a new song from the album, “White Horse,” which Stapleton wrote with Semisonic’s Dan Wilson. (This isn’t the first time the two have collaborated; they previously […]
Singer-songwriter Lori McKenna is known for crafting heartstring-tuggers such as Tim McGraw’s “Humble and Kind,” as wellas sultry ballads like Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush.” But on her new album, 1988 (out today on CN Records/Thirty Tigers), McKenna punches up her folksy tendencies with a few layers of electric guitars, while retaining her ability to survey both past and present.
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She can succinctly distill wisdom into a single line, whether through clear-eyed nostalgia (“When the way it was/ wasn’t what it seemed,” on “Growing Up”), asking a partner to carry the emotional load (“Would it kill you to be happy?” on “Killing Me,” featuring Hillary Lindsey), or coming to terms with life choices (“She remembers what her body did carrying all those kids,” on “The Old Woman in Me”).
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A mother of five who lives in Massachusetts, McKenna decamped to producer Dave Cobb’s studio in Savannah, crafting the album with handful of musicians and with Cobb overdubbing all the electric parts. “He’s really into the vibe, the way things feel,” she explains. “One of the things is that he always makes me feel comfortable in the studio. He’s like, ‘Let’s just chat and then we’ll play the song, and then we’ll move some mics around.’ It’s kind of like this trickery of like, ‘Oh, we’re actually recording this for a record that will be around for a long time.’ It feels organic.”
Billboard spoke with McKenna about crafting the album, her upcoming fall tour with Brandy Clark and the next generation of country singer-songwriters.
“Happy Children” feels like a kindred spirit to “Humble and Kind” in some ways. You wrote it with your son Chris. What is the origin story there?
I heard someone say, “I wish you happy children,” and sort of just walk away, and it was like a beautiful goodbye. I wanna say that to everybody I know. I thought it was so beautifully said and I wanted it to be a song. I did kind of go down the humble and kind road as far as like, I hope you have these things, it’s gotta be a list, which is what “Humble and Kind” is. I tried to make it a progression of a life experience, but I couldn’t figure out how to do the chorus and get back to what I wanted it to originally say. Chris was home visiting, and I asked him to help me with it. We finished it together and it really was fitting that it’s a song about children and I wrote it with one of my own children.
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You wrote this album’s title track with your son Brian. How does it feel to see two of your children forging their own careers as songwriters?
It’s been such a joy watching them. They live in Nashville and are mainly writing songs every day. Brian’s a bartender and they’re still doing the things that help pay the bills. But I tell them all the time, “If you get to write songs every day or almost every day and you get to have music be this much a part of your life, you are successful in music.”
It’s been fun watching their journeys because I never moved to Nashville. I never did what they are doing. I was in a different part of my life and I was blessed to be part of this [Nashville] community without living here. But having two kids there now and watching their experience of it has been awesome.
This album centers family, love, life in small towns. But it’s not always picturesque. “Wonder Drug” addresses the opioid epidemic. What inspired this?
It’s not somebody’s story, but it’s somebody’s story, you know? I just drew from stories I know of people who have struggled with some kind of drug problem or alcohol problem. And also from the show [Dopesick] with Michael Keaton, about the opioid epidemic. The song is sort of seeing from that perspective of these two kids having this idea of what was going to happen with their lives and then, this addiction comes in and throws a wrench into it.
When I got to the line, “Why can’t love be the wonder drug?,” when that came out of my mouth, I didn’t know if it was terrible or if it was gonna work, but I kept thinking, “But that’s what I wish.” Why couldn’t this thing that feeds us all and saves us all, why can’t that be the best feeling in the whole world? For some people it isn’t. These other roads they go down. … So, as much as I sort of tormented myself about that line, I love it now, and I’m happy it came out the way it did, because I think Dave really brought it to life in the studio.
How do you balance staying in the moment in a writing session and the urge to self-edit?
When I said “I wanna write a song called ‘Girl Crush’” to Hillary Lindsey, she sang the first four lines of that song without thinking a second about it. I was like, “Oh my god, what was that?” It just flowed out of her. You have to trust the song and trust the flow, because otherwise that song would have ended up being thrown away. That’s one of the million things I’ve learned from co-writers is just trust the song. Don’t go back the next day and piece it apart. It won’t work, it lives and breathe in that moment, you’re creating it and you gotta follow it.
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What are your thoughts on songwriters using ChatGPT, and how do you feel AI will impact songwriting?
I do know I’ve listened to so many people being quite nervous about it. There’s parts of music that might go away as far as people making livings — doing music for videos, or maybe commercials. I don’t think it’s going to go away in my world as quickly because I’m still sitting in rooms with people with pens and papers and guitars, for the most part. But I’ve also heard brilliant writers say it can be helpful in the inspirational side of things.
When sampling started in music, it was a similar conversation: “We can’t do this. We can’t sample songs.” Now it happens all the time. But songwriters are more impacted by the fact that people don’t buy records, they stream music. I always try to remember what Tom Douglas told me a long time ago: “They’re always gonna need great songs.” And I don’t think AI can write great songs. I think you need that humanness.
In September, you hit the road with Brandy Clark. What you most excited for about the tour?
We’ve written a bunch together and I love her as a human. I’m so excited to tour with her. We’ve been literally texting just today about the way we’re going to put the show together and how we’ll travel. I think it’s gonna be so soul-filling for us to shine a light on some songs that you don’t get to play every night. She’s a person who can sort of hold magic in one hand and hard work in the other, and just put them together in such a beautiful way.
You have written with several rising artists recently. Who are some of the singers and songwriters you are excited about?
I’ve been friends with Hailey Whitters for years, but I just saw her open as show for Dierks Bentley and Jordan Davis, and you know, she just scoops everybody up in the palms of her hands and she just hugs everybody with her music. Megan Moroney is an outrageously talented artist. The way she sings and turns phrases is exciting to me. I just had Chase Rice over here, who I had not known. His last record has a song called “Bench Seat.” I think it’s like a masterclass in songwriting, and he wrote it by himself. I think he’s got this long, beautiful road ahead of him, but I would encourage people to write songs by themselves and see what happens.
Joining the chorus of artists including Sheryl Crow and Margo Price who are criticizing Jason Aldean’s new song and video, “Try That in a Small Town,” is Adeem the Artist, a non-binary artist who has released albums including 2021’s Cast Iron Pansexual and 2022’s White Trash Revelry, which landed on many year-end best-of lists.
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On Twitter, Adeem the Artist posted a video of a scathing song that parodies Aldean’s “Small Town,” bringing into the open an interpretation of the song that many on social media believe as “Small Town,” using coded language connected with sundown towns — neighborhoods that practice racial segregation, by excluding non-white persons via violence or intimidation.
They captioned the video, “Alright I caved to my record label and did a cover of the new Jason Aldean song. Please share it around and enjoy! I love COUNTRY MUSIC! and how inclusive it is.”
The video opens with Adeem the Artist stating, “I’m gonna level with you here. I don’t agree with the politics of Jason Aldean in any way, but I gotta call from the record execs this morning and they said he’s trending really well and if we want to see some higher impressions and some retweets, stuff like that, we really should do a cover of a Jason Aldean song. I thought, ‘Well, impressions is what I care about most, so let’s do this! So please share away. This is Jason Aldean’s new hit, it’s called ‘Sundown Town.’”
The song snippet is infused with lyrics about people who “never got a godd**n COVID test,” and depicts a town where “we got no protestors/ civil unrest…and we root for the cops to stop people like you.”
The song also takes a shot at country singers who don’t write their own songs, with the lyrics, “Even though I didn’t write this sh*t I’m singing about/ I just read the words and say ‘Yeah that one is good…’” before deadpanning, “…as long as it implies a gown and a hood.’”
Adeem the Artist is nominated for emerging act of the year at the upcoming Americana Music Honors & Awards ceremony in September.
As the controversy continues to swirl around “Try That in a Small Town,” viewership for the song’s video has surged, reaching nearly 6 million views on YouTube and rising to No. 1 on YouTube’s music trending page. Over the past day, the song has also risen to No. 1 on the overall iTunes US top songs chart.
Jason Aldean has continued to take heat over “Try That in a Small Town,” a track some have deemed a pro-gun, pro-violence, “modern lynching” song.” Aldean has vehemently denied those depictions of the tune that challenges those who would “pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store” or “cuss out a cop” to, as the title suggests, try those actions in a small town to “see how far ya make it down the road.” The fall-out from the song released in May, and its even-more controversial new video, however, continued to rage on Wednesday night.
CNN’s Caitlin Collins spoke with Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones — who earlier this year was expelled, then re-instated to the House after leading a gun control protest on the House floor following a school mass shooting in which three children and three adults were killed — who had some unequivocal thoughts on the song.
“As a Tennessee lawmaker, as a youngest black lawmaker in our state, I felt like we had an obligation and a duty to condemn this heinous vile racist song that is really about harkening back to days past,” said Jones, 27. The lawmaker said in his mind it was “no accident” that the video was filmed at the Maury County Courthouse, “where the race riot happened and where as well as the 1927 lynching of a young man who was 18-years-old, Henry Choate, occurred.” Choate was lynched by a mob and hung from the courthouse’s second floor after accusations that he sexually assaulted a white girl; in February 1946, the city that houses the courthouse was the site of a race riot in which two Black men were killed.
Jones said he sees the song as an attempt to normalize “racist, violence, vigilantism and white nationalism,” while “glorifying” a vision of the South that he said the state is trying to move forward from.
The song’s video features footage of an American flag burning, protesters having confrontations with police, looters breaking a display case and thieves robbing a convenience store. Aldean — who in the past has courted controversy by wearing a t-shirt featuring a confederate flag and dressing in blackface as Lil Wayne for Halloween — denied on Tuesday that the song had any ill intent.
“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 a comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests,” Alden wrote in his statement. “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.”
CMT pulled the video from its rotation after running it for three days, Billboard confirmed, and while Aldean’s wife, Brittany Aldean, came to his defense — as did labelmate Blanco Brown — stars including Sheryl Crow and Margo Price have spoken out against his choice to perform and release the song.
Collins noted that Aldean didn’t write the song, which Jones said features references that he sees as clearly alluding to lynching. “Those lyrics and the lyric that says see how far you make it down the road? I mean, this is a lynching anthem,” he said. “It’s an anthem that reminds me of the stories of young men like Trayvon Martin, Ralph Yarl… Ahmaud Arbery, who were killed by the white vigilantes. I mean, this song is not about small towns, because if it was about small towns, where was Jason Aldean when the Maury County people are fighting for their clean water?… instead he comes to sing a song that harkens back to the vision, that harkens back to fear of outsiders, this racist violence that led my grandparents to leave the small towns fleeing Jim Crow terrorism.”
Jones further criticized the song for what he said was “racist… violent rhetoric” that he believes normalizes that type of speech. “I was expelled challenging gun violence. This song is about this proliferation of guns in our communities, of violence, of taking things into our own hands,” Jones said. “We feel threatened by people because they’re different than us. I mean, this is shameful, and we must condemn it.”
He also noted that Maury County, TN, where the video was filmed, was the site of an incident last week where the KKK left racist recruitment flyers in front of Black churches. “This song is about promoting violence, normalizing violence, particularly white vigilante violence,” Jones said. “And Jason Aldean should be ashamed of himself for promoting the song that seeks our darkest history instead of our better angels in this nation.”
TMZ reported on Thursday (July 20) that Gloria Sweet-Love, the president of the Tennessee chapter of the NAACP, also strongly condemned the song and video, echoing Jones’ assertion that it “clearly” promotes racism and violence.
Watch Jones on CNN below.
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