Jason Aldean has revealed that he caught flak from his own crew-mates during the controversy surrounding his politically charged hit, ‘Try That In A Small Town’. The ‘Hicktown’ hitmaker delves into it all on the official Try That In A Small Town Podcast.

Aldean explains how he took action, “Here's my issue - when you're riding around on a tour bus that I'm paying for, and I'm feeding you three meals a day every day and a paycheck to pay your rent, or whatever it is, and you're out there on those buses in our catering and you're bad-mouthing me and our crew, you got to go”.

The division within Aldean's touring inner circle seemingly began coming off the COVID-19 pandemic, as told by bass player Tully Kennedy on the podcast. While some in the crew, such as Aldean and Kennedy, believed the show must go on despite some limitations, others believed in taking full precaution, causing interference with the tour management aspect of the job, according to Kennedy.

At the time of its release, the 2023 chart-topper ‘Try That In A Small Town’ sparked controversy in more ways than one - with lyrics and music video filming locations causing online debate that, according to Aldean himself, bled into the workspace.

Love or hate the song, however, it is no secret that Aldean has never been one to abandon his personal views, and certainly never one to back down from a challenge. The song itself is a deep reflection of that, and despite noise from outside opinions, Aldean and his crew stand beside its meaning and values, as underlined by Kennedy.

He shares, "We were very proud of that moment, and we know what we meant by it, and there was some people in our crew that found it okay to disrespect it. You don't have to like the song, say what you want to say. But you started drawing attention to it out in public."

‘Try That In A Small Town’, which Aldean released ahead of his 2023 Highway Desperado album, stirred up controversy due to critics arguing that the song carried racial undertones.

Detractors also accused Aldean of glorifying vigilante gun violence in ‘Try That In A Small Town’, pointing to lyrics such as, “Got a gun that my granddad gave me / They say one day, they're gonna round up / Well, that s*** might fly in the city, good luck”.

The accompanying music video inflamed this further, with Aldean performing outside Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee. This was infamously the site of the 1927 mob lynching of Henry Choate, an 18-year-old Black teenager, as well as being the location of a 1946 race riot. Critics also expressed discomfort at the inclusion of footage from Black Lives Matter protests in the visuals, with the ‘Try That In A Small Town’ music video later being pulled from CMT.

Aldean has always denied any racially motivated messaging in ‘Try That In A Small Town’, arguing that the song speaks to a disrespect for law enforcement, and the communal, protective spirit that he feels you might find more of in a small town than a city.