Country Icon’s Son Issues Apology to Jason Aldean, Says He Can Help Aldean “Write Much, Much, Much Better Songs”

It’s safe to say Trace Cyrus is not a fan of Jason Aldean. In a post to his Instagram Story, Billy Ray Cyrus’ son took to Instagram to slam Aldean’s controversial 2023 song, “Try That in a Small Town.”

“Guys, I was just sitting in my kitchen and this stupid f**king song came on the radio,” Cyrus said on his since-expired Story, per Penn Live. “Remember this went viral? And everyone knows, like, I’m as patriotic as it gets. I love Trump and America and all that s**t but listen to how stupid this is.”

“Like, this is what’s on the radio,” he continued. He then proceeded to wonder why his song “On the Run” wasn’t getting more attention.

“The f**king bad a** song that I been talking about all night, like no one is really listening to,” Cyrus said of his own track. “But, like, this is what’s popular.”

As for Aldean’s song, Cyrus said it’s “trash for real.”

“I’m not trying to, like, completely destroy Jason Aldean’s soul right now, but no one wants to hear that on the radio,” Cyrus said. “That is obviously paid for to be on the radio or something.”

Trace Cyrus Criticizes Jason Aldean’s Music Video

Cyrus then turned his attention to the music video for Aldean’s song. The video sparked controversy when it was released. That stemmed from the fact that it was filmed in front of Columbia, Tennessee’s Maury County Courthouse, where a Black teenager was lynched in 1927.

“The fact that they shut down the Columbia town square to shoot that video, and I literally had my girl shoot my video on my iPhone and then I edited it myself. My video is cooler than his stupid f**king video,” Cyrus said. “Like, this is how dumb these record labels are, guys… They are still putting s**t like this on country radio and nobody wants to hear it.”

Aldean has yet to speak out about Cyrus’ post.

In addition to the controversy surrounding the music video, Aldean faced criticism for the song’s lyrics that were perceived by some to provoke gun violence.

Despite the pushback, Aldean stood by the song.

“To me, the song was about this, and the video was about this. This is what I saw, this is what I meant by it,” he told American Songwriter. If you choose to see something else, then I guess music, videos, and all those things are subjective and that’s your right. … I’m very confident in my decisions and the way I feel about things. So I was absolutely ready for that and it was worth it.”

Trace Cyrus Issues an Apology

Days after his rant, Cyrus once again took to his Instagram Story, this time to apologize for what he said. However, he did stand by his distaste for the track.

“I have Jason Aldean fans furious that I don’t like his ‘Welcome to a Small Town’ song. And guys, I try to be a better person, but, at the end of the day, social media is a game,” he said. “I’m just going to be completely honest ’cause a lot of you guys don’t watch all my stories. For the ones that do, I do this on purpose to piss people off.”

“Do I hate the song? Yes. Did it need to be said to the world? Probably not. But I knew it was going to make people mad. I was speaking my truth while doing it,” Cyrus continued. “I do think I can genuinely help Jason Aldean write much, much, much better songs.”

Despite initially expressing his apology, Cyrus went on to slam Aldean for not figuring “out how to write a good song” yet. He additionally criticized the four songwriters of the track, none of whom were the singer himself.

“It took four people to write that s**tty song. He wasn’t one of them, so I’ve never insulted him,” Cyrus claimed. “All the Jason Aldean fans, I expect an apology, because I never said anything about his vocals or anything like that. I was talking about the song and he had no part of writing that song.”

Cyrus then got apologetic again, stating, “I am kind of sorry about what I said about Jason and all the songwriters involved.”

“I really just look at music as a competition and the internet as a game. It’s really not that serious, guys,” he said. “I genuinely no hate in my heart towards Jason Aldean or anybody. If I ever saw the guy I’d buy him a beer… It’s all love. It’s all part of the game.”