Jason Aldean abruptly ends concert after suffering heat exhaustion: 'It was pretty intense'

Jason Aldean’s latest tour has gotten off to a bumpy start.

The country singer, who launched his Highway Desperado tour without incident on Friday, was forced to halt and postpone his second show in Hartford, Connecticut, on Saturday after suffering heat exhaustion during his performance, according to an Instagram post from the concert’s venue, Xfinity Theatre.

“Yesterday’s Jason Aldean show will be rescheduled for a future date,” the venue wrote Sunday. “We appreciate your patience as we work on rescheduling a new date, as well as the outpouring of well wishes for Jason. A rep has confirmed he is now doing well after experiencing heat stroke during last night’s performance.”

Aldean posted a video message in his Instagram Stories Sunday apologizing to fans for “cutting the show short.” While the “Big Green Tractor” singer said he’s been treated with a couple of IVs since then, he downplayed the severity of the situation and said he’s feeling “a lot better.”

“I’ve had a lot of people check in on me today after hearing about what happened last night at the show in Connecticut,” Aldean told his followers. “I’m doing fine. It’s just one of those things – it was hot, I was playing golf all day yesterday ... I think it was a combination of dehydration and heat exhaustion.”

“It was pretty intense last night,” Aldean added. “Anybody that was at the show knows how hot it was. I knew it was coming. I was trying to get through as much of the show as I could, and eventually I knew it wasn’t going to happen and I was trying to just get off stage and figure out what was going on.”

Aldean’s next tour stop is a concert at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York, on Sunday. The singer confirmed the performance would take place as planned in his video message.

USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Aldean for comment.

Aldean’s Highway Desperado tour is a 41-city trek that will visit cities such as Cincinnati; Atlanta; Jacksonville, Florida; and St. Louis, according to the singer's official website. Mitchell Tenpenny, Corey Kent and Dee Jay Silver have been tapped as guests.

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The Grammy-nominated singer, who made his country debut with his 2005 self-titled album, released his latest studio effort, a double album titled “Macon, Georgia,” in November 2021 with “Macon” and April 2022 with the album’s latter half “Georgia.”

Aldean, who scored 14 consecutive top-five singles on country radio between 2013 and 2019, reflected on his musical legacy in an interview with The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network, in April 2022.

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"I've finally been able to take the time to accept that I've accomplished far more in my career than I ever thought I would," Aldean said at the time. "Never in a trillion years did I expect this. I just wanted to make a decent living, have a nice house, keep the lights turned on and pay off my bills."

Contributing: Marcus K. Dowling, The (Nashville) Tennessean

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jason Aldean stops concert after suffering heat exhaustion onstage