Jason Aldean: Having Wife Brittany With Him During Las Vegas Shooting ‘Definitely Was Scary’
On Sunday (Aug. 26), Jason Aldean will sit down with Sunday Today host Willie Geist to discuss his career and success in country music. Among the topics the pair chatted about is Aldean's experience -- and that of his wife Brittany -- during the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting in Las Vegas, Nev. Readers can press play above to watch the country star share his thoughts.
On Oct. 1, 2017, the night of the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting, Aldean was performing his headlining, festival-closing set when a gunman opened fire on the crowd from a nearby hotel. Brittany was backstage and pregnant with their first child, Memphis; a few days after the tragedy, she shared in a social media post that she and Aldean sought each other out and, at first, hid behind equipment onstage.
"It definitely was scary," Aldean tells Geist. "On one hand, I hate that she was there to have to experience it; on the other hand, I know if she was at home and saw it on the news, she would have freaked out. I don’t know what would have been worse."
Aldean has admitted previously that the experience brought him and his wife closer together: "Her and I lean on each other for that stuff," Aldean says. "I think it brought us closer in a lot of ways, too."
To Geist, Aldean notes that he copes with his experience at the Route 91 shooting by "choos[ing] not to relive [it] over and over."
"That’s not something I want on my resume for the rest of my life," he says.
Aldean's full Sunday Today interview will air at 8AM ET on NBC.
Remembering the Route 91 Harvest Festival Shooting Victims