Toronto police car lit on fire in controversial new music video by Jason Aldean

Archival footage of a Toronto police car engulfed in flames makes a brief appearance in a country music video by Jason Aldean that has received a wave of backlash since its release last week.

In Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town,” released in May with a music video debut on July 14, orange flames ascend from a police car set on fire more than a decade ago on Queen Street.

Footage of a burning Toronto police car from 2010 was featured in Jason Aldean's new music video.At the time, in 2010, protests took place as calls mounted for a public inquiry into police violence during the G20 summit.

In the Aldean video, other violent archival news footage is overlaid with the singer strumming a guitar in front of a courthouse in Tennessee where a mob of hundreds dragged an 18-year-old Black man named Henry Choate through the city before hanging him from the courthouse in 1927.

In it, Aldean sings, “Got a gun that my granddad gave me / They say one day they’re gonna round up / Well, that s— might fly in the city, good luck/Try that in a small town.”

Country Music Television (CMT) confirmed it pulled Aldean’s song from rotation to CTV News Toronto on Tuesday. A day earlier, Cheryl Crow called the video “lame,” saying, “there’s nothing small-town or American about promoting violence,” while a Tennessee politician condemned the “heinous song calling for racist violence.”

.@Jason_Aldean I’m from a small town. Even people in small towns are sick of violence.There’s nothing small-town or American about promoting violence. You should know that better than anyone having survived a mass shooting.

This is not American or small town-like. It’s just lame https://t.co/cuOtUO9xjr

— Sheryl Crow (@SherylCrow) July 19, 2023

In response, the country singer defended himself against accusations of releasing a “pro-lynching song” that showed he was “not too pleased” with the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests.

“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,” Aldean wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

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. These references are not only meritless, but dangerous.…

— Jason Aldean (@Jason_Aldean) July 18, 2023

In reference to the deadly mass shooting that took place while he was on stage at a country music festival in Las Vegas in 2017, he said, “NO ONE, including me, wants to continue to see senseless headlines or families ripped apart.”

“Try That In A Small Town, for me, 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,” Aldean said.