John Rich: E-Mail My Song to Congress

Big and Rich's John Rich photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Nashville.

March 12, 2009 — The music industry has been hit hard by illegal downloading and file sharing, and John Rich isn’t a big fan of having his music stolen. But in the case of "Shuttin’ Detroit Down," he’s actually encouraging people to use it as a free e-mail tool for making a social statement.

"If you believe the lyrics to this song, if they describe how you feel ... you should e-mail that song to your local, state and federal representatives and just logjam their inboxes with it," he told The Mount Pleasant Morning Sun of Michigan. "All you have to do is tell them, ‘If you want to know how I feel, listen to this song.’ Normally artists don’t give people the go-ahead to e-mail their music around for free, but on this particular occasion, feel free to do it."

"Shuttin’ Detroit Down," written by the Big & Rich singer with John Anderson, caught on quickly after they wrote it in January. The song takes aim at CEOs living perk-filled lives while they fire their employees left and right. John knew the song would get a thumbs-up when he debuted it on a Motor City radio station, but he didn’t know if "Shuttin’ Detroit Down" would catch on elsewhere.

"As I kept moving around the country, I got the same reaction from people everywhere," he said. "The reason I wrote the song was not politically motivated. It was written as an outraged American, outraged at the government for giving massive sums of our money to people that misused it. I think when you say, ‘His pension plan’s been cut in half and he can’t afford to die,’ that’s about as hard-core truth as it gets. People are feeling that way all over."

John plans to shoot a video for "Detroit" next week. In the meantime, he’s gotten the ultimate compliment on the song: Merle Haggard — a member of both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame — asked John for permission to record it on his next album.