Why

The song Why by Rascal Flatts is very powerful. He sings about something that many people ignore. The whole song is about suicide and depression.

“It must have been a place so dark you couldn’t feel the light, reaching for you through that stormy cloud.

Now here we are gathered in our little home town, this can’t be the way you meant to draw a crowd”

The first verse of this song kind of hints at the whole depression thing and people who do suffer with depression knows exactly how this feels. Also when he uses the phrase “reaching for you through that stormy cloud” it is kind of referring to commercials about depression medicine because that is how they mark people with depression. Walking around with a grey storm cloud above their head.

“Oh, why that’s what I keep asking. Was there anything I could have said or done.

Oh I had no clue you were masking a troubled soul, God only knows what went wrong. And why you would leave the stage in the middle of a song.”

The chorus of the song refers back to the title of the song. Why. It kind of goes back to the whole suicide thing but it is not as clear in this verse as in others. Such as the next verse:

“Now in my mind I keep you frozen as a seventeen year old, rounding third to score the winning run.

You always played with passion, no matter what the game. When you took the stage you shined just like the sun.”

This verse makes it clear about the person who killed themselves was a 17 year old. It doesn’t say if it was a girl or boy. When he says “why would you leave the stage in the middle of a song” He is talking about life and dying too early or giving up.

“The tangled thoughts I hear, a mockingbird sing. This whole world really ain’t that bad a place.

Oh why, there’s no comprehending and who am I to try to judge or explain.

Oh, but I do have one burning question, who told you life wasn’t worth the fight. They were wrong. They lied. Now you’re gone and we cry, cause it’s not like you to walk away in the middle of a song.”

The last verses of this song is where it can hit people hard, especially if they have had a loved one or someone that they know closely take their own life or die at a young age. These verses sing about how people feel. About how it’s not fair and that they don’t understand.

Maybe this song is sad but does it really matter? It’s the words that matter because people can connect to them and that’s really what makes a song great.