Jussie Smollett stood tall Saturday night as he made his first public appearance since Tuesday's attack, telling hundreds of fans, "I had to be here tonight. I couldn't let these motherf*****s win."
Jussie performed in WeHo at the famed Troubadour in front of a packed audience of 400 and generally addressed the incident in Chicago. He told the crowd he's okay and still healing.
He asked for solidarity and the crowd was with him, as he said, "I'm going to stand strong with y'all."
At the end of the show, Jussie lit up the stage with a call to action about being black, being gay and being proud. The crowd went absolutely wild.
As Jussie left the venue you can still see signs of the bruising he suffered on the streets of Chicago. TMZ broke the story, Jussie told cops he was walking home from a 2 AM Subway run when 2 men hurled homophobic and racial slurs at him, attacked him and screamed "MAGA country."
Police are still investigating.