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Photo: Ebsen Melbye / Courtesy of Sky Media

Jason Heath and the Greedy Souls Tell the Story of “In Love With My Gun” (premiere)

There are some who have had enough of handgun violence. Roots rockers Jason Heath and the Greedy Souls engage the gun debate in "In Love With My Gun".

“In Love With My Gun” is the latest track culled from Jason Heath and the Greedy Souls‘ 2017 album But There’s Nowhere to Go. As the tune’s title suggests, the song takes up the omnipresent issue of guns and gun control in the United States.

“The video is a bit controversial,” the Los Angeles-based Heath says, “but I think it’s timely and pertinent to the gun control debate. The treatment was a collaboration between director Jorn Van Oostende and me. Working with the lyric, ‘I’m Miss America’s favorite son / I’ve got bloody red hands / I was born with a gun’, the concept of a Miss America pageant winner giving birth to an actual gun was conceived (no pun intended) as a darkly humorous, hyperbolic metaphor for our national obsession with guns and our desensitized consumption of violence as entertainment.”

He adds, “Although the imagery is sensational, shocking, and presented in a ‘tongue in cheek’ manner, it is in no way intended to dismiss or devalue the thread of gun violence or the loss victims have suffered. The song and video are, in fact, a direct response to the insanity of gun violence in America.” He notes that the song was partially inspired by school shootings but also “by the violence and disproportionate use of force against people of color. The song was inspired by the violence and ‘gun culture’ that exists in the underserved communities I’ve visited working with incarcerated youth in Los Angeles as part of the Jail Guitar Doors team. I don’t believe it’s a ‘right’ or a ‘left’ issue, to me and to the band, it’s more of a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ debate. No matter what side of the political line you find yourself on, I think we can agree that we have a problem that needs addressing.”

The end of the clip, he says, provides links to sites where people can find information about organizations attempting to affect change, including the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Brady Campaign, Every Town, Giffords and Black Lives Matter.

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