Old Crow Medicine Show Frontman Speaks Out Against Guns
Old Crow Medicine Show frontman Ketch Secor is one of a handful of musicians who has added his voice to the growing conversation about gun control in the country music community.
Speaking at a panel discussion during Tennessee music festival Bonnaroo, Secor made his feelings very clear:
"We live in this country music town and country music is a place where there’s been a historic tendency to really hold tight to the idea of God, guns and glory," he said, according to the Tennessean. "That’s become a country music truth, and I don’t believe that’s a country music truth. I believe it’s a nostalgic view that must be changed."
Secor's words were magnified by the fact that he appeared at the panel alongside a survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla. Aalayah Eastman was attending class when the gunman shot through the window of her classroom. She witnessed her classmate struck by a bullet, and hid under his body to protect herself until the shooting stopped.
Eastman's chilling recollections of the day punctuated Secor's statements about the state of Tennessee's specific need to address gun culture. He noted the shooting at the Route 91 country festival in Las Vegas last October: "It forced country music to take an in-depth look at itself and ask itself really hard questions, and sadly it seems like the status quo remains."
Country artists have traditionally been very reticent about speaking publicly about gun control for fear of offending fans, but that tide is slowly shifting. Rosanne Cash, Sheryl Crow and Chely Wright have weighed in since Las Vegas, and Tim McGraw and Faith Hill opened up in an interview with Billboard the day after the 2017 CMA Awards.
Jason Aldean, who was headlining at the time of the Vegas shooting, has also spoken out.
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