The power of music: a song becomes a ‘watershed moment’ in suicide prevention

Logic’s hit single ‘1-800-273-8255’ is a thoughtful and important treatise about how suicide is, as the slogan goes, a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

It hit #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and sold the equivalent of two million units in the U.S. These are by far the song’s least-important stats.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (that’s their 1800 name in the title) have released a statement outlining the very real impact the song has made.

On the day of the song’s release in late April the Lifeline received the second-highest daily call volume ever (4,573), an increase of 27%. Calls remained at this high level since, hitting another spike in August, the day after an MTV VMAs performance of the song, when Lifeline received 5,041 calls. Visits to the Lifeline website have increased by 100,000 a month since the song’s release.

Logic explained the song’s genesis in a Genius post:

“I jumped on a tour bus that started in Los Angeles, California and I ended in New York City and did a fan tour where I went to fan’s houses and shared meals with them, hung out with them, played them my album before it came out.

“Them, along with other people on tour, just fans that I met randomly, they’ve said things like, ‘Your music has saved my life. You’ve saved my life.’ And I was always like, ‘Aw so nice of you. Thanks.’ And I give them a hug and shit but in my mind, I’m like, ‘What the fuck?’ And they’re really serious. And they tat shit on their arms and get shit like lyrics that save their life and in my mind, I was like, ‘Man I wasn’t even trying to save nobody’s life.’ And then it hit me, the power that I have as an artist with a voice. I wasn’t even trying to save your life. Now what can happen if I actually did?

And it’s beyond just this song. It’s the whole album. What can happen if I took myself out of my comfort zone and made a whole album about everybody and everybody’s struggles including my own which is one I’ve never done. What if I silenced my own fear and I say, ‘I’m scared to talk about my race. I’m scared to talk about the state of this country but I’m going to do anyway. I’m going to persevere. Man, how many lives can I really save then?”

It’s a noble task, and one that has resulted in countless lives being saved. As he rightly pointed on Twitter, it’s the most important song he’s ever written.

https://twitter.com/Logic301/status/930938282539491328

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.