Jason Aldean Says He Never Went to Therapy After Route 91 Mass Shooting
Jason Aldean grappled with post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor's guilt after the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting.
But he never sought help from a professional therapist to address his trauma, the singer says in a new appearance on the Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard podcast.
When host Dax Shepard jokingly asked Aldean if he was "too Southern" to embrace therapy, the singer laughed and agreed that he probably was.
"Never went," he admits.
"And here's the ironic thing," Aldean continues. "We funded a ton of therapy for all the crews and everybody else. And then, you know, obviously, I didn't go."
What Happened During the Route 91 Harvest Festival Mass Shooting?
The Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting took place on Oct. 1, 2017.
Aldean was one of three headliners during the event, and he was performing onstage gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire on the crowd from his 32nd-floor suite at the nearby Mandalay Bay Hotel.
Read More: Jason Aldean: Route 91 Shooting "Never Gets Easier," 7 Years Later
Fifty-eight people died at the scene. In the months that followed, two more people died from injuries sustained in the shooting.
This brought the death toll of the massacre to 60, making it the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in U.S, history — a title it retains to this day.
Approximately 867 people were injured.
Jason Aldean Remembers the First Days After the Route 91 Tragedy
During his Armchair Expert podcast appearance, Aldean described the immediate aftermath of the shooting from his perspective.
He remembered coming home and his mother crying over the horrific tragedy. He also said his oldest daughter Keeley was "freaking out" at school as the news came in, as she realized that her dad had been close to a mass shooting.
Days later, he was back in Las Vegas visiting victims at the hospital.
"That was tough," he comments. "People hadn't recovered from their wounds yet."
Aldean Had a Breakdown at Home After Route 91 Shooting
One of the people backstage during Aldean's headlining set at Route 91 was his wife Brittany, who was eight months pregnant with their son Memphis at the time.
Later on, after Memphis was born, he recalls one day when the emotions overwhelmed him.
"I ended up having a moment at my house where I broke down thinking about all the people I could have lost," he says.
Read More: Las Vegas Getting a Permanent Route 91 Memorial
Aldean was thinking both about his fans — including those who did die or were injured the massacre — and his "inner circle," including his wife and unborn son.
"All of a sudden at home, we had something else to focus on versus watching that on the news every day," he relates. "For me, you know, I kind of had a breakdown in my house one day."
"It was after my son was born and just all that heaviness of everything, just getting laid on you," he says.
He also says he was grateful none of his inner circle was hurt, but felt "guilt-ridden" about escaping the shooting unscathed when so many fans lost their lives.
What Did Jason Aldean Do to Process His Emotions Instead of Going to Therapy?
Aldean says he relied on some of the most important people in his life — his wife and the bandmates who were there with him that night — to work through his emotions about Route 91.
"My therapy was me, my wife, my band, all of us that were there. We all talked about it amongst each other," he says.
"All of us had kind of our little inner circle to talk about it with," Aldean goes on to say, "And that was what we did."
The singer explains that he often feels a little guarded about being vulnerable to outsiders, including therapists.
"I have a hard time opening up to people that don't know me or haven't been in the same situation," Aldean relates.
At that point, Shepard cracked a joke about Aldean coming on the wrong podcast, if he didn't want to open up about the tough stuff, and the singer laughed.
"I don't have any problem talking about it," he commented, "I'm just not going to voluntarily go and do it."
These Are the Names and Faces of the Victims of the Las Vegas Shooting:
