Aldean Fires Back: Restore USA ‘to What It Once Was’

Country music star Jason Aldean has denounced attempts to smear his song “Try That in a Small Town” as racist, and he fired back at the “bullsh**” narratives being pushed against him during a concert Friday night in Cincinnati, Ohio, drawing emphatic chants of “USA! USA!”

“I love our country,” Aldean told his crowd between songs, as shown in videos shared on social media. “I want to see it restored to what it once was before all this bullsh** 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.”

Aldean fired back at “cancel culture” calls after leftist activists sought to smear his music video for showing 2020 race rioters while he sang a song of patriotism, law and order, and conservative small-town values.

“And here’s what I want to say — a lot of things out there — and one thing I love, you guys know how it is this day and age,” Aldean added to his crowd chanting “USA! USA! USA!” “Cancel culture is a thing.

“That’s something that, if people don’t like what you say, they try and make sure that they can cancel you, which means try and ruin your life, ruin everything.

“One thing I saw this week was a bunch of country music fans that can see through a lot of the bulls***.”

Tennessee State Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, who was temporarily expelled from the state House for disorderly conduct in staging a gun rights protest and breaking decorum, smeared Aldean’s song as a “lynching anthem” on CNN.

“It’s been a long-a** week … and I’ve seen a lot of stuff,” Aldean’s address to the crowd began, which prompted the “USA! USA! USA!” chants. “I’ve seen a lot of stuff suggesting I’m this, suggesting I’m that.

“Here’s the thing, here’s one thing I feel: I feel like everybody’s entitled to their opinion. You can think — you can think something all you want to, it doesn’t mean it’s true. Right?

“So, what I am is a proud American.”

Aldean’s concert remarks piggybacked on his rebuke of the blowback from his song as a weaponization by liberal media, which exposed itself raising the narrative now, because the song has been out for months.

Aldean tweeted Tuesday: “In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests.

“These references are not only meritless, but dangerous.

“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.

“As so many pointed out, I was present at Route 91 — where so many lost their lives — and our community recently suffered another heartbreaking tragedy. NO ONE, including me, wants to continue to see senseless headlines or families ripped apart.

“‘Try That in a Small Town,’ for me, refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief, because they were our neighbors, and that was above any differences.

“My political views have never been something I’ve hidden from, and I know that a lot of us in this country don’t agree on how we get back to a sense of normalcy where we go at least a day without a headline that keeps us up at night. But the desire for it to — that’s what this song is about.”