When Josh and I talked about our dreams of playing music in front of people and seeing who all we could get to be a part of this and creating something special, something that everyone could be a part of, one of the things I never anticipated was needing to speak about things that are tough to speak about, like tragedies. Last night, I barely slept, I didn’t know what I was going to say but I knew something needed to be said. Do I say something in the beginning of the show? Do I say something before this song, after this song…I didn’t know. So I wrote a few things down, and then I threw those things away, I’m just going to speak from the heart. I want you to know something. When we decided we wanted to be musicians, we wanted to play shows, we knew that our concerts, the places that people could come, we wanted them to be a safe place. So, we want this area to be a safe place, and that was what we intended from the beginning. But heres the truth, this is going to be a safe place in here, we’re celebrating the fact that we’re alive, that we made it. I want you to know that music can help you get from one place to next. When you’re listening to music by yourself, you’re trying to survive, at least that’s what Josh and I use it for, but when you come to a show, you’re celebrating. You’re celebrating with thousands of people around you that you’ve made it. You made it for that day, you made it for that show, and you’re still kicking, you’re still here. This is a safe place. What I can’t deny, what I cannot pretend doesn’t exist, is what’s outside of this room right now, which is the rest of the world. And when I heard what had happened last night in Dallas with the five policemen who got killed and also when I heard about the two african american men who were treated unjustly and were killed, honestly I said to myself, ‘what is going on? why does this keep happening? This is wrong. Something’s broken and I don’t know how to fix it. I just write songs’ and I don’t know how to fix it, guys, I really don’t. And I wish I had the words to fix it…but I don’t. All I can say is that this city, I was in this city last night when everything was going down and even though it felt dark. It felt like there was fear, I felt a strength, and if there’s anywhere in the world that everyone can look at, and learn from, it’s from this city in Dallas, Texas. I know that they can learn from this place right here. We have to stick together, guys. We gotta figure this out, we have to stick together, and we have to love each other. I want you to know that all I know is how to play shows and how to write music, and I don’t know what kind of power that brings, what kind of change that brings, but I promise you that we’re doing everything we can, to try and bring that power and that change to this community, and to this world. And I want you guys, when you leave this room, to know that we’re asking you to work your hardest to make that change as well, Okay?.
romaincrisis
origamiaround
snowghoul
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
areudirty
titsay
