The tragic events that unfolded during and after the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017, are still very much with country music superstar Jason Aldean even after therapy and the passing of two years since the violence broke out.
When the initial shots rang out, the Georgia native was on stage performing and dismissed what was happening as a guitar amp shortening out. Many fans in the audience also initially assumed the sounds were apart of the show. It wasn’t until a few seconds later that Jason, along with many, realized it was gunshots.
“I was confused,” the star disclosed during a 2019 Country Radio Seminar interview. “I didn’t know what was going on. My wife [Brittany] was eight months pregnant. That was scary. I didn’t know where she was at. You’re scared, you’re nervous. It was just really chaotic. One of the words I summed it up with was chaos.”
After the tragedy, Jason Aldean went to therapy to help put himself in a healthier place, however, he admits that maybe he hasn’t done quite enough. What really has pushed him foreword through the time and to get back to healthy was his fellow band members’ constant support.
“I probably should have gone to a few more therapy sessions than I did,” Jason confessed. “Honestly, for me, being able to talk to my guys, talk to people that I was close to, being able to talk about it to somebody who understood how I was feeling, that helped me tremendously. The other part of that was getting back on stage [and] mentally getting through some shows.”
Another way Jason and his bandmates moved forward was by adding “When She Says Baby” back into their concert set, this was the song they where playing when the violence began in Vegas. Following the shooting, the crew initially took it out due to the bad memories it stirred up.
Jason reveals that the hardest aspect of life after the shooting was meeting with the injured victims. While the star himself was not harmed, he still grapples with some survivors guilt.
“I was really glad we went there [to Vegas], but it was tough to sit there and see people who were at our show a few days before. To me, it was gut-wrenching. I felt a responsibility to go there and have some face-to-face time with them and laugh and cry — whatever they wanted to do,” Jason shared.
