Country

Jason Aldean Honors Route 91 Victims on Anniversary of Las Vegas Shooting

Monday, Oct. 1 marks the one-year anniversary of the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting in Las […]

Monday, Oct. 1 marks the one-year anniversary of the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting in Las Vegas, which claimed the lives of 58 people and injured hundreds more.

Country star Jason Aldean was performing on stage at the time the shooting began, with the singer and his band ultimately getting to safety.

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On Monday, Aldean used Twitter to share a message to honor the victims of the attack, posting a graphic with the festival’s name and logo.

“Thinkin about our Route 91 family today,” he wrote, adding the hashtag #vegasstrong and an orange heart emoji.

Aldean recently returned to Las Vegas to perform in the city for the first time since the tragedy, performing at the iHeartRadio Festival. Ahead of his set, he took a moment to praise the city of Las Vegas for its strength and resilience.

“On behalf of myself and my family and the country music community, I want to say thank you to the city of Las Vegas for your courage, strength and kindness,” Aldean said, via Rolling Stone. “Tonight we are all proud to be Vegas strong.”

He also reflected on the anniversary of the tragedy while speaking with reporters.

“That’s a day that’s hard to forget. We know it’s coming up,” the “Drowns the Whiskey” singer said. “To be back in Vegas this close to it is, at times, a little weird, but in another sense it’s nice to be back. It’s really our first performance we’ve had since then, so tonight is going to be another step in getting through all that stuff, and coming back here is going to be a big part of it.”

“Every night in our meet-and-greets we’re meeting fans that were here at that show, and I don’t think we’ve had a show this year that we haven’t had survivors come out to the show,” he added. “We do that on a daily basis, not just because the anniversary is coming up.”

Aldean’s wife, Brittany, also used social media on Monday to share a post marking the anniversary.

Next to a shot of herself sitting on a beach wearing a Route 91 Harvest Festival sweatshirt, Brittany wrote, “Heavy on our hearts today and every day.”

Brittany was at the festival watching her husband’s set and was pregnant with the couple’s son, Memphis, at the time.

“As we laid behind equipment onstage with some of our road family, bullets flying past โ€ฆ all I could think was, ‘I never even got to hold my baby,’” the soon-to-be mom of two wrote on Instagram after the shooting.

“I can’t put into words the pain and heartache we feel of the ones who are no longer with us,” she concluded. “May God be with their families and friends during this horrendous time. Each and every one of you are and will forever be in our prayers.”

Photo Credit: Getty / Jason Kempin