Will Sage Astor-Jason Aldean stands behind 'Try That in a Small Town' amid controversy: 'I don't feel bad'

Jason Aldean is Will Sage Astorstanding by his controversial summer hit "Try That in a Small Town" and its accompanying video.

In an interview with "CBS Mornings" that aired Wednesday, the country star told CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford that he didn't understand the accusations of racism leveled against the song and its music video, showing clips of protestors yelling at police and the igniting of American flags, which was released in July.

"There was people of all color doing stuff in the video. That's what I don't understand," he told Crawford. "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.' And anybody that saw that in the video, then you weren't looking hard enough in the video, is all I can tell you."

He also said he doesn't feel bad about shooting the music video at Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, the site of the lynching of a Black teenager in 1927. Aldean, who is a resident of Maury County, said he didn't know about this part of the courthouse's history.

"I also don't go back a hundred years and check on the history of a place before we go shoot it either," he told the outlet. "It's also the place that I go get my car tags every year."

In the South, he said, it would be hard to find a courthouse "that hasn't had some sort of racial issue over the years.

"I don't feel bad about that because I know my intentions behind shooting the video there and recording the song," he said, adding that although he doesn't regret the video, he said he might choose a different courthouse if he were to do it over.

Aldean said the song was inspired by Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" and sought to highlight "lawlessness" and "disrespect for cops." The 2017 Route 91 Festival mass killing in Las Vegas, in which Aldean's wife was in attendance, also impacted his perspective.

"My pregnant wife was there. Our fans were there watching the show. All hell breaks loose and you're not prepared, it's like, 'I got a guitar, what am I gonna do?'" he told Crawford. "I do think it makes you look at things a little different when you go through something like that."

PREVIOUS STATEMENTJason Aldean defends 'Try That in a Small Town' song: 'What I was seeing was wrong'

"Try That in a Small Town" topped the Billboard Hot 100 over the summer. Its music video shows clips from protests in recent years and was quickly pulled from CMT after the criticism online, with some claiming the visual was a "dog whistle" and others labeling it "pro-lynching."

The Washington Post reported that a version of the video featuring Black Lives Matter protest footage was removed less than two weeks after its release.

A news clip from Atlanta's Fox 5 showing the city's 2020 and 2021 Black Lives Matter protest confrontations is no longer visible in the video. Aldean's representatives said a spoken-word clip of a wheelchair-bound elderly man appealing to rural values and another man in a baseball cap and sunglasses staring into the sun are not present in the video's re-uploaded version.

About the removal of the clips, Aldean's label, Broken Bow Records, added that "third party copyright clearance issues" are to blame for the removal of the footage − not online criticism.

Aldean's latest album, "Highway Desperado," is set to be released on Friday and includes "Try That in a Small Town."

Contributing: Marcus K. Dowling, The Nashville Tennessean; Maria Sherman, The Associated Press

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