Jason Aldean was forced to cut his show early over the weekend in Hartford, Conn., after suffering heat exhaustion.
A fan video from the concert on Saturday at XFinity Theater shows the country music star, with his guitar slung around his shoulder, struggling to sing the words to his song “Crazy Town” before turning around and running off stage.
Aldean addressed fans the following day via his Instagram stories, sharing the events that led up to his abrupt exit. “I was playing golf all of yesterday and then I got to the show and it was a combination of dehydration and exhaustion,” he said.
“There’s a lot of things going around, heat stroke and all that stuff — I don’t think it got quite that serious,” the “Dirt Road Anthem” singer continued. “But it was pretty intense last night at the show. Anybody at the show last night knows how hot it was.”
Temperatures in Hartford peaked in the high 80s throughout the day, according to the National Weather Service. Even as the sun set around the start of Aldean’s concert around 7:30 p.m., the heat stuck around with temperatures in the low 80s — and the air remained wet and thick, with humidity remaining high at 74%. Heat waves blanketed huge swaths of the the United States over the weekend, putting one-third of the country under excessive heat warnings, according to NPR. A heat dome rolled through Southern California, which saw near triple-digit temperatures as wildfires burned through dry vegetation in Riverside County.
XFinity Theater also confirmed Aldean’s heat exhaustion on Sunday and assured concertgoers that a makeup show would be scheduled at a later date.
“I tried to get through as much of the show as I could,” Aldean said on Instagram. “I knew it was coming, I knew it wasn’t going to happen — I was trying to just get off stage and figure out what was going on.”
After leaving the stage, Aldean said, he received an IV drip and then got another IV treatment on Sunday as he prepared to play another show in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Photos from the concert show the singer giving an animated performance.
Aldean had just kicked off his tour on Friday in Bethel, N.Y. He has 42 remaining dates, including several Southern California stops — one at San Bernardino’s Glen Helen Amphitheater and another at FivePoint Amphitheater in Irvine.
“Obviously it’s not the way I wanted this show to end,” Aldean said online. “Not what I was hoping for on our first week on the tour by any means.”
Aldean has recently made headlines over his controversial new political song, “Try That in a Small Town,” which takes a pro-police, pro-gun-rights stance; its music video shows footage of protesters burning American flags and struggling with law enforcement in riot gear.
The typically apolitical singer also found himself in a controversy after defending his wife, Brittany Kerr, who last year posted a video critical of gender-affirming care for children, calling the medical procedures “genital mutilation.” Fellow country stars Maren Morris and Cassadee Pope called the statements transphobic, and Aldean’s publicity firm dropped him as a client following the statements.
Aldean said he and his wife were merely “advocating for children” and support adults who decide to seek gender-affirming care.
This story originally appeared on LA Times
