Jason Aldean recently dropped by SiriusXM Nashville Studios for an intimate interview into the star’s thoughts on healing in the wake of last year’s horrific mass shooting at the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest Festival. Aldean, who was onstage performing when a shooter opened fire on the 22,000-person crowd, spoke with host Storme Warren to explain how he moved forward after the tragedy.
“One of the things that helped me personally was the birth of my son,” Aldean explains. “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.”
Any performer would have reservations about going back out on stage after being shot at during a performance, but Aldean believes that this incident shouldn’t keep him from doing what it is he does best. “Out of all the shows I’ve ever played, this happened one time. It’s not the norm,” he says. “Getting back out and doing what it is we do — that to me is the only way to honor anybody.”
While Aldean is focused on moving forward, he also took time to reflect on just how close he and his band were to the shooting. “We finally started getting all of our gear back, and my bass player opened up his bass, and there was a bullet lodged in his bass,” the singer recalls. “We were that close. My bass player who stands to my left had a bullet lodged in his guitar.”
That bass, in turns out, may have saved the musician’s life. “The one he was wearing for that particular song is a solid ash bass,” Aldean goes on to say. “It’s pretty heavy wood. Pretty thick. When [the bullet] hit, it just lodged in it. Sometimes basses are chambered, or there are holes throughout the bass. If it had been any other bass, the bullet probably would’ve gone through and hit him in the gut.”
Remembering the Route 91 Harvest Festival Shooting Victims
This Article Was Originally Posted at www.TheBoot.com
