Three days after Jason Aldean won his third entertainer of the year trophy in a row at the Academy of Country Music Awards on Sunday night, the country superstar made his way to New York City for a performance on the Today show and then a SiriusXM subscriber event on Wednesday. At the latter, Aldean performed a mix of hits and tracks from his just-released album Rearview Town — but first, he discussed his recent Las Vegas trip for the ACMs, which the 41-year-old admitted had “a little bit of a different vibe” this year.
The weekend marked Aldean’s first time back to Vegas since October 1, when a gunman opened fire into the crowd during his set at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival, killing 58 and injuring 851. While the return was bittersweet, Aldean’s trip ended on a much-needed high note with the entertainer of the year win.
“I think it was kind of a storybook ending to the whole thing,” he told SiriusXM The Highway’s Buzz Brainard at the Opry City Stage. “It brought a lot of closure to us and hopefully it did to a lot of people that were there. There’d been so much tragedy and negativity surrounding us and Vegas, the whole thing, that it was nice to go back and sort of end it on a positive note, and be back there for something that was positive. It was a cool way to sort of close the book a little bit on that.”
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He later sang eight songs, including the Miranda Lambert duet “Drowns the Whiskey” (sans Lambert) and the title track from his new album, as well as the party-starting “Lights Come On” and heartbreak ballad “Any Old Barstool.” Aldean was in good spirits during the interview and performance, joking around with fans about twerking onstage: “You need to go to a Luke Bryan show for that.”
As his sentiment about his ACMs win and Vegas indicated, Aldean also said he’s eager to hit the road now that Rearview Town is out (it was released April 13). The High Noon Neon Tour kicks off May 10 in Kansas City.
Watch Aldean’s performances of “Rearview Town” and “Lights Come On” from the SiriusXM event below.