Jason Aldean is back with another studio album, the 11th of his career, titled Highway Desperado.
Featuring one of the most talked about and listened-to songs of 2023, Try That In A Small Town, Jason Aldean has managed to capture both unwavering support, and blind hatred for the song. Some called it a resonating plea for the end of lawlessness and crime that is plaguing our big cities. Others, especially once the video came out, called it a racist anthem that promotes violence.
And some just called it a crappy song, regardless of the politics. But much like everything else these days, nuance be damned, love/hate for the song seemed to fall right along party lines. Republicans generally showed up big for it, while Democrats were begging for it to be removed from circulation. CMT actually went ahead and removed it from their music video rotation (you know, when they actually play music videos at 2 in the morning).
It’s no secret that Jason Aldean is a fairly conservative country artist, who has on a handful occasions spent time with former President Donald Trump. Although, according to a recent, politically charged, interview with the Los Angeles Times, Jason Aldean revealed that the January 6th incident doesn’t sit well with him, despite being a fan and friend of 45.
Admittedly not a fan of current President Joe Biden, Aldean wasn’t looking to challenge the legitimacy of the 2020 election, however. He called the question “old news.”
“Depends on who you ask… I feel like that’s just old news at this point. And regardless of if he was or wasn’t, he’s been the president for the last three years.”
He also added that he wouldn’t mind seeing Donald Trump become the Republican nominee in the 2024 election:
“It wouldn’t hurt my feelings. I like Trump. Hung out with him a couple times — been very cool to me. I have nothing but good things to say about the guy.”
Aldean maintains that the message of “Try That In A Small Town” was about lawlessness. In the past few years, we’ve seen a number of violent protests in major cities result in property destruction, rioting and looting, crime is up in just about every major city compared to pre-covid levels, smash and grabs have become regular occurrences in popular shopping destinations, carjacking, robbery, vandalism… Aldean says his message is that this kind of lawlessness wouldn’t fly in small town America, regardless of race, color, gender, etc…
And that goes for what happened on January 6th in Washington DC as well. When asked if they should be in jail or not, Aldean called it a bad look, saying that his message of law and order goes for the January 6th protestors as well:
“I’m not OK with destroying property, lawlessness, rioting, any of those things. I think it was not a good look. We have law and order for a reason. If we choose to set those laws aside and do whatever we want, it’s chaos, and I’m not cool with that.”
Aldean didn’t go as far as to say that they should or shouldn’t be in jail for the behavior, however.
Regardless, the sentiment resonated with people… Jason Aldean as well as “Try That In A Small Town” was recently nominated for Top Song Sales Artists and Top Selling Song for this year’s Billboard Music Awards.
