'I'm Not Saying Anything That's Not True': Jason Aldean Addresses Political Controversy Over 'Try That in a Small Town'

A few months following intense backlash for his song “Try That in a Small Town,” Jason Aldean defended the track once again.

“We put the song out in, I think it was May or something — and the biggest issue, I think, people had when we released the song was that it mentioned ‘having a gun that my grandfather gave me.' I mentioned a gun, that’s a no, no right now and I just remember thinking, ‘Man, you guys haven’t even seen the video yet,’” he said on "Audacy's Coop."

“Between mainstream media and social media, things kind of take on a life of their own. They start making the song and the video into something that it’s not. It’s fine, we just live in a world that does that right now, and I’m not gonna go out and explain myself every time somebody gives their own opinion of what my song or video means,” Aldean continued.

The artist originally had to defend himself back in July when listeners believed his lyrics promoted lynching.

"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," the contentious lyrics read. "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."

Aldean went on to claim his listeners should have been able to understand his message.

“If you’ve got common sense, you can look at the video and see, I’m not sayin’ anything that’s not true. In the video, I’m showin’ you what happened — I didn’t do it, I didn’t create it — it just happened, and I saw it, and I’m not cool with it,” he explained during the recent interview.

“Country music is blue-collar music, it’s for every man out there, and that was always my thing — it’s like, I feel like this,” he noted. “I got eyes, I can see what’s goin’ on. I feel like I’ve got common sense and I can see that right is right and what’s wrong is wrong.”

The star doubled down on the tune, explaining that it has nothing to do with his own views. “I don’t care which side of the political fence you want to stand on, but to me, what I was seeing was wrong, and nobody would say anything, especially in the music industry or entertainment industry.”

He continued: “It’s very uncommon for someone to say something for fear of losing a job or losing some money… losing friends or whatever. It just kind of reaches a breaking point to where you’re like ‘somebody needs to say something, and if nobody’s gonna do it, then I’ll be the guy.’”

Never miss a story — sign up for the OK! newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what OK! has to offer. It’s gossip too good to wait for!

Aldean then shared the upside to the situation.

“At the end of the day, it brought a lot of attention to the song and the video. After a couple (of) days, they’re lookin’ at it goin’, ‘I don’t get it, I don’t understand what the big deal is.’ To see the response around that song and video was pretty amazing, actually,” he stated.