Jason Aldean Opens Up About Route 91 Harvest Music Festival Shooting In New Trailer For “11 Minutes” Documentary

Country music star Jason Aldean is opening up about the horrific 2017 mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in a trailer for Paramount+ and See It Now Studios’ chilling four-part documentary “11 Minutes,” which is set to be released on September 27.

Aldean Recalls Route 91 Festival Shooting

Aldean was onstage performing when a gunman opened fire on his audience from the nearby Mandalay Bay Hotel. He said in the documentary that the shooting began “like any other day.”

“Vegas was always one of the shows for me I always looked forward to,” Aldean said. “It was like any other day, crews are out, working, getting ready for the show.”

When gunfire broke out at 10:06 pm, Aldean had no idea what was going on, according to Billboard.

As per E! Online, Aldean recalled, “When I turned around, my bass player was just looking at me like a deer in the headlights,” adding that he initially thought the noise of gunfire was malfunctioning equipment. “And my security guy was on stage at that point, telling me to get down, waving me off the stage.”

While Aldean, his band members, and crew escaped unharmed that night, 60 people were killed. The country music star admitted that in the years since, he’s suffered from survivor’s guilt. 

“It’s hard not to feel a little guilty,” he said. “I mean, those people were there to support us.”

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’11 Minutes’ Documentary

Aldean was interviewed extensively for the documentary, which also includes emotional interviews with survivors, first responders, and FBI agents. It also features police bodycam footage and harrowing cell phone videos from that horrible night, according to the outlet.

“It’s important that people know the truth out of respect for those we lost, out of those who were injured, those who are still mentally and physically scarred … that everybody’s spirits and legacies remain intact,” SiriusXM radio host and festival emcee Storme Warren told Entertainment Tonight about the series.

“That friendships made that night in those 11 minutes were made for a reason,” he added. “The story, to me, wasn’t about a shooter. It was about people helping each other.”

Warren also said that when the first shots rang out, “that’s when the world changed for us. We watched the people fall in the crowd. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.”

“People stood up at that moment and they did what needed to be done at that time to take care of those on their left and right,” added Josh Haynes, a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police detective. “Those stories should be told.”

Check out the trailer for yourself in the video below.

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‘Worst Night Of Our Lives’

Aldean has previously opened up about his grief over the shooting.

“Hard to believe it’s been three years since Route 91,” he wrote on Instagram on the third anniversary of the shooting back in 2020. “That night was probably the worst night of our lives and not a day goes by that we don’t think about the people who lost their lives and the families who have forever been affected by it. October 1st will always be a day for us that is extremely hard to relive.”

“To everyone in the Route 91 family, we love u guys and we couldn’t have gotten through it without you,” he continued, adding the hashtags “#CountryStrong #Route91family #VegasStrong.”

The Route 91 Festival shooting was a truly horrifying tragedy, and the victims of the tragic incident will never be forgotten. Participating in this documentary could not be easy for Aldean and other survivors, and we applaud them for doing so.