Jason Aldean isn’t about to apologize for who he is, or what he believes in. The father of four received plenty of backlash when “Try That in a Small Town,”  was released, with some saying it had racist undertones. The song still became his 28th No. 1 hit, even after CMT refused to air the video.

Aldean spoke out on social media, once, defending the song, and then never spoke about it again, until now. From his Highway Desperado album, out on Friday, November 3, Aldean says he knows the intentions behind the song, and all of his music, even if some people made it about something else entirely.

“I don’t necessarily feel like I’m misunderstood. I feel like if you know me and if you get where I’m coming from, you know exactly where I’m coming from,” Aldean tells Taste of Country. “I think a lot of times in the media, social media, they like to change the narrative around to make it … if this news channel doesn’t like who you are, what you stand for, they like to twist stuff around to make it sound like something it’s not.

“I see that all the time,” he continues. “And I’m not the kind of guy that’s gonna run out there every time and go, ‘No, that’s not what I said!’ If you get what I said, you get it. If you don’t wanna see it, you’re not gonna see it, and at that point, I’m not going to waste my time trying to get you to understand it.”

Aldean calls “Try That in a Small Town” the “most controversial” song he has ever released, although there is another one that is a close second, and it happened more than a decade ago. The Georgia native released “Dirt Road Anthem” in 2011, a song that, although also landed at the top of the charts, was widely criticized by many for stepping too far out of the boundary lines of country music.

“I remember when that came out, it was a little bit of hip-hop, and you had your traditionalists in country music that hated that song,” Aldean recalls. “Then you had the flip side of that, where it was unlike anything they’d ever heard.”

“Try That in a Small Town” is one of 14 songs on Highway Desperado, with Aldean writing three of the songs. For Aldean, it represents what his life has been like since his eponymous debut record was released in 2005.

“To me, it’s what I feel like as a traveling musician,” Aldean explains. “You load up and you roll into town and you play a show and make a little money. You take off to the next town and kind of do the same thing. You’re just kind of always on the go.”

Perhaps surprisingly, the song that became the title track was written to name his tour that just concluded, not the record, at least at first.

“The way that came about is, we were getting ready to announce the tour,” Aldean reveals. “We didn’t have a name for the tour and so my management called and … I said, ‘Give me 30 minutes.’ I sat there at the house and I came up with Highway Desperado. I thought, ‘That’s a cool name for a tour. So we went and shot this tour poster that was really cool … and when I got the picture back I called Tully, my bass player who’s one of the guys I’ve been writing with, and said, ‘Man, this is also a pretty good title for a song.’ Next thing you know we’re in there writing a song, too.”

See a track list for Highway Desperado below. Find music and upcoming shows at JasonAldean.com.

Highway Desperado Track Listing:

1. Tough Crowd – Kurt Allison, Marv Green, Tully Kennedy, Kelley Lovelace, Neil Thrasher
2. Let Your Boys Be Country – Jaron Boyer, Allison Veltz Cruz, Micah Wilshire
3. Knew You’d Come Around – Kurt Allison, Ben Hayslip, Tully Kennedy, John Morgan
4. Hungover In A Hotel – Jason Aldean, Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy, David Lee Murphy, Neil Thrasher
5. Try That In A Small Town – Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy, Kelley Lovelace, Neil Thrasher
6. Whiskey Drink – Kurt Allison, Jonathan Edwards, Tully Kennedy, John Morgan
7. Whose Rearview – Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy, John Morgan, Lydia Vaughn
8. I’m Over You – Josh Phillips, Michael Tyler, Micah Wilshire
9. Rather Watch You – Jessi Alexander, Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy, Kelley Lovelace, Neil Thrasher
10. Breakup Breakdown – Jason Aldean, Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy, John Morgan, Lydia Vaughan
11. Get Away From You – Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy, John Morgan, Lydia Vaughn
12. Changing Bars – Kurt Allison, Jonathan Edwards, Tully Kennedy, John Morgan
13. From This Beer On – Kurt Allison, Jonathan Edwards, Tully Kennedy, John Morgan
14. Highway Desperado – Jason Aldean, Kurt Allison, Jonathan Edwards, Tully Kennedy, John Morgan

Photo Credit: Courtesy of BBR Music Group / Theo Wargo