Jason Aldean Notches 28th Career No.1 With ‘Try That In A Small Town’

Jason Aldean earned his 28th career No.1 with “Try That In A Small Town.” 

The song officially claimed the No.1 spot on the Country Aircheck/Mediabase charts this week after reaching the No.1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 over the summer. 

Aldean recently opened up about the song and the controversy that surrounded it during an interview with Audacy’s Coop.

“We put the song out in, I think it was May or something — and the biggest issue, I think, people had when we released the song was that it mentioned ‘having a gun that my grandfather gave me.’ I mentioned a gun, that’s a no, no right now and I just remember thinking, ‘Man, you guys haven’t even seen the video yet,’” Aldean recalled during the conversation. 

Reflects On Controversy

The music video arrived in July and was met with pushback over what some perceived to be pro-gun and racist elements. The video was pulled from CMT, however, sales and streams of the song spiked. 

“If you’ve got common sense, you can look at the video and see, I’m not sayin’ anything that’s not true. In the video, I’m showin’ you what happened — I didn’t do it, I didn’t create it — it just happened, and I saw it, and I’m not cool with it,” he said. 

At that point, the song earned the singer his first-ever No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Through it all, Aldean welcomed the attention that the media brought to the song and video. 

“After a couple (of) days, they’re lookin’ at it goin’, ‘I don’t get it, I don’t understand what the big deal is.’ To see the response around that song and video was pretty amazing, actually,” he added. 

New Album Arriving On Nov. 3

“Try That In A Small Town” will be featured on Aldean’s forthcoming new album, HIGHWAY DESPERDO, arriving on November 3. The 14-track project is the superstar’s 11th studio release and includes three tracks co-written by Aldean. 

The album’s title drew inspiration from his recent sold-out headlining arena tour and his early years as a touring artist.

“I think when I look back on it, I built my career early on my live show, and have been on the road touring since I was 18 years old. For us, touring is our favorite part. Getting on the bus and going town to town and playing our shows and doing our thing and seeing the fans… the title for the tour and album was really inspired from that,” he previously shared in a statement. 

Ahead of the project’s November 3 release, Aldean gave fans a taste of his new music with the release of songs like “Let Your Boys Be Country,” “Tough Crowd,” and the recently released “Whiskey Drink.” 

The latter is a mid-tempo breakup song that finds Aldean begging his “Whiskey Drink” to help him drown out the memories of his ex. While he recognizes, “it might take all night/ to get her off my mind,” he’s determined to let the intoxication take hold as he attempts to erase the painful memories.  It was co-written by Kurt Allison, Jonathan Edwards, Tully Kennedy, and John Morgan. 

“Come on, kick in, whiskey drink/ I don’t wanna think, think, think/ About who she’s with or where she is/ Or how bad I miss her now/ Come on, cigarette/ Yeah, smoke out that regret/ Pour it straight and strong, make her memory gone/ Before you let me leave/ Come on, whiskey drink, oh/ Come on, whiskey drink,” Aldean sings on the chorus. 

Tour Set To Wrap Up This Weekend

As his fans anticipate the arrival of the album, they can still catch him on tour through October 28 when the trek is set to wrap in Tampa, Florida at the Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre.

Brittny Aldean recently gave fans a look at life on tour with the couple’s two children, Memphis and Navy. Click HERE to watch the behind-the-scenes clip.