NEWSJason Aldean Praised the Late Toby Keith for Inspiring Him to 'Always' Speak His Mind Even If It Wasn't the 'Popular Opinion'
Jason Aldean shared his admiration for the late Toby Keith.
In a recent interview ahead of the 2024 Academy of Country Music Awards, the “She’s Country” singer reflected on the how he has been inspired by the musician — who tragically died at age 62 of stomach cancer in February.
Toby Keith passed away in February 2024.
"I think Toby was a guy for a lot of us in the business – well, I'll speak for myself. I think he was a guy that a lot of us looked up to," Aldean, 47, shared of the “American Soldier” crooner.
"For me personally, he was a guy that I feel like ... just always spoke his mind," he explained. "He said what he thought, whether it was the popular opinion or not. And it wasn't, you know, it didn't always go well for him, and he didn't care. I mean, it was something that if he felt strongly about it and felt like it was something he believed in, he was going to speak his mind."
"To me, from personal level, that was something to me that was always inspiring, as far as like, 'Hey, you can still be an artist and be true to who you are and go out and not be afraid to speak out.' And I think that was something that always kind of stood with me," Aldean added.
The controversial CMA Award winner then recalled a moment where Keith told Aldean to "never apologize for being patriotic."
Jason Aldean performed at the 2024 CMA Awards.
"Just being not afraid to speak your mind, stand up for what you believe in," Aldean noted. "Whether other people agree with it or not, be who you are and be unapologetic about it. And I think that's pretty good advice."
As OK! previously reported, Aldean received tons of backlash in 2023 for speaking his mind after releasing the song "Try That in a Small Town," which was deemed “pro-lynching.”
Toby Keith died of stomach cancer.
The lyrics paint a picture of citizens of a small-town banding together to "take care" of disputes among themselves if someone was caught doing things like cursing out a police officer or stepping on the American flag.
While on CBS Mornings in November 2023, Jan Crawford asked Aldean how he felt about the criticism from social media users who claimed the music video had "racist undertones."
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Jason Aldean recieved backlash for his song 'Try That in a Small Town.'
"You know, it was like a call to arms and small towns," Crawford continued. "It was a threatening kind of video for Black people, I mean, people were putting this on like, TikTok."
"But there was people of all color doing stuff in the video," Aldean argued. "That’s what I don’t understand."
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"You know, there was white people in there. There was Black people. I mean, this video did not shine light on one specific group and say, that’s the problem," he added. "So anybody that saw that in the video, then you weren’t looking hard enough in the video is all I can tell you."
Fox News Digital interviewed Aldean about Keith.
