Changes have been made to Jason Aldean’s music video for “Try That In a Small Town.”
Amid the song’s controversy, it appears as though footage from LiveNow From Fox of the Black Lives Matter protests were quietly removed from the original video, directed by Shaun Silva, which was uploaded to YouTube on July 14.
About six seconds were removed from the first music video, which clocked in at 3:08. The new video is now three minutes and two seconds.
A representative for Aldean's record label, BBR Music Group, confirmed that the video footage was edited due to third-party copyright clearance issues.
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First released in May, the song touches on violence, riots and upheaval in big cities while mentioning that those actions would not be accepted in small towns. It wasn’t until after the music video was released and featured protest footage, surveillance video from robberies and break-ins that it received more backlash and Aldean spoke out. CMT also pulled the video from rotation.
Additionally, the footage was projected on a courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, known for being the site of the 1927 lynching of Henry Choate, an 18-year-old African American, per John Roy Steelman’s book “A Study of Mob Action in the South.”
Reps for Aldean declined to comment and Silva's team did not respond to TODAY.com’s request.
The most notable changes happen at the start of the original video about 15 seconds in when a Fox segment with a headline that reads “State of emergency declared in Georgia,” was removed.
The footage of the state of emergency was later shown in the video about mid-way through. It has since been removed from the current video as well.
Fox did not return TODAY.com's request for comment.
Additionally, in the original video around the 2:36 mark, there was a news segment that said, “These farmers are dropping their own crops for the day, a friend is in need and they’ve come to help” and a man in a wheelchair speaking about his helping community. It is not included in the new video.
The removal of the protest images and news segment comes after the song received backlash for its lyrics, with critics saying they are anti-BLM and pro-gun.
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The country singer, however, denied that “Try That In a Small Town” was about race and “a pro-lynching song.”
“In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests,” he said in part. “These references are not only meritless, but dangerous. 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 — and while I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music — this one goes too far.”
Aldean also explained in his statement that, for him, the song “refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief. Because they were our neighbors, and that was above any differences.”
The singer would go on to share a video montage of him at one of his recent concerts defending his song.
“So, somebody asked me, ‘Hey man, do you think you’re going to play this song tonight?’” he said in the Instagram clip posted July 24. “The answer was simple. The people have spoken and you guys spoke very, very loudly this week.”
Despite the controversy, “Try That In a Small Town” debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 on July 25.
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