Insert all of the clichés about not commenting on things here, like the classic phrase of “some things are best left unsaid.”
Tim McGraw was certainly being careful in a recent interview with AP News. It seems like the country singer has provided a lot of commentary recently, even weighing in on the recent trend of concert goers throwing things at performers while they are on stage, but he decided to stay safe on this particular subject.
The “Don’t Take the Girl” singer was asked about Jason Aldean‘s newest song “Try That In A Small Town,” which has obviously caused quite the stir around the music world. Even with the backlash, Aldean has not backed down from his song, playing and promoting it throughout his current tour.
Much of the outrage around the song stems from some of the controversial images and videos that were shown within the music video, which has since been edited due to copyright claims from the owners of the footage, with many outlets (like CMT) refusing to play the video.
So when McGraw got asked about it, he knew that it was probably best to avoid making any “headline-worthy” remarks, and basically acted like he had never heard the song (maybe he actually hasn’t), or even heard of Jason Aldean, saying:
“I’ll be completely honest, I’ve heard all the hubbub about it, but I haven’t heard the song, and I haven’t seen the video, so I couldn’t intelligently give an answer. So I really don’t know.”
Very smart move by McGraw. You can’t get in trouble for saying something if you don’t say anything at all. He went on to give a little bit “more” on the subject compared to how he initially started answering, adding:
“I haven’t seen it, but I’m not going to tell an artist what they should cut, or what my opinion is. I’ll tell you what I like and I’ll let my songs sort of speak for themselves.”
McGraw then ended with a pretty powerful statement (at least compared to the rest of what he said), finishing off his “non-answer answer” by saying:
“You’re an artist and you cut the songs you want to cut and you deal with the consequences.”
You can take a look at the full clip of McGraw’s response below:
