HOLLYWOOD—Music is the heart of our soul. So it’s no surprise that so many fans gathered at an outdoor music festival on the Las Vegas Strip. What is shocking is that a 64-year-old man named Stephen Paddock opened fire on the crowd of an outdoor concert on October 1 near the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino killing 58 people and injuring more than 500 others.
He then killed himself after the SWAT team entered the hotel room. Country music star Jason Aldean was performing when the gunfire began. As of press time, no motive has been established in this senseless massacre. Shocking is an understatement, how any one can have such an evil heart. Country music star, Aldean has cancelled a string of concerts after 59 people were shot dead. He said getting back on stage in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on October 12 would be “tough and emotional.”
Just a day later, Grammy winners, country music Hall of Famers, actors, singers and songwriters and the mayor gathered at the Ascend Amphitheater in Nashville to memorialize the dozens of people who lost their lives 24 hours earlier in Las Vegas. The grief that Las Vegas performers Jason Aldean, Jake Owen and Chris Young will be bringing with them when they return home from the Route 91 Harvest Festival.
Country music stars united at the Ascend Amphitheater, including Vince Gill and his wife Amy Grant. Australian superstar Keith Urban led into an emotional version of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge over Troubled Water” with a very personal story. Urban picked a landmark song, thats how Clive Davis always described the song. Clive Davis loved that song and decided the song should be the first single from the duo Simon and Garfunkel’s fifth and final album. The duo always wondered why Clive Davis picked such a long ballad. It is one of the best songs ever written and he preferred to go with that.
Clive Davis, 85, discovered Alicia Keys. Aerosmith and Bill Joel, among many more. Bruce Springsteen stood in front of Clive Davis back in 1972 and played his heart out. Davis signed him on the spot, knowing that he would later be a household name. Seven years, and a lot of hard work, Bruce Springsteen sold out Madison Square Garden. For most of us, discovering one superstar would be enough-but oh-no-over the last four decades, Davis has steered the likes of Aretha Franklin, Billy Joel, Aerosmith, Barry Manilow, Alicia Keys and his biggest artist being Whitney Houston.
Davis discovered her in her teens, nurturing her talent and shaping her into one of the best-selling artists of all time. He stayed in her life and her career, staging an intervention when drugs took over her life, and says her death, in 2012, still feels “startling and unexpected.” Davis is the chief creative officer of Sony Music, and known as one of the dons of the music industry. His story is explored in a new documentary, “Soundtrack of Our Lives,” which premiered this week on Apple Music. Along the way, his gut has guided him towards surprising, often tough, decisions.
Rose’s Scoop: Las Vegas’ finest indie rock n’ rollers “The Killers” have sent out a heartfelt message to the people of their home city in the wake of the mass shooting, the band, who recently released their fifth studio album Wonderful Wonderful tweeted: “We’ve got heavy hearts. We love you, Las Vegas.”
