Jason Aldean appeared at the 2024 CMT Music Awards after controversy with the cable music channel over the “Try That In a Small Town” video.
Aldean was not at the Moody Center but performed “Let Your Boys Be Country” from an outside stage at the University of Texas Tower.
The award show was broadcast live on CBS, but months ago, CMT removed the “Try That In A Small Town” music video from its rotation after being criticized for promoting violence.
The lyrics, paired with the images of the music video for “Try That in a Small Town,” bothered many people. In one part of the song, Aldean sings, “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.”
Following the controversy, Aldean released a statement on X/Twitter denying that his song was anti-BLM and pro-lynching.
“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 posted back in July 2023. “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.”
Days after CMT banned his music video from the network, Aldean blasted “cancel culture” during a concert.
“You guys know how it is, in this day and age, cancel culture is a thing. That’s something that if people don’t like what you say they try to make sure they can cancel you, which means try to ruin your life, ruin everything,” Aldean said to his fans. “One thing I saw this week was a bunch of country music fans that can see through a lot of the bullshit. I saw country music fans rally like I’ve never seen before and it was pretty badass, I gotta say. Thank you guys so much.”
Following the backlash, the music video was edited to remove the clips from the BLM protests.
Watch Aldean’s performance at the 2024 CMT Music Awards in the video below.