Jason Aldean finds himself in hot water at the moment as his new video for “Try That In A Small Town” has brought new attention to the two-month-old song. The country star’s lyrics on the track have been widely derided as pro-gun or pro-violence, and people are speaking out about it. That includes Sheryl Crow, who addressed Aldean directly.
She wrote on Twitter last night (July 18), “.@Jason_Aldean I’m from a small town. Even people in small towns are sick of violence.There’s nothing small-town or American about promoting violence. You should know that better than anyone having survived a mass shooting. This is not American or small town-like. It’s just lame.”
(When Crow mentioned the mass shooting, she was referring to Aldean being on stage during the shooting at the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas.)
She also retweeted a post from activist Brittany Packnett Cunningham that reads, “Uvalde? Small town. VA Tech? Small college town. Newtown? Small New England town. Parkland? Small town that had just been voted Florida’s *safest* town. Most mass shootings occur in *small towns* @Jason_Aldean. Your listeners are dying.”
Aldean offered a statement of his own, writing in part, “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.”
