This was the first song I wrote on the road. It took me a few days to write and nearly a year to mix. Though I'd spent twenty years using Pro Tools as a guild editor and mixer (and frankly thought I knew everything there was to know), I had never used the program's music capabilities. I was astounded to realize I hadn't learned the half of it.

​

My good friend Neil Flowers who helped me clean up the lyrics have joked that we will probably be the only two people on the planet who have heard this song more than once. Thoughts and Prayers is long and not an easy song to listen to, but I felt it important to include it in this first album

​

The statistics at the time I wrote this song were accurate and if anything they've become grimmer over time. There have been hundreds of atrocious mass murders since: most notably the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde Texas with 21 dead and 21 injured, the Lewistown Maine tragedy where 18 were murdered and 13 wounded. and the Monterey Park California slaughter (11 dead, 9 wounded). There were 425 mass shooting events in 2025.

 

But the true casualty count doesn't come in mass shootings. The "hundred five Americans" is now closer to 130.Each day. The yearly total is closing in on 50,000. We lost 58,000 people in the Vietnam war. We lose about 40,000 on the nation's highways.

 

People use guns to kill themselves 65 % of the time and kill someone else 35%. Approximately 22 children are shot each day, on average 8 die. Gun violence is the number one cause of death for children in the United States. The only thing more deadly than guns in this country is fentanyl which claims more than 70,000 people each year. 

​

Why fentanyl is considered a major health crisis (which it certainly is) and guns do not is not a mystery when you consider that 57,000 guns per day are currently purchased in thie U.S.. Yes, per day. Significantly more than the number of new cars sold.  Each bullet will cost about 50 cents. These numbers suggests the likely cause of political inaction is money. American lives are literally being traded to make profits by the gun industry. Little wonder why the hearts and minds of the diehard 2nd amendment purists have been so totally seduced by the gun industry's promise of protection. Guns are sexy. Guns give the powerless, power over others. Guns are, for many, addictive.

​

I've had arguments with gun enthusiasts who say guns stop many more violent crimes than the deaths they produce. But these statistics are theoretical and, in my opinion blue-sky optimistic. I don't believe they are the invisible deterrent claimed. One guy I almost got into a fight with at a Peterbilt Repair place in Billings Montana mocked gun laws as being as absurd as outlawing baseball bats or knives. I countered that you can't kill very many people with a bat or a knife before being swarmed by people protecting themself. My song makes reference to the Dayton shooting where the killer had only 30 seconds to kill before being taken down by police. He was able to murder nine. That's a human soul every 3 seconds. The "good guy with a gun will always get the better of the bad guy with the gun" myth was tragically evidenced in the Uvalde massacre.

​

I hope no one takes the song literally; it was fashioned after Swift's “A Modest Proposal”  My professional singing  friend, Christa Pfeiffer agreed to sing the “national anthem” part. My daughter Sophie sings the part of the child.

​

Any proceeds for this song have been or will be donated to Brady United.