Speaking about the his band's latest release, frontman Jon Bon Jovi insists that he felt compelled to use his voice to support the protests against racial justice reignited by Floyd's tragic death.
- July 11, 2020
AceShowbiz - Bon Jovi have turned the last moments of George Floyd's life into a new song, titled "American Reckoning".
In the rock band's latest release, which dropped on Friday (July 10), singer Jon Bon Jovi honours Floyd, who was killed by a police officer who kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
"God damn those eight long minutes/Laying face down in cuff on the ground/Bystanders pleaded for mercy/As one cop shoved a kid in the crowd," he sings. "When did a judge and jury/Become a badge and a knee on these streets?"
Bon Jovi also questioned the state of America's soul in the hard-hitting lyrics: "America's on fire/There's protests in the streets/Her conscience has been looted/And her soul is under siege/Another mother's crying as history repeats/I can't breathe."
The song references the Black Lives Matter protests, sparked by Floyd's murder, and the last words the dead man spoke as he ran out of oxygen - "I can't breathe".
Bon Jovi reveals he felt compelled to use his voice to support the Black Lives Matter movement for racial justice.
"I was moved to write American Reckoning as a witness to history," he told Blabbermouth. "I believe the greatest gift of an artist is the ability to use their voice to speak to issues that move us."
"American Reckoning" will appear on Bon Jovi's forthcoming album, "Bon Jovi 2020".
