Saturday Night Live – Jason Aldean opening: A Tom Petty, Las Vegas tribute

We weren’t around to cover Saturday Night Live last night (one of the first times in a while), but we do want to still touch on the powerful Jason Aldean opening at the start of the show.

Often whenever there are tragedies (think following the Newtown shooting) the late-night sketch show does find a way to do something different as a cold open. It was effective to hear about some of what Jason went through in his own words before he went into a performance of the classic Tom Petty song “Won’t Back Down.” This was both a signal of strength to everyone following the shooting and a tribute to Petty, who passed away earlier this week. This was a stripped-down, courageous performance, and at the end of it Aldean said the signature “live from New York” before going on with the rest of the show.

We will also touch on Aldean himself just because the man’s being ripped for all sorts of ridiculous stuff. First, there are the ingrates who are out there mocking him for running off stage in Vegas when he clearly has his own family to think about. Who are you to pass judging amidst that sort of horror saying what someone should or shouldn’t do? Then there are the people wanting him to take a stronger political stance, whereas there are also some people who are ripping Aldean for canceling shows and then using SNL as his platform to come back, even though the majority of his fanbase is conservative and pretty against the idea of him appearing on the show. (We don’t even want to get into the Dana White of it all.)

Here’s one of the many ironies that come out of this unfortunate situation: Aldean posted on social media after the shooting that one of the things that he wanted to do is see people come together. He then went on a liberal-leaning late-night show, performed, and then got attacked by his own fans for doing something that was fully in line with his message. We do think him appearing on SNL is as tough of a stance as he’s going to take on anything. While we at CarterMatt would love to see him do more on Saturday Night Live, let’s face it: He knows that if he does have a strong opinion about gun control after what he went through his fans would alienate him for it. Maybe his views haven’t changed at all, but he recognizes regardless that he’s an entertainer and the show must go on.

Ultimately, what does matter is that Jason wanted a moment for people to come together despite political leanings and that’s something that we can really appreciate. We do think that this was both him and SNL doing their part to make that happen; it left politics for a little later on in the show.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RRCbVBCRBE