Jason Aldean is catching some heat after the release of his video for his new single “Try That in a Small Town,” which was filmed at the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, the site where 18-year-old Henry Choate was lynched in 1927. CMT has since pulled the music video from its rotation.
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The song starts off as a patriotic, anti-crime condemning carjacking, robberies, and hostility towards police — Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk / Carjack an old lady at a red light / Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store / Ya think it’s cool, well, act a fool if ya like / Cuss out a cop, spit in his face / Stomp on the flag and light it up / Yeah, ya think you’re tough — then escalates into more of a warning in the chorus with Well, try that in a small town / See how far ya make it down the road / Around here, we take care of our own / You cross that line, it won’t take long.
By the fourth line, Aldean references his Second Amendment rights: 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.
“When you grow up in a small town, it’s that unspoken rule of ‘We all have each other’s backs and we look out for each other,'” wrote Aldean, sharing the new video on Twitter. “It feels like somewhere along the way, that sense of community and respect has gotten lost. Deep down we are all ready to get back to that. I hope my new music video helps y’all know that u are not alone in feeling that way.”
In the video, directed by Shaun Silva, Aldean is seen standing playing with his band in front of the courthouse, and is interspersed with imagery of anti-police brutality protests.
Following the release of Aldean’s video, reactions have been heavy on social media around Aldean’s message and the visual connotation of the video.
Ashton Pittman tweeted a side-by-side image featuring a screenshot from Aldean’s video and the dated image of the courthouse, where Choate was murdered and hung from the building in 1927. In 1927, Choate was accused of assaulting a 16-year-old white girl in Tennessee. Though Choate denied the attack, he was hanged from the second floor of the courthouse and died.
“Jason Aldean shot this at the site where a white lynch mob strung Henry Choate up at the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tenn., after dragging his body through the streets with a car in 1927,” wrote Pittman. “That’s where Aldean chose to sing about murdering people who don’t respect police.”
A line of similar sentiments has poured in. “Henry Choate was just 18,” wrote Nate Morris on Twitter. “Reports suggest he was beaten horrifically before white supremacists murdered him in an act of terror. In Jason Aldean’s video, an American flag hangs where Henry was murdered as Aldean sings ‘I recommend you don’t try that in a small town.’ Sickening.”
Some people on Twitter also suggested that Aldean is encouraging gun violence in his song, after being the headline performer at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in 2017, during the deadliest mass shooting the U.S. history.
On Oct. 1, 2017, a gunman fired down from his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel onto a crowd of thousands of country music fans in attendance at the Route 91 festival, killing 58 people—two more individuals later died from their injuries—and injuring more than 800 concertgoers, while Aldean was on stage.
“Jason Aldean is a problematic man who thinks guns keep you safe,” wrote Shania Rose, “all while being a survivor of the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival shooting in Las Vegas just five years ago.”
Another person wrote, “It’s a good thing you had your gun and stopped the Route 91 Harvest music festival shooting.”
Aldean has continued to acknowledge the shooting in 2017. “That night was probably the worst night of our lives and not a day goes by that we don’t think about the people who lost their lives and the families who have forever been affected by it,” wrote Aldean on the third anniversary of the shooting in 2020. “October 1st will always be a day for us that is extremely hard to relive. To everyone in the Route 91 family, we love [you] guys and we couldn’t have gotten through it without you.”
On the fifth anniversary of the shooting in 2022, Aldean wrote “My Route 91 Family. Five years later and it’s still a rough day. Thinking about all you guys today.”
American Songwriter has reached out to CMT and Aldean’s reps for comment on the “Try That in a Small Town” video.
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