Jason Aldean sat down for a live interview with PEOPLE Country shortly before his Las Vegas show on Sunday where a gunman opened fire, killing at least 50 people and injuring at least 200 in what is now the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.
The country star, 40, was the headliner at the final night of the Route 91 Harvest Festival, a three-day country music festival.
Before the show, he appeared on a Facebook Live video and chatted about how excited he was to perform for the crowd.
“The reason you come to Vegas is to have a good time, throw down and party a little bit, so that’s why we’re here,” he said. “We’re looking forward to it being a good night for sure.”
Aldean said he and his band are focused on making sure all attendees, who had been at the festival all weekend, had a good time.
“We try to go out every night, and we try to give everybody what they paid for. And they may only catch one show a year and it may be this one,” he said. “So you want to make sure that every show you try to go out and turn it up a notch and just give it everything you got. So we try to do it every night like that.”
Aldean added, “The initial response you get from the crowd when you hit the stage, to me that’s what sort of lights the fire for the night. So when you come on you hear the initial reaction from the crowd, to me that sets the tone for the show. I think that’s everything. That’s what it’s all about.”
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Videos posted on social media show Aldean singing as very rapid gunfire begins in the background. He can be seen running from stage as he, and the thousands in the crowd, realized what was happening.
Aldean called the scene “horrific,” but said he was safe in an Instagram post early Monday.
“Tonight has been beyond horrific. I still don’t know what to say but wanted to let everyone know that me and my crew are safe. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved tonight,” he wrote. “It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night.”
Aldean’s wife Brittany posted a message on Instagram early Monday saying, “We are safe… our angels were definitely watching over us tonight. No words for what happened… Just horrific. Praying for everyone.”
Police SWAT officers killed the shooter – identified as Stephen Paddock, 64, of Mesquite, Nevada – after finding him on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Casino, Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said.
“Right now we believe it’s a solo act, a lone wolf attacker,” Lombardo told reporters early Monday. “We are pretty confident there is no longer a threat.”
AP/REX/Shutterstock
AP/REX/Shutterstock
Country star Jake Owen has just finished his set and was still on stage when the shooting started. He told the Today show that he ran off the stage and ducked for cover.
“I was crouched down behind a cop car. There was blood on people and you could see a couple of people in the streets that looked like they had been shot,” he said.
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