Kacey Musgraves took the stage at Lollapalooza on Sunday, Aug. 4, one day after two mass shootings took place in two separate states, one in Dayton, Ohio and the other in El Paso, Texas. Nine people were killed in Dayton and at least 20 died in El Paso.
During her set, Musgraves addressed the crowd before performing her ballad “Rainbow,” reflecting on the state of the country after the violence of the weekend and recent months.
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“I just wanted to take a second to say thank you, not only for just supporting me and my music but to everybody out here tonight that still has the bravery to show up and come to a large music festival,” she told the crowd.
“I can’t even believe that we’re having to process the s— that’s happening in the last twenty-four hours, much less everything that’s happened in the last two-hundred and f—ing fifteen days in America. I don’t know what the answer is but obviously something has to be f—ing done,” she continued. “Maybe somebody will hear us if we all yell together to say, ‘Somebody f—ing do something.’”
As she held her microphone out, the audience loudly echoed her statement, with Musgraves allowing the message to sink in before she began to sing.
Early on Monday, the Texas native tweeted at Donald Trump, writing, “Don’t you hear our pain?”
Don’t you hear us, @realDonaldTrump? Don’t you hear our pain? You have the power to become a hero. Why don’t you take it? https://t.co/xyvGSDW0OW
— K A C E Y M U S G R A V E S (@KaceyMusgraves) August 5, 2019
“For a man who clearly loves being well-liked, it’s indescribably mind-numbing to see him blatantly and murderously ignore doing ONE THING that would not only make people happy but would SAVE PEOPLE’S LIVES,” she wrote in a second tweet also addressed to Trump.” True leaders don’t stand back and watch the world burn.”
An additional tweet shared after Musgraves’ set saw the singer thank her audience for attending the show despite the recent violence.
Thank you to everyone still brave enough to come out to festivals like this to see us play. We all need music & each other more than ever right now but how many of us will have to die before SOMEBODY FUCKING DOES SOMETHING. Heart broken for El Paso & Dayton. https://t.co/7U1nzDMBcq
— K A C E Y M U S G R A V E S (@KaceyMusgraves) August 5, 2019
Photo Credit: Getty / Josh Brasted