The survivors of the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting have invited Jason Aldean back to Las Vegas to finish his set from the festival, which was interrupted when a gunman opened fire from the Mandalay Bay hotel across the street where the festival was taking place on Oct. 1.
Months later, a group of survivors has come together to ask Aldean to return, putting together a photo book to send to the country star.
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After the attack, survivor Tiffany Thomas created a Facebook group, “58 Survivors 1 Last Set,” as a place for fellow survivors to discuss their stories.
Through the group, Thomas met survivor Gina McKin, and together the two women came up with the idea for the photo book for Aldean, who was closing out the festival on Sunday when the gunman fired, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds more.
“After it happened, all I could think about was Jason Aldean,” Thomas told 13 Action News. “I kept thinking like he was up there, he was on that stage, he was singing for us.”
To create the book, Thomas and McKin asked members of the group to send in their favorite photos from the night, sharing the celebration of music that took place before the massacre. The book is 91 pages long to represent Route 91, and different pages are dedicated to victims and survivors.
Some wrote messages to Aldean in the book, which is also serving as an invitation for the singer to return to Vegas to finish his set, with an idea to open the concert to survivors, victims and victims’ families.
“I hope that when he opens it, he just sees that we love him and that we know what he’s going through,” McKin said.
The women will be putting the package in the mail this week.
In January, Aldean spoke to Sirius XM’s Storme Warren about how his newborn son, Memphis, helped him recover from the terrifying event.
“One of the things that helped me personally was the birth of my son,” the singer said, via Sounds Like Nashville. “Within a couple of months, I saw the worst thing you could possibly experience and the best thing you could possibly experience, with him being born. It gave me a reason to look forward to the new year.”
Aldean explained that after taking time to reflect at home, he and his band knew that they needed to get back on stage.
“Out of all the shows I’ve ever played, this happened one time. It’s not the norm,” he said. “Getting back out and doing what it is we do — that to me is the only way to honor anybody.”
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