Nashville, TN — On Tuesday, multi Grammy Award-winning MCA Nashville country artist Vince Gill performed “Forever Changed” from his latest album OKIE on NBC’s TODAY. Accompanied by John Jarvis on keyboard, Gill performed an acoustic rendering of the emotional song. He was interviewed by Today co-anchors Al Roker, Stephanie Gosk, and Jill Martin.
Prior to the performance, Gill spoke frankly about the song’s significance, “You don’t hear a lot of songs about sexual abuse, but that’s what this song tries to tackle in a graceful, forgiving, and kind way.”
“I think there’s a lot of innocent people out there who need a voice, but don’t have one,” Gill told co-host Gosk. “More than anything with this song, I want people to come away with the sentiment that they didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Forever Changed” has already garnered acclaim from some of music’s biggest media outlets.Billboard referred to “Forever Changed” as “an intensely poignant and topical song,” and Rolling Stone said of the song, “Gill bared his scar to the genre and beyond, in hopes that it might help others heal theirs,” adding “and when it comes to something like sexual abuse or discrimination, he’s one of the few men to engage in the conversation.” People Magazine put it succinctly, “[‘Forever Changed’] is brilliant and unforgettable.”
Inspired by Gill’s personal experience, “Forever Changed” gives voice to survivors of trauma and speaks to the cultural moment in a singular way. “I knew it was important for people to hear—it’s a real thing and you can’t sweep it under the rug,” Gill says, “It’s a story about sexual abuse and grew out of an incident that happened to me in junior high school—I was lucky and I escaped, but who knows how my life could have been different had I not gotten away.” In 2018, Gill premiered the song at the Ryman Auditorium for the Universal Music Group Nashville Artists’ Showcase during Country Radio Seminar.
With 21 Grammy Awards to his name and over 26 million records sold, Gill has solidified his place as country music’s most eloquent and impassioned champion. He is both a world-class musician and a wide-ranging songwriter whose compositions earned him entry into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2007.
OKIE was released on August 23.