Eric Church's Controversial "Lightning" Strikes

11/8/07Stephen L. Betts The hotly debated issue of the death penalty is the subject of “Lightning,” the haunting new video by Eric Church. The clip, filmed at the old Tennessee State Penitentiary in Nashville, makes its world broadcast debut on CMT Thursday (11/8), and on CMT Pure, the country music network’s digital music channel. Told from the perspective of a man about to be put to death in the electric chair, “Lightning” – written by Eric –will not be released as a radio single, but both the artist and his record label, Capitol Nashville, felt the song deserved a special platform, and decided to make the video. “Bringing life to issues, or even just bringing an issue forward, the kind of subjects that people sit down at dinner and talk about – the topics that most people would never sit down and write a song about … those are my favorite things to write about,” says Eric. “As a songwriter, I’m proud of the fact that this song, and many of the songs that I write, speak to real life. Crime, murder, unemployment – some of the elements in ‘Lightning’ – these are real situations. We face these things as a society every day. As for his personal opinion on the subject, Eric says, “Am I for or against the death penalty? My answer is ‘both.’ To me, it’s not a black or white issue. It never will be. This is one of those topics that there will always be disagreements on, and that’s OK. That’s what I do – make people think, make people talk.”