Jason Aldean Removes Clips From ‘Small Town’ Video—This Is What He Took Out

Strategic edits to Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” music video appear to have been made after the country music star received praise from conservatives for refusing to cave to the “woke mob.”

Aldean hás been under fire from critics since releasing the controversial video this month, sparking accusations of racism and the promotion of gun violence. He has also been praised by prominent conservatives including former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

On Tuesday, the video—which features scenes of Aldean performing outside a courthouse where a white mob killed a Black man in 1927—appeared to have been altered to remove footage from Fox 5 Atlanta’s coverage of a “Black Lives Matter” protest and another news broadcast.

Toward the beginning of the video, the original version showed images from the Fox 5 broadcast projected onto the side of the courthouse. The revised video replaces the projected image with a short close-up clip of a person lighting a Molotov cocktail.

Fox 5 footage featuring protesters and a chyron reading “State of Emergency Declared in Georgia” also appeared at the 1:21 mark in the original video. The new version replaces the footage with additional images of Aldean and his band performing outside the courthouse.

The last major edit removes a clip from an unknown news broadcast about farmers dropping their crops to aid “a friend in need.” In the revised video, more footage of Aldean performing replaces the appearance of a man saying, “It’s what this community and a lot of farm communities stand for: Somebody needs some help, they’ll get it.”

It was unclear whether Aldean or his management removed the clips in response to backlash over the video or if the clips were removed due to rights issues and possible requests from the news channels.

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Newsweek has reached out to Aldean’s agent via email and to Fox 5 Atlanta via phone for comment.

Backlash to the controversial video did appear to result in it being removed from rotation on Country Music Television (CMT), prompting some to accuse the channel of “pulling a Bud Light.”

Aldean called the accusations of racism “not only meritless, but dangerous” in a tweet, while adding that there is “not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it” and “there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage.”

On Monday, Aldean shared a new video to Twitter that touted the popularity of “Try That in a Small Town” on his current concert tour, with the singer appearing on stage to tell his fans that “the people have spoken” and approved of the song.

Criticism over the purported promotion of gun violence in the song has been particularly pointed since Aldean was on stage at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2017, when the nation’s worst-ever mass shooting resulted in 60 deaths and over 400 injuries.