Jason Aldean's Bizarre 2024 CMT Awards Performance Has Everyone Saying The Same Thing
Jason Aldean took the stage at the CMT Awards to perform his hit song, "Let Your Boys Be Country." And while the song's lyrics, which encourage people to allow their sons to embrace country living, are pretty tame (and definitely less controversial than Aldean's sketchy past), the timing of the performance has thrown some of his fans off. Aldean joined the CMT's performance roster less than a year after the network banned his video for "Try That In a Small Town." Some felt that the controversial 2023 track encouraged racial violence towards African Americans due to the song's lyrics and music video, which included footage of a courthouse that was the scene of a lynching in 1927, per Us Weekly.
While Aldean denied that the song or video had any racial undertones, it was widely panned by critics and removed from CMT. So Aldean's inclusion in the 2024 ceremony has some of his fans confused. "It's very ironic Jason Aldean is performing at the CMT Music Awards," tweeted one user on X, formerly known as Twitter. Another audience member seemed to disagree with his performance. "I didn't like #jasonaldean before and now that he appears on #CMTAwards. I like him less. Dude, they banned you and called you racist," they wrote. One fan hoped that he'd secretly play the banned track. "Not gonna lie, it would be hilarious if Jason Aldean pulled a bait-and-switch on CMT and performed 'Try That In A Small Town'..." they tweeted. Aldean's performance hasn't received much pushback from critics yet though.
How Jason Aldean responded to the controversy
Although Jason Aldean's CMT Awards performance has inspired widespread conversation, he has yet to comment on his return to stage or the reaction of his fans and critics. His wife, Brittany Aldean, who's no stranger to controversy either, has also failed to comment on his comeback performance as of this writing. Interestingly, Brittany skipped out on the entire ceremony, which took place in Texas. According to her Instagram stories, she opted to spend her Sunday away from the cameras, soaking up the sun at the Tortuga Music Festival, which is held annually at Ft. Lauderdale Beach.
However, Aldean has spoken at length about the reaction to his controversial song and music video. In July of 2023, Aldean ranted about cancel culture at one of his shows after CMT took down his video. "You guys know how it is, in this day and age, cancel culture is a thing," said Aldean (via Deadline). "That's something that if people don't like what you say they try to make sure they can cancel you, which means try to ruin your life, ruin everything. One thing I saw this week was a bunch of country music fans that can see through a lot of the bullsh*t." He continued, "I saw country music fans rally like I've never seen before and it was pretty bada**, I gotta say. Thank you guys so much."