SNL Opens on Somber Note

Country star Jason Aldean took the stage on Saturday Night Live, reports the AP, paying tribute to the victims of the Las Vegas massacre and to the late rocker Tom Petty. "Launching into a solid, countrified cover of Tom Petty’s 'I Won’t Back Down,' Aldean brought the viewing audience’s other big (although less catastrophically violent) sorrow of the week into the gesture, playing the late Petty’s ode to, well, not backing down," writes Dennis Perkins at the AV Club.

"This week we witnessed one of the worst tragedies in American history," Aldean said. "So many people are hurting. You can be sure that we are going to walk through these tough times together every step of the way." Aldean was performing at an outdoor concert in Las Vegas last Sunday night when a gunman sprayed bullets into the crowd from a high-rise hotel. Petty died Monday in Los Angeles at age 66 after suffering cardiac arrest. (More Saturday Night Live stories.)