Jason Aldean Recalls Desperate Moments During Las Vegas Shooting in First Television Interview

Jason Aldean and the rest of the country community still linger on the pain from the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting, but yet they continue to find comfort in their music and their fans as Aldean explained during his first televised interview since the massacre.

Six weeks after the tragedy in Las Vegas, Aldean sat down with Today to chronicle out the nightmarish memories he goes over in his mind while receiving interview support from Lady Antebellum and Dierks Bentley. While they all go back to their personal connections to the horrific incident, it was Aldean that felt closely tied due to the events panning out during his performance.

Just as many other innocent victims and festivalgoers did, Aldean just remembers running for safety after confusing the gunshots with a broken speaker. The country singer didn’t take time to process the situation, though, until later on.

“So when it first happened, I thought a speaker had blown. That’s what I thought. It just sounded like a crackling something. And so I’m kinda looking around like, ‘What is that?’ Trying to figure out what it is. Well then, it stopped. So I was like, ‘Alright, well they must have got it fixed.’ So I kept doing my thing and then it happened again and it lasted longer the second time. Then I was actually getting aggravated, so I looked over at my monitor guy that’s on the side of the stage as if to say, ‘What is that and fix it.’ And when I turned to look, my guitar player had run behind me and was telling me to move,” Aldean chronicled, adding his security guard came to quickly escort him away from the madness.

Charles Kelley of Lady Antebellum was one of the first to check in on Aldean’s condition, as well as on the rest of the fans in attendance, and expressed love toward Aldean for his well-being.

Recovering emotionally and mentally from the Route 91 shooting, the Georgia native did everything he could to help out those greatly affected by the incident. Visiting patients in Vegas and dedicating his Saturday Night Live performance to the victims, it was the healing power of music that got the singer through it.

“Honestly, being back on stage probably helped us more than anything,” Aldean admitted during the sit-down.

Lady Antebellum’s Dave Haywood concurred, noting that “music is such an escape and such a therapeutic and healing thing.”

The Country Rising concert, in which Aldean and many other country artists came out to perform and support the cause, raised more than $4 million for relief efforts in Las Vegas and other recent devastations.