CMT Removes Jason Aldean’s Video for ‘Try That in a Small Town’

Country Music Television said it pulled the music video for Jason Aldean’s controversial single “Try That in a Small Town,” which was filmed at the site of a 1927 lynching of a Black man.

A spokesperson for CMT, which is owned by Paramount Global, didn’t say why the network removed the video from its rotation. Broken Bow Records Music Group released the song in May, and the video made its debut last week.

The country music star denied in a statement on Twitter that he made a pro-lynching song. Broken Bow Records declined to comment.

Some lawmakers and other singers have called the song racist and said it promotes vigilantism. 

The music video was filmed in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tenn. A mob lynched Henry Choate, an 18-year-old Black man, in front of the courthouse in 1927. The courthouse was also the site of a race riot in 1946. In the music video, Aldean, accompanied by his band, performs the song in front of the courthouse.

TackleBox Films, the company that produced the video, said Aldean didn’t choose the location. The production company said the courthouse was a popular filming site outside of Nashville, Tenn., that has been included in several other music videos and films. 

“Any alternative narrative suggesting the music video’s location decision is false,” TackleBox said. 

The lyrics describe violence in the street, including fighting, elderly women being carjacked and people spitting at police. 

“I recommend you don’t try that in a small town,” Aldean sings. 

The lyrics of the song also include a line about getting a gun from his grandfather that might one day be confiscated.

The video intersplices images of protests, robberies and people yelling in the face of police officers and burning American flags. Those scenes contrast with images of children playing baseball, men in hunting gear and tractors in fields. 

“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,” Aldean said on Twitter on Tuesday, referring to the Black Lives Matter movement. “These references are not only meritless, but dangerous.” 

Aldean said there is no reference to race in the song and said all the footage comes from news clips. He added that the song refers to the feeling of a community that he had growing up, where people took care of their neighbors. Aldean grew up in Macon, Ga., a city with a population of about 156,000. 

 “I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music—this one goes too far,” Aldean said. 

Democratic Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones condemned the song and said it was “calling for racist violence.”

“What a shameful vision of gun extremism and vigilantism,” Jones said on Twitter. 

Pop star Sheryl Crow criticized Aldean for the video. “There is nothing small-town or American about promoting violence,” Crow said on Twitter. “You should know that better than anyone having survived a mass shooting.”

In 2017, Aldean was performing at the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas when a gunman opened fire on the crowd, killing dozens in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

“No one, including me, wants to continue to see senseless headlines or families ripped apart,” Aldean said in his tweet Tuesday.

Write to Joseph De Avila at [email protected]