Jason Aldean was on stage when gunman Stephen Paddock began shooting during the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds. Aldean, whose guitar player later found a bullet in his guitar, fled the stage as bullets rained down on concert attendees.
Fans are now asking Aldean to return to Las Vegas and finish his concert, with some starting a petition, and some putting together a 91-page book of pictures, dedicating the pages to victims and survivors.
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“I completely understand where they’re coming from,” Aldean shared with PopCulture.com at a recent media event. “I think it’s more of the gesture than anything; I appreciate the fact that they want us to come back, and want us to finish our show, and want to come see it. It means a lot to us, so I appreciate that. We’ve just got to see what happens.”
While the “You Make it Easy” singer understands why his fans want him to return to Sin City, Aldean acknowledges that it’s not as simple as just hopping on a plane.
“We’ve had the discussion,” Aldean revealed. “Sometimes it’s not as easy as just snapping your fingers and going, ‘OK, we’ll be there next week.’ It’s just not the way it works. I think in a lot of ways, you’ve kind of got to weigh all that stuff out. Make sure that if you do go back – it’s such a touchy subject to go back and do some of those things. I think you’ve really got to make sure you handle it the right way. You want to make sure that if you’re going to go back and play that show, that the people who were there, who were the victims, and the families, those are the people that are getting to come to the show.
“It’s a little bit of a process,” he continued. “It’s definitely something we’re open to. We’ve talked about it. It may take a little time for us to figure it out, but we’re talking about it. I can say that. We’ve had the discussions and sort of stomping down the road a little bit. We’ll see where it goes.”
Aldean finished working on his upcoming Rearview Town album after the Vegas tragedy, but he intentionally left out any songs that would reflect on that experience, although he did honor those affected by that day.
“95% of this record was completed before that ever happened,” Aldean said. “I think we went in and cut four more songs after the fact, but it was things we already had. We knew we were getting ready to go back and cut those songs. Honestly, I didn’t feel the need that I had to go record a ‘Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning’ kind of moment on the record, just to put the exclamation mark on my album. The album’s cool; it was cool before that happened, I still think it’s cool after.
“I wanted, as a personal thing for me, to dedicate that record to the people that were there and the victims and stuff, and we were able to do that,” Aldean added. “That was something I wanted to do, just on a personal note for me.”
Rearview Town will be released on April 13, and is currently available for pre-order on Amazon and iTunes.
Aldean will return to Vegas on April 15, for the 2108 ACM Awards, where he is nominated for Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year, and will also perform.The 53rd Annual ACM Awards will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena at 8:00 PM ET on CBS.
Photo Credit: Instagram/JasonAldean
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