Mom's Story About Jason Aldean Meeting Her Daughter With Spina Bifida Reveals The Country Singer's True Nature
His alleged behavior is not exactly helping his case now.
Kathy Hutchins via Shutterstock / @kris_t_lee76 via TikTok Country singer Jason Aldean has found himself in hot water after the release of a controversial new song that has many people branding him as a racist. Despite his attempts to defend his song, one woman took to TikTok to share her daughter's experience meeting Aldean at a concert that sheds some light on his alleged true character.
The woman said her daughter met Aldean while attending a concert as a guest from the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Kristi, who is the mother of Taylor Hobson, recalls the moment she met Aldean in a TikTok video that has been viewed nearly 1 million times. Taylor was born with a medical condition known as spina bifida, a birth defect that occurs when the spine and the spinal cord do not form properly. Unfortunately, Taylor passed away in 2012, but not before she had the chance to meet country singers Tim McGraw and Jason Aldean.
Due to her condition, Taylor was granted the opportunity to meet Tim McGraw by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps fulfill the wishes of children with medical complexities between the ages of two to 18 years old.
According to her mother Kristi, Taylor’s wish was to meet McGraw since she was a fan of his music. Kristi claimed that McGraw went above and beyond to make Taylor’s dreams come true. “He presented my daughter with front-row seat tickets and backstage passes to every single concert that he had in the state of Texas,” she said.
During one of the concerts, Aldean was opening for McGraw. Taylor caught a glimpse of him, and told her (white) grandmother, who had taken her to the show, that she wanted to meet him. Her grandmother was able to find Aldean and informed him of her granddaughter’s situation.
However, neither she nor Taylor could have expected the interaction they would have with Aldean.
When Aldean saw that Taylor was not only in a wheelchair but also biracial, he allegedly claimed that he ‘didn’t have time’ to meet her.
Though Kristi herself was not present at this particular concert, she was told Aldean's reaction to seeing her daughter was rather offensive.
“Jason Aldean looked down at my daughter, saw that she was biracial, and said, ‘I don’t have time for this,’ and turned around and walked the [explative] away,” Kristi reported. “He was meeting a whole bunch of different fans, but my daughter was the only one who looked different. Once a [explative] racist, always a [explative] racist.”
On the other hand, Kristi claims that Tim McGraw is the complete opposite of Aldean, and describes him as “so down to Earth.”
When the recent controversy arose surrounding Aldean, Krisit says that she was “not surprised” at all, given his alleged treatment of her daughter. She said that if she was at the concert herself, she would have “called him out on his bulls–t right then and there.”
Kristi also took the opportunity to ask Aldean an important question. “Do you remember my daughter, you racist mother[explative]? Do you remember walking away when all she wanted to do was say ‘hello, I love your music?’”
The experience is one that the mother will always remember.
Other TikTok users were appalled by Aldean’s behavior.
“I had the same experience backstage when my husband played a concert with him [Aldean]. He would not interact. It was a fundraiser,” one user shared.
“What’s done in the dark will always come to the light! I’m sorry you lost your beautiful girl but so glad Tim was there to make her wish come true,” another user wrote.
Other users expressed their condolences to the mother and praised Tim McGraw for his efforts to make her feel especially loved at his shows.
Aldean has recently come under fire for depicting racist messages in his new song and music video 'Try That In A Small Town.'
In the song, Aldean sings: "Cuss out a cop, spit in his face, stomp on the flag and light it up, yeah, ya think you're tough. Well, try that in a small town. See how far ya make it down the road. Around here, we take care of our own. You cross that line, it won't take long for you to find out. I recommend you don't."
The lyrics seemingly criticize Black Lives Matter activists, as the music video depicts footage of protests against police brutality, including violence at the demonstrations and robberies, daring protestors to attempt to try the same in a small town in America, where the community is tight-knit.
Aldean is also depicted singing in front of the Maury County courthouse in Tennessee, which was the site of a 1946 race riot and where a Black 18-year-old man named Henry Choate was lynched in 1927.
In light of the controversy, the song reached No.2 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week and the music video has surpassed 20 million views on Youtube.
Aldean responded to the backlash to his song on Twitter.
"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," he wrote. "These references are not only meritless but dangerous."
Aldean claims that not a single one of his lyrics “references race or points to it,” and that the footage depicted in his video is all derived from news outlets.
“While I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music- this one goes too far,” he shared. “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,” he added. “Because they were our neighbors, and that was above any differences.”
Even if Aldean claims that he did not mean to offend viewers with his controversial song and music video, how he makes his fans like Taylor feel may always remembered.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.