Jason Aldean’s track “Try That in a Small Town” is doing well despite the controversy surrounding it.
The singer has hit No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart and No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, People reported.
Billboard stated the song had the largest week of sales for a country track in more than 10 years despite the ongoing backlash. The track — which was released in May — previously spent one week at No. 35 in June.
It’s also the first song to re-enter the country charts at No. 1 since 2015, with it being the second song in history to re-enter at the top spot.
The first was Chris Stapleton’s “Tennessee Whiskey”, which went in at No. 46 in May 2015, before re-entering at No. 1 later that year.
Many have criticized the singer’s lyrics and use of imagery in the music video for the song.
The vid is interlaced with clips of protestors vandalizing cities in the wake of police brutality and racial unrest during the height of the pandemic.
The music video — which CMT have since pulled — was also filmed in front of the massive American flag displayed on the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee — the site of the 1927 lynching of Henry Choate.
Aldean recently issued a statement defending himself amid the backlash, as well as speaking out at a recent gig in Cincinnati.
His comments included, “Here’s one thing I feel. I feel like everybody’s entitled to their opinion. You can think something all you want to, doesn’t mean it’s true, right?
“What I am, is a proud American. I’m proud to be from here. I love our country. I want to see it restored to what it once was before all this bullsh*t started happening to us. I love my country. I love my family, and I will do anything to protect that. I can tell you that right now.”
