Watch: Crowd Erupts After Jason Aldean Accepts Fan's Gift During 'Try That In a Small Town'
Jason Aldean performed “Try That in a Small Town” Thursday night in Maryland, and this time a gift from a fan in the audience gave the a little added significance.
As Aldean sang part of the chorus, “Try that in a small town / See how far you make it down the road,” one concert-goer reached up to hand the singer an American flag.
Aldean grabbed the flag, draped it over his shoulder, and continued the song as fans cheered.
Jason Aldean puts an American flag over his shoulder while singing “Try That In A Small Town” tonight in Maryland 🇺🇸🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/67ty8oLmHA
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 28, 2023
The incident was only the latest to cause an Aldean audience to break out in cheers. When the country artist performed July 21 at Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, to a sold-out crowd, he also didn’t hold back from singing “Try That in a Small Town,” the song that’s generated so much vitriol from American leftists.
He didn’t hold back in his introduction to the song, either.
“I gotta tell you guys,” he said to the audience in a break between numbers. “It’s been a long-a** week. It’s been a long week and I’ve seen a lot of stuff, I’ve seen a lot of stuff suggesting I’m this, suggesting I’m that.”
He wasn’t arguing that those viewpoints should not have been shared, however.
“I feel like everybody’s entitled to their opinion,” he explained. “You can think something all you want to; that 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 bulls*** started happening to it.”
He didn’t elaborate on his concerns about what, specifically, had “started happening” to the U.S., but it seems likely that he was referring to the problem of rampant crime — which is highlighted in his song — as well as the desire of certain elements within the country to impinge upon the free speech rights of those with whom they disagree.
“I love my country, I love my family, and I will do anything to protect that, I can tell you that right now,” he said.
At that point, the crowd — apparently spontaneously — began chanting “USA! USA!” while Aldean acknowledged the chant with a pointed finger over the crowd.
Aldean then complained specifically about cancel culture, presumably over his song. (The song was released in May, but the video came out only this month, which sparked the backlash.)
Aldean praised his fans for standing up to those who would silence his voice, one the fans at his concert obviously agreed with.
He added that a number of people had asked whether he planned to continue performing the song in concert, a question to which he said he had a “simple answer:”
“The people have spoken, and you guys spoke very, very loudly this week.”
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