Jason Aldean Opens Up About PTSD and Recovery After Las Vegas Shooting

Jason Aldean revisited Las Vegas the morning after the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting to visit hospitalized victims, describing the experience as tough and emotional. The tragedy occurred while Aldean was performing when a gunman opened fire, killing 60 people and injuring more than 800.

Aldean did not let the trauma stop him from touring just one week later, including an appearance on Saturday Night Live (SNL), where he gave a tribute to the victims and performed Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down." He insisted on having creative control for the performance as a sign of resilience.

Looking ahead, Aldean has expressed his hope to establish a Las Vegas residency in the future to stay connected with the city and continue his music career, similar to other artists' long-running residencies.

During a podcast interview, Aldean opened up about his experience with PTSD following the tragedy. He described survivor's guilt, emotional trauma, and being "shell-shocked" by the attack.

"For our little family, our little crew, we got so lucky, not one injury to any of our guys," Aldean said. "And you're happy about that, but then there's like this guilt-ridden thing."

Aldean emphasized that discussing his PTSD was about sharing his personal journey, not making political statement "I ended up having a moment at my house where I kind of broke down thinking about all the people that I could have lost, all the people that we did lose as far as fans, but my inner circle of people and my wife was there eight months pregnant with my son and all these things," said Aldean.

"At some point, you can either kind of run from it or accept it and try and make something good out of it," he shared. "And that's kind of what we tried to do."