Eric Church Breaks Down in Tears on Stage While Talking About Las Vegas
Country star Eric Church performed at the Las Vegas festival that became the setting of a horrific mass shooting Sunday night, leaving 59 people dead and hundreds injured. Entertainment Weekly reports that Church gave an emotional tribute to the victims during a concert at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
During the show Wednesday night, Church took a moment to address the tragic event. "I didn't want to be here tonight. I didn't want to play guitar," Church said. "I didn't want to walk on the stage." But he said he decided to in honor of a fan who died in the horrific attack, the Today show reports.
Church had performed at the Route 91 Harvest Festival Friday night, and talked Wednesday about how he felt connected to the audience during his performance. He even took a moment that night to go into the crowd and shake hands with fans. "I saw that crowd," he said, holding back tears. "I saw them with their hands in the air and I saw them with boots in the air and what I saw - that moment in time was frozen - there's no amount of bullets that could take it away."
"Forty eight hours later the places that I stood was carnage," Church said. "Those are my people. Those are my fans." Church revealed he left two empty chairs in his audience, in Section 3, Row F, for Heather Melton and her husband, Sonny, who died in the attack; it turns out the two of them had tickets for Church's show.
Church debuted a new song in Sonny's honor, and also performed Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." There wasn't a dry eye in the house.
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