Music with a purpose.
Back in 2012, Margo Price and her husband Jeremy Ivey, lost their two-week old baby Ezra to a heart condition. Margo and Ivey sat down to write “Hey Child” shortly thereafter, however, the song wasn’t released until she was encouraged to re-record it for her 2020 album That’s How Rumors Get Started.
But according to a new interview with People, Margo and her husband took to partying to cope with the devastating loss.
“‘Hey Child’ was a song that was written back in 2012 not long after my husband Jeremy and I lost our son Ezra. We were playing shows with our rock and roll band Buffalo Clover and occupying most of the bars in East Nashville. We had begun hanging with a rowdy group of degenerate musician friends and partying harder than The Rolling Stones. We were outsiders to what was going on with mainstream Nashville in every sense and it was the beginning of my bourbon drinking phase.
The song was about how many of our talented friends were drinking and partying their talents away but after a few years had passed, we realized it was just as much about us as our friends. I had retired it when the band broke up but Sturgill Simpson resurrected it when he asked me if I would re-record it for ‘That’s How Rumors Get Started.'”
Recalling a night that led to Margo spending three days in jail, “Hey Child” confronts issues of addiction and mental health that Margo has experienced both in her personal life, and among friends and family members. For Margo, the song is both a painful memory, a therapeutic exercise, and a reminder of just how far she’s come.
“It was both therapeutic and painful to revisit those memories and who I used to be. I know so many people who struggle with substance abuse. I just lost a family member to alcohol. My second cousin Tammy locked herself into a hotel room and drank herself to death two months ago. In another life, that could have been me.”
In addition to the captivating new video, Margo is also gearing up to play her first live show since the pandemic began.
On May 28th, Margo Price and her band will perform at The Caverns Above Ground Amphitheater in Pelham, TN, a socially distanced, outdoor-ish show.
