Interview: Bobby Bones Talks About the Las Vegas Mass Shooting, How He Found Out About It
Lonestar 99.5's morning show host Bobby Bones talked to me about the horrific mass shooting in Las Vegas, his upcoming farewell concert in Lubbock and how country music comes together after tragedy.
Bobby Bones' morning show has been a powerful link for us to come to terms with what happened in Las Vegas and the horrific tragedy Sunday night. The host himself wasn't in Las Vegas when gunfire erupted, but his band The Raging Idiots did play the Route 91 Harvest Festival over the weekend and had friends who either were performing or working at the event.
The radio host recounted how he first learned about what happened in Las Vegas.
"It happened first on my phone, I guess midnight, 1 a.m.-ish. I started to get a lot of texts from people checking in on each other. Some of my friends that...had played the night before," Bones explained. "And so I was on a text thread of everyone checking in on each other. So I woke up to like 40 unread messages. Jake Owen was there that night, he's a good friend of mine, and he was like, 'hey dude, are you here?' So the first thing we did was got him on [the air] and talked to him."
From there, Bones recounted how he watched the story unfold, and the death count sadly rise, that morning live on the air with his listeners.
On Tuesday morning, Bones had country artists Keith Urban, Dierks Bentley, Brothers Osborne, Maren Morris and more on his show. They shared music to help us all work through this difficult aftermath.
Lubbock fans are anxiously anticipating Bobby Bones and the Raging Idiots show here on Friday, October 20th. And he assured me they will be here and never for a moment considered canceling in the face of the tragedy.
"We're coming to Lubbock, we never once considered not coming to do the show there, that's our first show [of the farewell tour]," he told Lonestar 99.5. "I was talking to Keith Urban...we feel like we owe it to the people to give them a good time and give them kind of a release. So yeah, it's been a weird time, but it always reminds you how great the country community is."
He shared that his Love>Hate shirts have raised more than $75,000 so far for the Las Vegas Victims Relief Fund. You can follow this link to contribute and get a shirt.
"We are promoting positivity, we are encouraging people to give blood, and, if you have money, not all of us have money all the time...a large part of my life I couldn't donate anything until Friday when I got paid, so that's the thing, it's whatever way that you can give, if you can, please do," Bones said.
We're really glad to have had the opportunity to talk to Bobby Bones, and you can hear my whole interview with him above.
Coming up next week (Oct. 9th), be listening to Lonestar 99.5 for you chance to win tickets and meet & greet passes to see Bobby Bones' upcoming show at the Lubbock Civic Center, Friday, October 20th.
Bonus: Lonestar 99.5 talks to Bobby Bones