‘A special tie to the city’: Aldean carves a niche on the Strip

Aldean’s recognition of his uniquely important position in Las Vegas’s history is evident in a display in the hallway on the second level of his new, self-named Kitchen + Bar on the Strip.

The 22,500-square-foot venue is at 63 CityCenter, southwest corner of Harmon Avenue and the Strip, and opened to a packed VIP crowd Thursday night. The TC Restaurant Group-operated club is the third such venue across the country, joining Nashville, Pittsburgh and Gatlinburg, Tenn.

An Oct. 1 tribute is in the design. Lined up under small spotlights are the orange, poker-chip-designed 2017 Route 91 Harvest brand, the heart-shaped Vegas Strong logo, and a plaque in the middle directing those “impacted by tragedy” to contact the Las Vegas Resiliency & Justice Center.

That display is just to the side of the club’s second-floor stage, and along the walk to the venue’s Green Room. This is where Aldean sat for a chat Thursday night during the venue’s packed VIP opening, just before a performance on the club’s second-level stage.

Before even being asked, Aldean talks of Route 91.

“Obviously we’ve got a special tie to the city, and probably will forever have that,” says Aldean, wearing a beige cowboy hat; gray-red-plaid, pearl-snap western shirt; and intentionally distressed blue jeans. “The first thing I said was, ‘I’m definitely down to do something for the Route 91 family.’

“We need to acknowledge them, because there will always be a lot of that family at our shows, and coming to the bar, and we need to show respect.”

Aldean says he has not seen the final display until the club’s opening.

“It is awesome,” he says. Several “Routers,” the Route 91 survivors, are in the club and soaking up the scene on opening night.

Straight talk

With his wife, Brittany, and his crew milling nearby, Aldean is making his most expansive comments to Las Vegas media about the mass shooting. He is a tough dude, brawny in build, rooted in his beliefs and unbending in his performances.

Aldean is also “present,” unflinching, fixing his attention squarely on the conversation. And the 47-year-old artist says he was badly shaken by Route 91. He is still dealing with the impact of October 1.

“It’s tough. You wake up sometimes you think it was some kind of nightmare,” Aldean says. “It’s like, ‘Did that really happen?’ And even now, we just had the seven-year anniversary for it and it’s like, “Man, I can’t believe that we were in the middle of that shit. It’s crazy that it even happened at our show, and then it’s like, once it does, what do you do now?”

Aldean adds, “There is no book on how to get through that kind of thing.” He did not seek professional counseling: “I talked to my wife, my crew, my guys a lot. We lean on each other. But I’m not one to go in and sit down and talk about stuff like that to a perfect stranger. That’s just not my style.”

Aldean has only driven by the Route 91 parcel. He has not set foot on the land since Oct. 1, 2017.

“I just feel like it should always be honored, never forgotten, whatever they decide to do there,” Aldean says. “I can tell you, personally, I don’t know that I would want to go back and play a show there, as an artist. To each their own on that.”

A star at center stage

This chat falls in the middle of a crazy afternoon and evening, a few minutes before Aldean will take the stage for a packed VIP crowd at his new bar, and a few minutes after he has rocked the National Finals Rodeo’s opening night at the Thomas & Mack Center with “My Kinda Rowdy.” The sold-out crowd of 17,456 went nuts.

In the afternoon, Aldean received a Key to the Las Vegas Strip and proclamation from Clark County Commissioner Jim Gibson. The three-time Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year walked the red carpet with Brittany, grinning and posing for selfies.

Earlier, Brittany shopped at NFR’s Cowboy Christmas, and says she needs at least one more visit to take in the wheat-field-sized retail fortress. A shiny, custom, gold-and-silver NFR belt buckle is on the table, given to all NFR performers.

Knowing he still has a full night ahead, Aldean calls out, “Can anyone get me a 5-Hour Energy Drink? I don’t wanna doze off.”

The demand for Aldean in Las Vegas, and this second-level honkytonk overlooking the Strip, was once unfathomable. He is impressed himself that his towering club is open for business, having visited a month and a half ago, wondering, “I don’t know if we’re going to be ready.”

“Just to come in and have a bar in Las Vegas, period, it’s the wildest thing ever to me,” Aldean says. “For it to be on the Strip is just pretty cool, man, a really cool thing.”

Live music rules the club, with music running daily on both stages. The acts are largely out of Nashville, yet another bridge to “NashVegas.”

Before owning his own tavern, Aldean says the last time he went partied at a Vegas honkeytonk was at Gilley’s at the Frontier (find the club at Treasure Island today). He and his friends hung in the back and persuaded the bar staff to serve drinks for free because they were broke. 

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been bar-hopping and going to country bars in Las Vegas,” Aldean says. “But I grew up playing a ton of them. I started playing bars at 14, and I’ve seen a lot of them. You see different things in those clubs that you think are cool and try to incorporate that stuff into what we do.”

“Cool” is the green John Deere at the Tractor Bar near the entrance. The club sports a Guitar Bar, stages on the lower and upper levels, a terrace overlooking the Strip, the Southern-inspired food menu and signature cocktails.

Aldean’s set list for the opening-night show makes his political and cultural affiliation clear. “We had a good November,” he says to the crowd in a club where the energy (and temperature) are escalating. He scans the crowd and says the audience had a good November, too. He thanks everyone who supported him through the controversy of “Try That In a Small Town,” and plays the song, to rowdy response.

He orders whiskey and tequila, and it seems the 5-Hour Energy drink has taken hold.

Studio activity

Aldean has new music coming in ‘25, plans to be determined. ‘We’ll be dropping some songs and that kind of thing, but I’m not sure how that looks for the album yet,” he says. “We’re in the middle of that, but we don’t have a title even for the tour, which is coming up quicker than an album drop.”

The conversation with Aldean actually began more than a decade ago, in the bar line at the short-lived “Duck Commander Musical” at the Rio. We chatted about a possible extended engagement, returning to that topic during the club opening.

“There’s nothing in the works right now. At some point, we may end up doing a bigger, longer-term residency somewhere out here,” Aldean says. “I just don’t personally feel like I’m ready for that yet, I still like getting on the bus, and going to play with these guys and traveling around. But somewhere down the road, I’m not opposed to coming in and playing here. I always love the city of Las Vegas.”

Cool Hang Alert

Staying with Aldean’s, a blanket Cool Hang plug for bands and DJ’s, both stages, ongoing from 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Go jasonaldeansbar.com/music for intel.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.