Brittany Aldean is blaming “wokeness” after her husband, Jason Aldean, was left off Billboard’s top 100 country artists of all time list.
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Last week, the outlet published its self-chosen ranking of the top 100 country singers spanning the past century. “Certain parameters were set, including focusing primarily on mainstream country artists,” their team wrote to explain the criteria for inclusion. “While commercial success was a factor, artistry, longevity and enduring influence counted just as much.”
The list’s top spots went to Dolly Parton (No. 1), Johnny Cash (No. 2), Willie Nelson (No. 3), Loretta Lynn (No. 4) and Hank Williams Sr. (No. 5), with newer artists like Eric Church (No. 56), Morgan Wallen (No. 79), and Maren Morris (No. 99) also notching spots on the list.
But Aldean’s exclusion raised eyebrows on social media. Since breaking out in 2005 with his self-titled debut, Aldean has racked up more than 20 million in album sales and more than 25 No. 1 singles. He has also been nominated for five Grammys, won two Billboard Awards and six American Country Awards, among other accolades.
“Despite holding the crown as the reigning ACM Artist of the Decade with 28 number one hits in his back pocket, Jason Aldean was somehow not listed as one of Billboard’s 100 Greatest Country Artists of All-Time,” the Country Wire chided after the ranking was released.
As country music fans debated Aldean’s name being left out, his outspoken wife Brittany teed off on the publication.
“Remember when I said it’s been a journey standing up for what we believe in??” she wrote in an Instagram Story viewed by Fox News. “This is a prime example of Jason being left out of things in the industry. (Billboard) your wokeness obviously overrides your ability to give credit where it’s due, and it’s sad.”
Aldean, who along with his wife is a noted supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, courted controversy in 2023 when he released his country anthem Try That in a Small Town.
The two-time ACM Award-winner, who survived a deadly mass shooting at the Route 91 music festival in 2017, came under fire for the track with critics claiming that it promotes vigilantism and gun violence. After it was revealed that the video was filmed outside the same Tennessee courthouse where a Black man was lynched in 1927, others labelled the single as “pro-lynching” with one detractor accusing the singer of blowing “racist dog whistle.”
As the firestorm swelled, Aldean’s video was dropped by Country Music Television and famous names waded into the fray, including Sheryl Crow, who branded the song as “lame.”
But in an interview last fall with CBS News’ Jan Crawford, Aldean, 47, was asked how he felt when critics said his lyrics and imagery of Small Town “had racist, undertones … like a call to arms?”
“There was people of all colour doing stuff in the video. That’s what I don’t understand,” he responded. “There was White people in there. There was Black people. I mean, this video did not shine light on one specific group and say, ‘That’s the problem.’ And anybody that saw that in the video, then you weren’t looking hard enough in the video, is all I can tell you.”
When Aldean learned that the courthouse had been the site of a lynching, he said he probably wouldn’t have filmed the video there. But, Aldean said, “I’m not going to go back 100 years and check on the history of this building. Honestly, if you’re in the south, you could probably go to any smalltown courthouse, and be hard-pressed to find one that hasn’t had a racial issue over the years at some point. That’s a fact.”
Earlier this summer, Aldean dedicated the song to Trump during a show in Nashville after a gunman tried to assassinate him in Pennsylvania.
“President Trump’s a friend of mine so I want to send this next song out to him. We all know what’s going to happen come November, so it’s all good,” he said in fan-captured video. “Just goes to show you there’s a lot of bulls*** in the world, and that’s kind of what this song right here was about, so this one goes out to the pres.”
With Billboard’s snub making headlines, two of Aldean’s bandmates, bassist Tully Kennedy and guitarist Kurt Allison, suggested the omission was influenced by the singer’s politics.
“It ain’t always easy standing up for what you believe in,” Kennedy wrote in an Instagram post. “I don’t know what’s funnier @billboard .. How ridiculous this makes you look or the fact that you think it would bother us. Thx for making that chip on our shoulder just a little bit bigger. Proud to make this music and be on that stage with ya every night @jasonaldean .. love ya brother.”
“What a joke @billboard — but not surprising considering the source,” Allison added.
But Aldean wasn’t surprised, commenting that the slight “shouldn’t come as a shock.”
“People ask if we still have a chip on our shoulder and feel like we have something to prove???” he commented on Allison’s post with a laughing emoji. “Hell yea we do and this is a prime example why!! We’ll just keep hammerin and do what we do. Same as we always have.”