The country music artist spoke about the song and music video that sparked backlash on the ‘Coop’s Rockin’ Country Saturday Night’ podcast

Jason Aldean is continuing to defend his controversial song “Try That in a Small Town,” which has been accused of promoting gun violence and racism in its lyrics and music video.

The country music artist, 46, appeared on the Wednesday episode of the Audacy podcast Coop’s Rockin’ Country Saturday Night and reflected on the viral song and video. He shared why he felt he had to release the track and stands by its message, despite the criticism it’s received.

“If you’ve got common sense, you can look at the video and see, I’m not sayin’ anything that’s not true,” Aldean said of the visual, which features footage of unrest that took place during 2020 and was filmed in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee where a Black man, Henry Choate, was lynched in 1927.

“In the video, I’m showin’ you what happened — I didn’t do it, I didn’t create it — it just happened, and I saw it, and I’m not cool with it,” the country singer told host Coop.

The singer-songwriter explained that he felt compelled to release the song — which includes lyrics urging those who might “cuss out a cop” or “stomp on the flag” to “Try that in a small town / See how far ya make it down the road” — after seeing what he felt was “wrong.”

“I don’t care which side of the political fence you want to stand on, but to me, what I was seeing was wrong, and nobody would say anything, especially in the music industry or entertainment industry,” Aldean said. “It just kind of reaches a breaking point to where you’re like, ‘Somebody needs to say something, and if nobody’s gonna do it, then I’ll be the guy.’”

The “She’s Country” singer noted, “Country music is blue-collar music, it’s for every man out there, and that was always my thing — it’s like, I feel like this.”

The ACM winner also shared what he interpreted as what listeners took issue with when the track originally dropped in May. “The biggest issue, I think, people had when we released the song was that it mentioned ‘having a gun that my grandfather gave me.’ I mentioned a gun, that’s a ‘no, no’ right now,” the musician said of the verse, “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.”

He added, “I just remember thinking, ‘Man, you guys haven’t even seen the video yet.’”

Still, the “Dirt Road Anthem” singer insists that people have made “the song and the video into something that it’s not,” but finds the amount of attention it’s received as “pretty amazing, actually.”

The divisive song ended up reaching No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart and No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 shortly after the release of its music video in July. It also had the largest week of sales for a country song in more than 10 years, per Billboard.

Following the release of the video — which was pulled from CMT’s programming after one week — and its subsequent backlash, Aldean shared a statement on social media calling the accusations surrounding the song “dangerous.”

The “Big Green Tractor” artist also spoke up about the controversy on stage, referring to “cancel culture,” among other things. He said, “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 our country, I love my family, and I will do anything to protect that. I’ll tell you that right now.”

Fellow artists like Sheryl Crow expressed concern over the single on social media, and fans suspected Maren Morris included a response to it in her video for “The Tree.”