Uploaded July 2018 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
Jason Aldean, the Academy of Country Music's reigning entertainer of the year, is back in Las Vegas this weekend for the 53rd Academy of Country Music Awards. The ceremony will take place about a mile from the site of a massacre that killed nearly 60 country music fans in October.
CBS News' Vladimir Duthiers spoke to the country music star backstage at the MGM Garden Arena, where he was preparing for his performance at Sunday's show.
How to watch the 2018 ACM Awards
"You know I think everybody sort of tried to make this thing about me coming back to Vegas come try to make it a little bigger than it was," Aldean said. "For me, you know, I've got a million great memories in Vegas and one horrible one."
It's been just over six months since Aldean's performance at a music festival was tragically cut short, when a gunman opened fire on the crowd from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel.
"I love this town. I mean, I love Las Vegas, I love this city. Was looking forward to coming back out here and I think this is the right setting for me. To be out here with the country music family, my friends and people in the country music world," he said.
The shooting last October was the country's deadliest mass shooting. Fifty-eight people were killed and hundreds injured. Aldean invited some of those survivors to watch his rehearsal Friday afternoon.
Jason Aldean, the Academy of Country Music's reigning entertainer of the year, is back in Las Vegas this weekend for the 53rd Academy of Country Music Awards. The ceremony will take place about a mile from the site of a massacre that killed nearly 60 country music fans in October.
CBS News' Vladimir Duthiers spoke to the country music star backstage at the MGM Garden Arena, where he was preparing for his performance at Sunday's show.
How to watch the 2018 ACM Awards
"You know I think everybody sort of tried to make this thing about me coming back to Vegas come try to make it a little bigger than it was," Aldean said. "For me, you know, I've got a million great memories in Vegas and one horrible one."
It's been just over six months since Aldean's performance at a music festival was tragically cut short, when a gunman opened fire on the crowd from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel.
"I love this town. I mean, I love Las Vegas, I love this city. Was looking forward to coming back out here and I think this is the right setting for me. To be out here with the country music family, my friends and people in the country music world," he said.
The shooting last October was the country's deadliest mass shooting. Fifty-eight people were killed and hundreds injured. Aldean invited some of those survivors to watch his rehearsal Friday afternoon.
