Jason Aldean Hubert Vestil/Getty Photographs
Jason Aldean marked his return to the 2024 CMT Audio Awards on Sunday, April 7, nearly just one yr following his headline-generating song controversy.
The singer, 47, executed “Let Your Boys Be Country” during the ceremony, which was held at the Moody Middle in Austin, Texas. The track was nominated for Movie of the Year but did not make it past the initial round of voting when the six finalists ended up introduced earlier this month.
Aldean donned a white cowboy hat and brown buttoned-up shirt with denims even though he sang the observe on stage. Mid-performance he yelled, “Where my boys at tonight, c’mon!” which received cheers from the viewers.
Aldean beforehand faced backlash in July 2023 for the lyrics of his tune “Try That in a Compact Town.”
“Cuss out a cop, spit in his experience / Stomp on the flag and mild it up / Yeah, ya imagine you are hard,” he sang. “Well, attempt that in a tiny town / See how much ya make it down the road / All around below, we choose care of our individual / You cross that line, it won’t get extensive / For you to uncover out, I advise you really do not.”
He additional: “Got a gun that my granddad gave me / They say one particular day they are gonna spherical up / Properly, that s—t may possibly fly in the town, fantastic luck.”
Jason Aldean Catherine Powell/Getty Visuals for CMT
The song’s music movie induced further controversy as it was filmed in front of a Tennessee courthouse exactly where a Black teen was lynched in 1927, even though Aldean claimed he was unaware of the location’s heritage. The video clip was in the end eradicated from CMT as a final result of the scandal.
Aldean defended the track at the time. “In the previous 24 hrs I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching tune (a song that has been out considering that May possibly) and was issue to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not way too happy with the nationwide BLM protests. These references are not only meritless, but perilous,” he wrote by way of X. “There is not a one lyric in the song that references race or factors to it — and there is not a single video clip that isn’t genuine news footage — and while I can try out and respect others to have their own interpretation of a music with tunes — this a person goes too considerably.”
He also shot down criticism of the pro-gun lyrics right after listeners pointed out that he witnessed a mass shooting at his 2017 Las Vegas concert. “NO 1, which includes me, needs to keep on to see senseless headlines or family members ripped aside,” he continued, conveying that the track “refers to the emotion of a local community that I experienced rising up, where by we took treatment of our neighbors, irrespective of variances of background or perception.”
Three months later, Aldean doubled down on his stance, insisting that he did not regret releasing the monitor.
“I really do not truly feel terrible about [it] simply because I know my intentions guiding, you know, shooting the video there and recording the song and all the things,” he explained to CBS News in November 2023. “I would do it in excess of once again, every single time … minus the setting, figuring out what I know now, definitely, you know, understanding that that was gonna be a thing, you know, possibly you appear at performing it somewhere else.”
Aldean added that he realized “what the intentions had been powering the spot, the video, the music, all of it” and he could continue to confidently “stand by all that.”
