Jason Aldean Greets Route 91 Survivors at ACM Awards Rehearsals
Jason Aldean allowed a distinguished audience to sit in on his rehearsal for the ACM Awards. Roughly 100 survivors of the shooting at last year's Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas watched, listened and met with the "You Make It Easy" singer.
Aldean tells WYRK's Clay & Liz that it was great to see them. "I'm sort of forever bonded with those people," he said Saturday (April 14). "There was a lady there who I've gotten to know a little bit — her and her husband — that was in a coma and now she's out of her coma and doing great."
"And there's other people that lost their husbands or lost their sons or wives or whatever there. You hear those stories and it's tough man," he adds.
Photos from ACM Awards Rehearsals
Still, Aldean embraces the chance to meet with those that experienced what he experienced on Oct. 1, 2017. This is his second trip to Las Vegas since the shooting, which left hundreds injured and 58 concertgoers dead.
The singer and wife Brittany went back the weekend after the attack, and while he tells the radio morning show he'll always have a "tinge in his gut" when he visits, he once again stressed that the experience didn't totally ruin the city for him. He has, after all, had several positive Las Vegas experiences. In fact, in addition to performing his new single on Sunday (April 15), he'll be up for his third straight ACM Entertainer of the Year award.
Video shared by the ACM Awards shows that Thomas Rhett also met with the survivors during Friday's rehearsals. The singer was clearly moved by the experience, even if he wasn't one of the artists in Las Vegas on that day. Rhett and Aldean are good friends. Last week Aldean told Taste of Country that he thought the ACM Awards were the perfect opportunity to return to Las Vegas and that he looked forward to the show.
Remember: The best way to watch the ACM Awards is on TV, with ToC on your phone.