Exclusive: Michael Ray Opens Up About Route 91 Harvest Festival Tragedy

Michael Ray is opening up about how he is recovering after the devastating Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting, which killed 58 people, and wounded hundreds. Ray, who performed during the three-day event, is still dealing with the aftermath of the tragedy, several months later.

"I try not to let it affect me, because I don't want that guy to win," Ray tells PopCulture.com, adding that big crowds and outside places sometimes still make him nervous. "I don't want evil to win. I don't want to spend a second of my time being there, to go, 'Oh, there's a tall building.' Any of that stuff. We're human, and it happened to our community, it happened to our family, it happened to our people.

"To say that there wouldn't be a fear, would be lying," he continues. "I think that anytime you go into places, you see places different. You're here somewhere and you look up, and you're constantly just kind of nervous being around, which sucks."

Ray returned to Las Vegas shortly after the shooting to help with Musicians on Call, which brings the healing power of music to hospitals all over the country.

"I went back a week after with Musicians on Call, a week after Route 91 happened, and visited a lot of the people in ICU, a lot of the nurses, everybody at Sunrise Hospital there, where a lot of the patients, 200 something patients came," Ray recalls. "A lot of patients came through there, and I sat with their families, talked to them."

The 30-year-old, who has since partnered with Musicians on Call's continuing Bedside Performance Program, in cooperation with ACM Lifting Lives in Las Vegas, says he would return to Vegas to play if the Route 91 Harvest Festival continues in 2018.

"I think the ACMs showed that it ain't slowing us down," Ray says. "If there ever was to be another big outdoor concert like that again, I would do it to be a part of the silencing of the evil. To show that, 'Hey, we're going to honor our family that we lost. We're going to honor the ones that were wounded. We're going to celebrate love and country music, and not let you stuff this down.' I don't know if that would ever happen. I don't know anything about that, but I would play."

Ray's upcoming album, Amos, will be released on June 1, and will be available for purchase and streaming on his website.

Photo Credit: Instagram/michaelraymusic