Country music stars speak out after Nashville school shooting

Garth Brooks and other country music stars are speaking out following the deadly mass shooting at a Nashville school, saying that “it’s the world we live in right now.”

The “Friends in Low Places” singer said that he films his Facebook Live series, “Inside Studio G,” less than two miles from The Covenant School, where the attack occurred. Three children and three adult staff members died in the Monday shooting, after a 28-year-old former student opened fire inside the private Christian school. The shooter, who was armed with two assault-style weapons and a handgun, was killed by police.

“On my way in the studio this morning, I got passed by five, six emergency vehicles coming on the shoulder. I didn’t even think about it. It just seemed like a regular morning,” Brooks said in a video posted on Monday. “We’re probably in there about an hour when we get the news of what’s happening.”

“It’s always heartbreaking when you see any kind of situation like what happened today, but to know it’s in your own hometown was a little tough,” Brooks, 61, said.

“I was talking to somebody today and they said it’s just something like this happens — that here comes the thoughts and prayers. Here comes the anger. Here comes the debates about all this stuff. And then it just kind of fades for those who aren’t victims.”

“Until it happens again, and then the same cycle starts up again,” Brooks continued.

“I can tell you this: When we stop even thinking about it all — we stopped caring — we’re gone. So like I said if you’re mad, if you’re sad, whatever, I guess it’s better than it just not affecting you at all.”

“Heaven Down Here” singer Mickey Guyton, who welcomed a son in 2021, responded to a video of Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) calling the shooting a “horrible situation” and suggesting it was incapable of being prevented.

“We’re not gonna fix it. Criminals are going to be criminals,” Burchett said.

Burchett said his father, a World War II veteran, told him, “Buddy, if somebody wants to take you out and doesn’t mind losing their life, there’s not a heck of a lot you can do about it.”

“Comparing war to going to school. Got it,” Guyton wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “This is why I will be homeschooling my son. No one is safe,” she said.

Another country music performer, Jason Isbell, criticized Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee after the Republican said he was “closely monitoring the tragic situation at Covenant” and asked the public to “join us in praying for the school, congregation and Nashville community.”

“Is this what we want? Monitoring the ‘tragic situation’ and asking for prayers?” Isbell wrote on Twitter to his more than 430,000 followers, in a message retweeted by Kacey Musgraves.

“Something can be done Bill you just don’t have the spine for it. This must be what you want, because you haven’t done anything to prevent it.”