While performing in Massachusetts this weekend, Jason Aldean took a moment to reflect on the backlash surrounding his song "Try That In A Small Town."
"We thought it was a really cool song. The message that we wanted to get out there has completely gotten overshadowed by all the bulls---," Aldean told the crowd in a Boston suburb of his track, which has been accused by some as being "pro-lynching" – a narrative he adamantly denies.
"I was laying in bed last night and I'm thinking to myself, you guys did this better than anybody, right? Because I remember a time, I think it was April of 2013, when the Boston Marathon bombings happened. You guys remember this, right? What I saw when that happened was a whole, not a small town – a big-a-- town – come together. No matter of your color, no matter anything," he said to a lively audience at the Xfinity Center in a fan-recorded video.
JASON ALDEAN'S 'SMALL TOWN' VIDEO CUT BY CMT, SONG SKYROCKETS TO NUMBER 1 AMID BACKLASH
"The whole country, especially Boston, came together to find these two p----- that did that, right? And anybody of you guys that would’ve found those guys before the cops did, I know you guys from Boston, and you guys would’ve beat the s--- out of [them]," he added, of imprisoned Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev and his deceased brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, both responsible for the act of terrorism.
"I've been trying to say this," he circled back to his song. "This is not about race. It's about people getting their s--- together. Acting right. Acting like you got some common sense."
"We are a country, the greatest one in the world. And I know you guys are like me, you want to be able to send your kids to school and not have to worry about something happening while they're at school. Or letting them go to a movie on the weekends, just like we all did growing up. And I have to worry about are they going to come home or not?"
JASON ALDEAN THANKS FANS FOR SUPPORT AFTER 'SMALL TOWN' BACKLASH: 'THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN'
"I don't give a s--- what color you are. If you're acting out, burning down buildings, costing taxpayers all this money, just so you can show that you're p----- off, to me, I just don't get that," he added.
In the "Small Town" music video, which was released earlier this month, Aldean's lyrics are sung while news coverage from the 2020 riots illustrates his message. "Cuss out a cop spit in his face / stomp on the flag and light it up," Aldean sings, along with footage of the described instances.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
He also sings in front of the Maury County Courthouse, which has an American flag hanging from it. The government building can be found in Columbia, Tennessee. It was previously the site of the lynching of Black man Henry Choate, in 1927.
TackleBox, the production company which produced Aldean's music video, shared in a statement to Fox News Digital that the location is a "popular filming location outside of Nashville," which Aldean did not select himself. "Any alternative narrative suggesting the music video’s location decision is false," it added.
Several movies and music videos have been filmed at the location, including the 2022 Lifetime Original movie "Steppin’ into the Holiday" with Jana Kramer and Mario Lopez, the 2022 Paramount holiday film, "A Nashville Country Christmas" with Tanya Tucker, and a Runaway June video for their 2019 track, "We Were Rich."
Aldean previously rejected claims of promoting divisiveness, insisting that the song "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. Because they were our neighbors, and that was above any differences."
