Country singer Aaron Lee Tasjan is striking back at fans who walked out of his concert after he sang his “I Love America Better Than You” song that features comments about transgenderism, Obama, and insurrectionists.
The 2024 song slams the wealth gap; it criticizes guns and the idea of the U.S. being a Christian nation. It also praises the “land of immigrants” and “queer trans feminists,” according to USA Today.
Tasjan sings: “I love America better than you / Her Founding Mothers and her hotdogs, too / First Black president / Insurrectionists / I love America better than you.”
But after he sang the song at his June 14 concert in Texas, at least eight attendees walked out.
The “Diamond Studded Shoes” singer spoke about the reaction seen from his audience in a post to Instagram on June 23.
“People are so mad I wrote a song lolz,” he wrote.
“Towards the end of ‘I Love America Better Than You’ during my show (recently), 8 people who were very clearly put off by the messages in the song got up and walked out of my show,” Tasjan wrote, according to PennLive.com. “For artists, I think it’s very important to remember that our job is not simply to sell tickets and t-shirts and receive applause. To me, the main part of what we do is to create works that affect the listener. There are many ways to effectively accomplish this.”
“For me, I believe in the power of medicinal properties in songs,” Tasjan continued. “I think songs can serve the function of healing, reminding, and comforting, but most importantly, telling the truth. The truth itself is a noble pursuit. But the reality of its complicated nature may leave you uncomfortable, bewildered, exhausted, or even angry. The truth asks more of us. It asks us to sit with discomfort. It asks us to expand our thinking. It creates a scenario in which we must look at ourselves.”
“We are sometimes then forced to determine our own role in the very problems that exist in the truth. not blaming yourself. It’s about accepting the idea that there is further to go,” he said. “These days not a one of us can afford the privilege of having arrived at a place from which we are immune to the harm caused to the least of us. In my song, I sing about all of us. It’s not criticism but illumination. It doesn’t point fingers, it states plainly what it is and leaves room for questions.
“And we should absolutely have questions,” he concluded. “Always. So I appreciate all 8 of the folks who walked out of my concert for exercising their free will, and at the same time, I invite all of us to continue to reflect on our own values as the values of the individual paint a picture of the values of our country. The time to remain comfortable is gone. If we choose only to walk away from that which make us uncomfortable, we subject ourselves to an imbittered stagnation or worse, a descent into fracture.”
In a separate post on X, the singer joked that he has met some “true characters” since the incident went viral.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: Facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston, or at X/Twitter @WTHuston