In the latest effort to defend his controversial song “Try That in a Small Town,” Jason Aldean compared its spirit to the response of vigilantes who came together after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. On Saturday, Aldean praised the mindset of those who would have “beat the shit” out of the suspects while playing a venue roughly 40 miles south of where the terrorist attack took place, according to NBC News.
While addressing the crowd at Xfinity Center in Mansfield, Aldean bemoaned the “really cool” song’s message being “overshadowed by all the bullshit.” He said, “I was lying in bed last night and I was thinking to myself, you guys would get this better than anybody, right? Because I remember a time, I think it was April 2013, when the Boston Marathon bombings happened, you guys remember this right?”
“The last time that happened was a whole, not a small town, a big-ass town came together, no matter your color, no matter anything,” Aldean said. “The whole country and especially Boston came together.” He continued by saying, “And anybody, any of you guys that would’ve found those guys before the cops did, I know you guys from Boston, and you guys would’ve beat the shit outta them, either one of ‘em.”
To conclude his impromptu speech, Aldean added, “I’ve been trying to say, this is not about race, it’s about people getting their shit together and acting right, acting like you’ve got some common sense.”
During the Boston Marathon on April 15th, 2013, brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev placed and detonated two homemade pressure cooker bombs near the finish line of the race, killing three people and injuring hundreds more. In the aftermath, the public rushed to uncover the suspects by scrutinizing countless photos and videos spread on social media, with the wrong suspects even being identified in news reports. This resulted in the FBI releasing images of the Tsarnaevs to prevent further misinformation from spreading.
The ensuing manhunt saw Tamerlan die on April 19th following injuries from a shootout with police and being run over by his younger brother while trying to escape. Dzhokhar was arrested just hours later while hiding in a backyard in Watertown. Though the citizens of Boston were eager to find justice, they had no immediate impact on his capture.
It’s exactly that vigilante mindset that makes “Try That in a Small Town” so dangerous. Nestled in a song that professes to be anti-crime and pro-community is a message that justifies violence against anyone that doesn’t share “small-town values.” Since the video’s release, Aldean has removed footage of a Black Lives Matter protest, which did little to take away from its anti-protest sentiment and racist dog whistles.
Many artists, including Sheryl Crow and Jason Isbell, have spoken out against the song and video. Following the controversy, however, Aldean’s supporters pushed “Try That in a Small Town” to the biggest sales week for a country song in over 10 years and propelled it to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
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