Jason Aldean says Boston should understand "Try That in a Small Town" after marathon bombings
MANSFIELD - Country singer Jason Aldean told a crowd in Massachusetts Saturday night that Boston should understand "better than anybody" the message behind his controversial song "Try That in a Small Town."
Performing at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield, Aldean addressed the uproar around the popular track and music video that some have called racist and even a "modern lynching song."
"I was laying in bed last night and I'm thinking to myself, 'you guys would get this better than anybody, right?' I remember a time, I think it was April of 2013, when the Boston Marathon bombings happened," Aldean is heard saying in a fan-recorded video that was posted to social media.
Aldean has called the controversy "meritless" and says the message is about community - something he tried to convey Saturday by talking about the deadly marathon explosions and the manhunt that followed for the bombers.
"What I saw when that happened was a whole - not a small town - a big-ass town come together, no matter of your color, no matter anything," he said. "The whole country and especially Boston came together to find these two pricks that did that."
The song, which was released in May, rocketed up the charts ahead of Aldean's Massachusetts visit. The music video that was pulled from CMT featured Aldean in front of a government building with news clips of protests, robberies and looting playing in the background. The lyrics include lines like, "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."
Shannon Watts, the founder of the anti-gun group Moms Demand Action, said "This song is an ode to a sundown town, suggesting people be beaten or shot for expressing free speech."
Fellow songwriter Sheryl Crow also sounded off against the song, writing "I'm from a small town. Even people in small towns are sick of violence. There's nothing small-town or American about promoting violence. You should know better than anyone having survived a mass shooting."
Aldean was on stage when a gunman opened fired at a Las Vegas music festival in 2017. The mass shooting killed 58 people and injured roughly 500 others.
Leading up to Saturday's concert in Mansfield, a Methuen woman who survived the Las Vegas shooting said the controversy didn't change her plans to attend the show.
"If he says he didn't mean it that way then I am sure that's what he means," Bryanna Giorgio told WBZ-TV. "I think people are taking a little bit of this song and running with it, with their own agenda."
