Country music star Jason Aldean has opened up in detail about his experience at the Route 91 Festival shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, saying that “it was pretty scary.”
The four-part Paramount+ documentary series, 11 Minutes, premiered earlier this week. It features police bodycam video, cellphone video, and interviews, including Aldean’s, detailing the 11-minute-long Oct. 1, 2017, shooting that unfolded as Stephen Paddock sprayed gunfire down from a Mandalay Bay hotel room, killing 58 people that night and leaving more than 800 others injured.
Aldean said he tried to keep his wife, Brittany, from seeing the carnage as they exited toward his tour bus.
“It didn’t sink into us, like, something was wrong until Jason Aldean’s security ushered him off the stage.”
Country superstar Jason Aldean has never spoken in depth about the night of the Las Vegas shooting – until now. Stream “11 Minutes” September 27 on @paramountplus. pic.twitter.com/tW1FvbkLVF
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 27, 2022
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“So, we’re running, and we got about halfway up the side of the bus, he started shooting again, and my wife froze up and dropped,” Aldean explained. “And I just grabbed her under the arms and carried her up to the door.”
“There was this time period of just really not knowing where everybody was, how they were,” Aldean added. “It was pretty scary.”
The documentary premiered Tuesday, a few days shy of the shooting’s fifth anniversary.
“I remember, finally, some cops came to the bus,” Aldean said. “They took us into a parking lot. The police had an armored vehicle there. You just know it’s not good. It looks like a bomb went off. I told my wife, ‘Keep your head down. Look at your feet. Don’t look around, and let’s get out of here.'”
Recording artist Dee Jay Silver also shared how police escorted him through the crowd as he stepped over bodies on the ground.
“Long story short, we ended up on a tour bus and laid on the floor, and I get a text, ‘What room is your kid in?’ I said, ’32-130.’ He said, ‘The shooter’s in 32-135, a couple hundred feet [away].'”
Knowing there was nothing he could do, Silver said that “every emotion in the world” flooded him.
“SWAT walked in and kicked in the door and grabbed the baby, ran out,” Silver said. “The whole time, I knew this, but I couldn’t tell my wife because she would’ve been [so scared].”
“I went blank,” Silver added about the situation overall. “I didn’t know how to react. Everyone around is screaming and crying, and I didn’t want to add to it. The whole time, I didn’t have anyone to ask the advice of what to do. The phone was dead, and everything imaginable that you think can run through times 10.”
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Clark County, Nevada, has scheduled multiple events to honor the victims and survivors of the Route 91 Festival shooting. Events include a museum exhibit, a sunrise ceremony at the Clark County Government Center outdoor amphitheater on Saturday, and a Remember Music Festival with Midland expected to headline the concert.
