Why I Wrote "Enough Is Enough"

I recorded a song called "Blood On The Hands" about a month after the Newtown school shooting a little over five years ago. My college best friend's wife worked there at the time, and needless to say, it was a traumatic and seismic event for all concerned. However, right after I wrote and recorded the song, which was a bit of an angry rant towards the NRA. I noticed that my then five-year-old son, the same age as many of the Newtown victims, suddenly was having a hard time sleeping - a result of his hearing me write the song. I then realized that was I not ready to own the raw emotions that came with it. So I simply sat on the song for a while, even though I knew that it had some real intensity and power behind it.

It was only after Parkland, when I was deeply inspired by the Enough Is Enough/March For Our Lives movement, led by the surviving high school students, that I re-entered the studio to complete, with the help of songwriter/producer Ben Arnold, an updated version of the song, entitled Enough Is Enough / Never Again.

I felt that this new version effectively captured the essence of emotion surrounding not only Parkland and Newtown, but the litany of school and mass shootings in the USA involving assault weapons. Larry Klein, longtime friend and producer for Dick Clark's American Music Awards and Good Rockin' Eve, referred me to director Brad Kreisbergs, who completely understood the song and its message, and Brad hit the nail on the head. The last verse sums up the building frustration and anger of the great majority of Americans: Now there ain't no place and there ain't no need / for weapons of war out on the street. Indeed!

We have allowed hardliners, extremists and the fringes to have way too much influence in an otherwise moderate and civil society. Recent times dictate that the heretofore "middle" or "center" develop a strong and supple core and put to work our core values and our core strength to push back against these hyper-aggressive, extreme influences and movements and regain control of a more loving, caring and empathetic America.