Here's how NRA supporter Lee Brice, who performed at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, feels about the Las Vegas mass shooting
Artist Lee Brice has long been a proud member of the National Rifle Association (NRA), even releasing exclusive songs and videos through the lobbying group’s program NRA Country. It’s not unusual for a singer-songwriter topping the country music charts to be an outspoken gun rights supporter, but in the wake of the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas (which happened one year ago this month), the industry and fans have asked themselves some tough questions about gun violence. During a visit to BUILD on Tuesday, Brice described the fear he experienced after the massacre (which killed 58 people and left over 800 wounded), and how the passion of country fans brought them together in the midst of tragedy.
Brice, who actually played Route 91 Harvest last year on opening night — two days before shooter Stephen Paddock opened fire on Jason Aldean’s closing set from a hotel window — said, “Friday night was amazing. … And then Sunday night happened and obviously the whole world got turned upside down.”
The “I Drive Your Truck” singer was on the road when he heard the news, preparing to play a Monday night show. He wasn’t sure if he should go on, or whether anyone would show up. But to his astonishment, he walked onstage to a full house.
“The room was filled to the back,” he recalled. “I said, that kind of shows me that this kind of evil, this kind of atrocity, this kind of terrorism really… is not gonna take away what country music fans love, and they’re not gonna let that do that to them.”
Not long afterwards, Brice returned to Las Vegas to visit with survivors. “All of their attitude was, ‘It just made us love country music more… and it’s not gonna change our love for it or us going to concerts,’” he said. “That just kind of blew me away even more, about country music fans.”
Brice was one of 39 artists who partnered with NRA Country over the years to promote his music. That list shrank to 37 after last year’s shooting, and earlier this year, the organization stopped promoting partnered artists on its website. The country music world remains notably divided a year after the shooting, with some artists calling for gun control measures, others releasing sympathetic songs, and some like Brice trying to uplift in the grief.
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