Jason Aldean Remembers ‘Route 91 Family’ on One-Year Anniversary of the Shooting
Jason Aldean shared a poignant memory on his Instagram page in honor of all those affected by the Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nev., marking the one-year anniversary of the tragedy on Monday (Oct. 1). The country superstar posted an image of the festival's emblem, simply captioned "Thinkin about our Route 91 family today. #vegasstrong."
Aldean was the headlining artist performing the evening's closing set, on Oct. 1, 2017, when gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire on the crowd from the window of a nearby hotel. The attack left 58 concertgoers dead and over 800 others injured, and remains to date the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.
The country star's wife, Brittany, was backstage at the festival during the shooting, and was pregnant with the couple's first child, Memphis. To mark the anniversary of the tragedy, Brittany also shared a picture on Instagram to remember the victims of the massacre, writing "Heavy on our hearts today and every day."
Aldean also recently took a moment to remember the victims of the shooting during a performance at the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Festival on Sept. 21, just shy of the one-year anniversary of the incident, during what was one of his first shows in Las Vegas since the tragedy. "I don't think we've played a show that we haven't had some of the survivors come out to that show," he shared backstage at that festival. "Every year [when] Oct. 1 rolls around, that's going to be something we remember and something that sticks with us from now on."
Remembering the Route 91 Harvest Festival Shooting Victims