- Welcome back, y'all.
I'm here with Garth Brooks,
and we're surrounded by an audience of his biggest fans.
Give it up for Garth, everybody.
(audience cheering and applauding)
Garth is an American icon,
and not just for his crowd-stomping hits.
His music has been a source of comfort and healing
in moments of tragedy.
I just literally went through his whole catalog,
there's so many, in my head,
but we've spoken about your song "The Change."
- Yes. - I love "The Change" so much
and its connection to the Oklahoma City bombing.
How do you, I know that we're musicians,
so obviously music affects us,
but how does music help you get through tragedy?
- Yeah, I mean it's, music is a great healer,
but it's also that whole thing.
You ever watch "Ted Lasso?"
- (laughs) Yes.
- He's got this thing with this kid when he gets mad.
"Count to 10. If that doesn't work, go again."
But I think that's what music does.
It gives you that minute to sit and think about it, right?
And I think that's what music does.
Music brings you a peace that gets all the clutter out,
and hopefully you can make good decisions
for you and everyone around you.
- It's such a beautiful, positive outlet.
- Yeah, amen. - And it's a nice way
to point out that we don't always
have to disagree on everything.
So you took to social media
after the school shooting in Nashville
where three children and three adults lost their lives,
and that was close to you, right?
- Yeah, it was tough.
We were, I was going in the studio,
and out on the highway, you never, ever see it,
but here comes all the ambulances.
Here comes fire trucks, everything on the shoulder
just blowing by, and it was like more than one.
And it just came, and then no matter what street
you turned off, they were passing you that way, too.
And you're thinking, you just-
- Something has happened. - I don't know
if I've gotten so used to it, but I didn't think anything
until I got to the studio, where it was happening.
Studio was about a mile and a half from where it happened.
And yeah, this was a very sobering day
for all of us around the planet, I'm sure.
But something about being that close brings it a little-
- That's the thing, right, the direct impact.
I think we, it's unfortunate, but we're almost desensitized.
You hear it, I was saying in the break,
like it's like there's so many school shootings.
It's like there's so, this is happening so often
that I think, you know, when you have that direct impact
in your community and it happens,
there's no way you can translate that to someone,
that effect, like what it does to not only you
but everyone around you, those families, everyone,
the domino effect of that.
But since the tragedy at the Covenant School,
the Tennessee state capitol has seen
thousands of protestors, mostly students, demanding action.
Two of the organizers are dialed in today.
They're both students at Vanderbilt University
and members of March For Our Lives.
Everybody say hello to Brynn and Ezri.
Hi, ladies. (audience applauding)
So Brynn and Ezri, meet Garth.
Say hey. - How you doing?
- [Brynn and Ezri] Hi!
- [Garth] Very nice to meet you.
- You must have that effect, giggly, bubbly hi.
- [Garth] It's very sweet.
- That was awesome.
So both of you are very young, but sadly the fight is,
this fight isn't new to either of you, right?
You've grown up with this, right?
- Yeah, I mean, we definitely have grown up with this.
I remember when I was in fifth grade,
I came home from school one day,
and my mom like hugged me extra tight,
and it was the day that Sandy Hook happened.
And I kind of remember from then on out
thinking about like these exit strategies
when I was in classrooms, you know,
and it was something I noticed my classmates
thinking about more.
You know, where would we hide?
Could we all fit behind the desk?
Could we like put desks in front of the door, you know?
Did the teacher have a baseball bat that was sitting there?
I remember thinking about my brother, too,
and his elementary school next door
and what I would do if there was something there.
- Yeah, the lockdown generation is very much
what we've grown up in, and we know that gun violence
is the leading cause of death for young people,
which means that none of us really escape from this impact.
And almost every single one of our peers
has a story just like Brynn's, I know I do.
And for me, I've actually been involved
in March For Our Lives for five years
when it started out in response to the Parkland shooting
where I organized a walkout at my middle school
where I was only 13 years old.
And so I've very much grown up in this movement
and along with hundreds of other kids
as young as elementary school-aged children
all the way up into university age,
which is exactly who we're organizing with now.
But it's absolutely tragic that we feel responsible for this
because the adults aren't listening
- 100%, they are not.
And then also, it's just insane to me,
like, I'm a mom, you're a father,
like, my kids go through drills at school
at such a young age already.
They have to be prepared for that.
And like, I remember when we were kids,
the biggest thing we did at Texas and Oklahoma
were like tornado drills.
- Tornado drills, fire drills.
- Yeah, that's always, it was like,
"Oh, just be in the hallway and put your hands,"
and you know, it was just like, it's such a different world.
Like, do you remember when your kids came home
like having to talk about shooter drills?
Did they have to do anything like that?
- Sure, especially with social media,
the world becomes smaller.
So what you guys go through now,
we would've never known before social media, right?
But now everybody knows.
All I can say is shame on my generation.
If we're the cause, why that's what you have to think about
while you're in school,
because kids should be thinking about
what they're going to do with the rest of their life
and just have fun with their mates and just grow up, so.
- It's already hard enough, you know?
- Amen, it sure is, so yeah,
what I love about you guys, and what I'm gonna
encourage you to do is keep the conversation active.
At some point we're all gonna get to the right answer.
It's just, and we're gonna need all of us to get there, too.
- Both helped organize the massive protest
at the Tennessee state capitol this spring.
So who's joining you there?
- Yeah, I mean, I think that we see
almost everyone joining us.
One of the things that I've loved the most
is seeing how many different students are coming out.
We're both students at Vanderbilt University,
but we had students
from every single Nashville college join us.
We had elementary schoolers, middle and high schoolers.
We had people all the way down
from Franklin and Rutherford County,
and we also had people that were up the street.
And I think that what that demonstrates to me
is for kids in our generation,
this isn't a Republican-Democrat issue.
It's not a red or blue issue. It's just an issue.
It's just something that we all care about
because it's something
that we are constantly thinking about.
- Yeah, and so along with all of those students
in coalition with us, I also wanna emphasize
that while this started as a Nashville walkout
that we had the honor of being able to organize,
there's been continuous action at the capitol every day
since this mass shooting has happened.
And what I've had the privilege of meeting people
who are as young as six years old
all the way to people who are 80 years old.
We have people coming in in buses
from Memphis and Knoxville coming down to support this.
This is such a broad coalition,
and it's bigger than just a student movement
even though students are the ones who are leading this.
We have a huge support from the community,
which is absolutely imperative,
and we also have huge support from organizations
that are building coalition in a way
that the state hasn't seen in decades
because this is an issue that impacts
every single person in the community.
I mean, like you were talking about,
yes, students are fearful for their lives
and we're losing our peers,
but parents and families are fearful
for their students and losing their children.
And we also have this resounding impact in the community
that this gun violence touches every single one of us.
And what this past couple of weeks have shown us
is that every single one of us is fed up,
and every single one of us is ready
to stand together in action.
- Totally not gonna cry.
- I don't know how you can't.
You're right in the middle of it with your babies.
- Yeah, like, it's just such a, it's such an obvious thing.
It's such a logical fix.
Like, you know, and he is right.
You keep speaking, everybody keeps talking about it.
This is how real change happens.
So thank you so much for doing that.
So Nashville is the country music capital,
and musicians are playing their part.
And how are they doing it?
They do benefits, is this what's happening?
- Yeah, actually bigger than benefits.
We've had musicians at every single rally,
at every single protest joining us, standing behind us.
We've had Nashville Musicians for Change,
which is an absolutely incredible organization,
who's come out, and they've really honored
like the tradition of Nashville.
Like you said, it is Music City.
And so they've come out and they've encouraged the crowd.
And like you were talking about earlier,
we acknowledge that music is a very healing space.
And so there's a lot of pain in Nashville right now.
There's a lot of pain in Tennessee,
but this beautiful moment of community
that's come out of it is really exemplified in music.
And so there's been a lot of honoring of the folk tradition
of having the crowd sing and join in with the singers.
We've had a lot of country artists come out and join us.
I mean, we had Emmylou Harris and Margo Price
and Sam Bush and all of these artists
who are turning out in force for us
and showing up every single day
and taking time out of their days
to make sure that they're engaging and connecting
with the crowd in a really powerful way,
and it's made a noticeable difference.
We've also had gospel singers.
I mean, the tradition of music in the South and in Nashville
is so deep and rich, and it's very apparent
at these protests because these protests
is the whole community.
- Absolutely.
- Sweet, very smart.
You girls at this young age, I'm four times your age.
I'm telling you right now, I don't have the courage.
I don't have the whatever it takes
from the fear of everything.
What you're doing, I can't tell you is great enough.
And I don't feel like you're wanting to,
you're trying to change the world.
You're asking the people that are in control
to please just take a look at it.
- Yeah.
- We're all victims.
We're all future victims from it.
I will tell you this though, in our industry,
the greatest thing that you receive,
that you look to kind of show they appreciate
what the music has done for your life,
in our world is a standing ovation.
May I be the first to start it for you two girls today?
- Oh, yes! (all applauding)
(audience cheering)
- Keep fighting, keep talking, keep the discussion alive.
- Oh, my gosh, our show supports Brynn and Ezri
and the work that they're doing to end gun violence.
We truly believe bringing more voices together
can help solve this crisis.
I mean, obviously, and I love that music is helping
in how you're saying as well.
And I know that whether you're a musician or not,
like everybody, red or blue,
you have babies out there, right, so..
So we're gonna give March For Our Lives foundation
$10,000 just to help out with anything
that y'all are doing, anything y'all are doing,
whether it's feeding everyone there, doing waters,
whatever we can help to do.
And please let us know what else we can do
and have updates, whatever.
I love what you're doing. He is right.
Like, what you're doing, it seems maybe like a small ripple.
It is a huge thing that you're doing,
and you're impacting all the other ripples
that can actually effect change.
So thank you, ladies, so much.