Jason Aldean has quietly removed Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest footage from the music video for his song ‘Try That In A Small Town’.
As reported by TMZ, the video for the country singer’s track is shorter by six seconds compared to its original upload. The short missing clip is footage from a BLM rally in Georgia, which is projected on a Tennessee courthouse where a Black teenager was lynched in 1927. The original clip was shot by Fox 5 Atlanta.
According to Consequence of Sound, Aldean had previously claimed that there wasn’t “a single video clip that isn’t real news footage” within the ‘Try That In A Small Town’ video. The music video and song have received backlash with many believing they are promoting racism and gun violence.
Lyrics such as:“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,” and “Got a gun that my granddad gave me / They say one day they’re gonna round up / Well, that shit might fly in the city, good luck” are featured within the song, adding to concerns about the track’s true meaning.
Despite the backlash, ‘Try That In A Small Town’ has become the singer’s biggest song to date. At his show on Friday, July 21, at Cincinnati’s Riverbend Music Center in Ohio, Aldean claimed that the uproar around the song was due to cancel culture.
“It’s been a long week, and I’ve seen a lot of stuff. I’ve seen a lot of stuff suggesting I’m this, suggesting I’m that,” he told the crowd. “Here’s the thing, here’s one thing I feel: I feel like everybody’s entitled to their opinion. You can think something all you want to. It doesn’t mean it’s true, right?”
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 bullshit 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.”
Despite artists such as Sheryl Crow and Jason Isbell speaking out against the song and video, the track went onto achieve the biggest sales week for a country song in over 10 years. It earned the Number Two spot behind BTS’ JungKook’s first solo Number One ‘Seven’ on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.