Transcriber: Caroline Wilson Reviewer: Hélène Vernet
We've got the technology now
to bring war streaming right into the palm of your hand,
but how close does it ever really feel?
For me, it doesn't feel very close at all, most of the time.
We've been fighting in Iraq for two years or more,
and I don't think I'd even begun to internalize what was going on there.
But I remember the moment that that changed.
I was looking online at some news headlines
and some words jumped out at me "Iraq," "Marine," "Stanford."
Now Stanford's my alma mater so I clicked on the link
and I started reading about Lieutenant Ryan McGlothlin.
He grew up in Lebanon-Virginia, near the Russell County Gorge,
and I'm from the South too - I grew up in North Carolina.
And we had this shared background
that we both had left behind our families and our roots
and gone out to California to study at the same university.
I don't know, it probably sounds strange,
but for whatever reason those details just clicked for me.
I kept reading and I found out that Ryan had been serving in Al-Ubaidi.
It's on the western side of Iraq near the Syrian border.
He was hit by an enemy grenade shrapnel, and it killed him.
And when I read that for the first time, I wasn't just reading about the war,
I was feeling it.
I started thinking about Ryan, his friends and fellow marines over there,
his family back home,
and I did what songwriters do, I wrote a song.
Now that was three years ago, and I'm a travelling musician,
so I've played this song in big cities and small towns for all sorts of people.
And when you tell a story with a song,
you never know how people are going to react,
especially when the story's really emotional and highly charged.
One night, in the very small town of Fredericksburg Texas,
after a show,
this giant man came up to me.
He looked me right in the eye and with a really deep voice, he said,
"I heard that song that you did about the marine.
I'm a marine," and he looked right at me.
And man, I thought I was going to get my ass kicked all across Texas!
He kept looking at me and his face softened a little bit,
and then he said "Thank you."
To my utter astonishment, he gave me a hug.
You know, we live in a time of pessimism and cynicism.
We're divided by politics and religion and money.
And I think that more and more, when people look around at other people,
they don't see friends they see "other."
When that marine walked up to me, I saw a big guy in a uniform,
and I probably figured we didn't have that much in common.
Then we stood there talking for a while, and he admitted something to me.
He said, "You know, when I saw a San Francisco musician
get up and start talking about the war, I just about walked out.
But there we were in the middle of central Texas,
one night for one moment, hugging and talking like friends.
So I don't know if I'll ever understand this war
the way a veteran might or Ryan's family does,
but I think by writing a song and going around performing it for people,
that I learned something.
I began to understand just how connected we all really are
to a war,
and just how connected we all really are
to the people who are serving over there.
(Guitar playing)
(Singing) When it's time
to leave my brothers,
throw my bag onto a plane,
promise me
you will remember
that your boy,
he won't ever change.
I'm going out of California,
to the wild rocky shore,
but my soul will forever wander
in the Russell County Gorge.
So I worked hard to make my studies,
and I found time enough to play,
but my love for where I come from
once again called me away.
I'm going out
of California
to the wild rocky shore,
another soul will forever wander
in the Russell County Gorge.
Flying out from San Diego
on a curtain made of steel,
there is no amount of courage
that can tell your body what to feel
when the desert heat is blinding,
and you're marching near the gun
in the world of twisted metal
where a soldier's work is done.
So from the valleys of Virginia
to the California sun,
another boy left San Diego,
another life barely begun.
Going out of California
to the wild rocky shore,
another soul will forever wander
in the Russell County Gorge.
So I'm going out, out of California
to the wild rocky shore,
I know my soul will forever wander
in the Russell County Gorge.
So when it's time to leave my brothers,
won't you throw my bag onto a plane?
And promise me you will remember
that your boy, he won't ever change.
(The song ends)
(Cheers) (Applause)