Faith Hill and Tim McGraw turned to social media to connect with fans after 59 people were killed and hundreds more were injured at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas. In an Instagram post, the husband and wife superstar duo asked fans to help each other "find a way to deal with the emotional trauma."
The post featured a large heart with the word "Vegas" on the lower right corner. A number of similar images expressing love, grief, hope and prayer made their way across social media.
Faith and Tim's message starts by acknowledging "so many tragedies" in 2017 alone. "Each one heart wrenching in its own unique way," they say. "And then this morning. We can't even begin to express all of our feelings waking up to the news that country music fans lost their lives in a tragic shooting last night in Las Vegas."
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For a lot of country artists, the attack was personal. As Faith and Tim note in their message, the country world had a lot of friends at that festival and many artists played it on earlier nights or years.
A dark cloud hung over both Las Vegas and Nashville. A special vigil was held at Nashville's downtown amphitheater last night for members of the community to come together. The vast majority of artists at the festival live in the community, and many people feared for the safety of colleagues and team members at the show.
And of course, artists across all genres know what it's like to stare out at a face of adoring fans. Imagining those fans panicked and fearing for their lives is devastating for these performers.
Other artists responded to the attack in their own way. Maren Morris released new music and is donating proceeds to the victims. Garth Brooks made a video message aimed largely at performers. Bobby Bones brought in a handful of superstars on his morning show to perform, as well as created LOVE>HATE shirts to raise money for victims.
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