Poignant Track Spotlights the True Story of a Fallen Iraqi Interpreter
Working With the US Army
NASHVILLE, TN — Nashville-based nonprofit CreatiVets and Big Machine Label Group‘s campaign to release a new veteran-written track on the 20th of every month — as a tribute to the 20 veterans and active-duty members that commit suicide every single day — continues with their latest release “I’ll See You Again” – available across all major streaming platforms today (10.20).
A prime example of the poignant tunes that are created through the CreatiVets songwriting program, which pairs combat veterans with songwriters in Nashville to help them learn to use music as a form of therapy, “I’ll See You Again” was written by Army National Guard veteran Adam Whitley alongside Seth Cole, Eric Burgett and CJ Solar. The moving song tells the true story of Whitley’s friendship with his infantry’s interpreter, M&M, who fell to an IED blast during combat in Iraq.
“I was wounded three times over there, and he was with me every time,” Whitley shared. “The third time I got wounded was when he got killed.” Though every passenger on the Humvee was injured that day, M&M was the only fatality in the blast.
LISTEN TO “I’LL SEE YOU AGAIN” HERE
Whitley came through CreatiVets’ virtual songwriting program in May 2021, and what he took away from it was invaluable — saying, “Personally, I got way more out of it than I expected. It kind of helped me ‘relive’ the experience in a good way to be able to express my thoughts about it. I approached [the session] as a way to memorialize [M&M] and to honor him because a lot of people know the price that our country paid in that war, but they don’t know the price that other countries paid. There are two sides to it.”
Since its founding in 2013, CreatiVets has helped more than 1,000 combat veterans — with more than 150 veterans participating in its songwriting programs to date. The organization’s utmost goal is to end veteran suicide by offering alternative ways to cope with trauma, using the arts as a therapeutic cornerstone in the road to recovery.