Chris Stapleton’s ‘Watch You Burn’ has a Bullet for the Perp of the 2017 Mass Shooting

Being a well-known artist definitely has a lot of perks aside from the satisfaction of seeing people entertained through their crafts and passion. But one of the downsides of being one is the continuous death threats and life-threatening situations they have to deal with each day. It’s human to be terrified, of course, but sometimes, they’ll get to the stage of hating some people and their means of retribution is through their music.

A Festival Turned to Nightmare

Back in 2017, during the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, the locals held a 3-day Country Music celebration which been one of the biggest yet. It was hailed as the greatest crossover of Pop and Country as Luke Bryan and Taylor Swift were present on the same stage.

A maniac let loose with a gun open fired causing 61 deaths including himself and 867 injured people. Recently, Chris Stapleton used this scenario as a bullet to his music ‘Watch You Burn.’ This one is directly addressed to the perpetrator of the event and it bleeds with anger and contempt.

Personal Therapy

‘Watch You Burn’ is written by both Chris Stapleton and Mike Campbell. The two men also worked together with the All Voices Choir.

While on an interview with CBS, Stapleton explained that even though the lyrics are an ad hominem to the perp and full of negative thoughts, it was somehow therapeutic for him. His friends and colleagues were involved in the incident and he needed a way how to process his feelings about the mass shooting. He never expected that a country music festival would be the largest mass shooting incident in the whole United States.

“It’s a self-therapy session, sometimes. Sometimes, that’s all [a song’s] for… Mike listened and … really got it to a place where he made me feel like it was not a song that was meant to be in my pocket.”

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We may never have changed the outcome of the event which caused hundreds of casualties, but through songs penned by artists we respect, it can somehow be a way of informing people that these things could happen anytime. Aside from entertainment, we must be a little cautious, and for those who cannot handle happy events such as these, it is best to remain at home to avoid getting people involved in your troubles.

“Watch You Burn” represents the 12^th out of 14 tracks in his fourth studio album ‘Starting Over’ which was recently released on Friday, November 13, and is available for streaming through various platforms online.