Country music star Jason Aldean released a message to his faithful fans on Twitter following the massive wave of conservative support for and woke backlash against his new song, “Try That in a Small Town.” A massive outpouring of support for Aldean and his song after the left went on the warpath against it led to the song shooting to number one, likely far outpacing what support it would have gotten without the woke backlash.
In the tweet in which he thanked fans, Aldean posted a video and a caption. The caption to the video said, “Thank u guys. Ready to see u back out there this weekend! 🇺🇸🤘🏼”
In the video, which featured footage of Aldean on tour while he sang “Try That in a Small Town,” Aldean also could be heard saying, “So, somebody asked me, ‘Hey man, do you think you’re going to play this song tonight?’ The answer was simple. The people have spoken and you guys spoke very, very loudly this week.”
Aldean can be heard singing the opening part of the song as well, which goes, “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. 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 for you to find out, I recommend you don’t. Try that in a small town.”
Watch the video here:
Thank u guys. Ready to see u back out there this weekend! 🇺🇸🤘🏼 pic.twitter.com/qtH8yUdpLy
— Jason Aldean (@Jason_Aldean) July 24, 2023
This isn’t Aldean’s first message to his fans about the song and the attacks on it. He also said at a recent concert: “Well, I gotta tell you guys, man, it’s been a long a** week. It’s been a long week and I’ve seen a lot of stuff. I’ve seen a lot of stuff suggesting I’m this, suggesting I’m that. Hey, here’s a thing. Here’s a thing, here’s one thing I feel. I feel like everybody’s entitled to their opinion. You can think something all you want to, doesn’t mean it’s true. What I am is a proud American. I am proud to be from here. I love our country. I want to see it restored to what it once was before all this bull**** started happening to us. I love my country. I love my family and I will do anything to protect that and I can tell you that.”
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The controversy surrounding the song has led to a huge amount of free publicity, and thus success, for it. According to Luminate, the song’s combined audio and video streams went from under a million to about twelve million, a 999% increase, after the music video was released and the song became a front in the culture war.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video