The writers behind Jason Aldean’s hit song “Try That in a Small Town” have given fans insight into the inspiration behind the country music star’s controversial single with the launch of a new podcast of the same name.
In the premier episode of the “Try That in a Small Town Podcast,” aired on April 29, songwriters Kelley Lovelace, Neil Thrasher, Tully Kennedy, and Kurt Allison delve into the track’s origin story by sharing “the heartfelt motivation that drove them to write the song that has become a movement,” per a synopsis.
According to Mr. Lovelace, the inspiration for the song came to him during a “prayer walk” when he reflected on recent news footage of rampant violence in cities across the nation. “And I just started getting madder and madder and madder, keeping in mind that I just, I just prayed,” he recalled.
“And just the thought came to my head in that kind of a little small moment of rage, you know, it’s like, ‘well, try that in a small town,’” Mr. Lovelace said.
Mr. Thrasher—who has also written songs for Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, and Carrie Underwood, among others—noted that 99.9 percent of songwriters wouldn’t have pursued the title because it was so polarizing.
“At first, you question yourself, like, we don’t need to write that ‘cause nobodies gonna record it. It would be too controversial. Nobody wants to talk about, you know, guns and all that other stuff,” he explained. “But I knew that. I knew that [if] there was one artist on the planet, that would it would be Jason.”
‘Try That in a Small Town’
The song, which debuted in May last year, serves as the lead single to Mr. Aldean’s eleventh studio album, “Highway Desperado,” released in November.“Try That in a Small Town” swiftly rose to the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 Songs chart, securing the No. 1 spot two months after its release, beating out Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” and Luke Comb’s “Fast Cars,” which came in at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, per Billboard.
Despite its popularity, Mr. Aldean’s single triggered a wave of backlash, with some accusing the country crooner of promoting gun violence. The song’s music video, which was filmed in front of the Maury Country Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, where a black teen was lynched in 1927, also sparked furor over its perceived racist undertones, leading Country Music Television to pull the video from its rotation.
Mr. Aldean subsequently took to social media to respond to the criticisms he faced, penning a lengthy statement on X, formerly Twitter.
The singer went on to mention that there wasn’t “a single lyric in the song” that referenced or intimated race, noting that the accompanying video clips were derived from real news footage.
“While I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music- this one goes too far,” his statement continued. “Try That In A Small Town, for me, refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief. Because they were our neighbors, and that was above any differences.
“My political views have never been something I’ve hidden from, and I know that a lot of us in this Country don’t agree on how we get back to a sense of normalcy where we go at least a day without a headline that keeps us up at night. But the desire for it to- that’s what this song is about,” Mr. Aldean wrote, concluding his post.
