Remember When Jim Carrey Wrote a Song in Response to Gun Violence Then Performed it With The Eels on ‘Hee Haw’

“I’ll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.” That line became synonymous with the late actor Charlton Heston and a slogan for the National Rifle Association (NRA) convention in 2000. President of the NRA from 1992 through 2003, Heston was a devout advocate for gun freedom and upholding the Second Amendment of the Constitution.

At the time, gun violence in the U.S. was a major health issue, accounting for nearly 35,000 deaths annually, an upsurge coming one year after the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

In response to the gun violence and the lack of gun control laws in America, actor and comedian Jim Carrey wrote “Cold Dead Hand,” a play on Heston’s words from more than a decade earlier with a deeper message.

Some folks ride like the wind
With the whispering pines to guide them
And the burning light inside them
Keeps them warm in the snow

Others fear the sounds they hear
Make bandito’s out of mole-hills
Fill their hearts with porcupine quills
They’re dead and buried long before they go

Videos by American Songwriter

[RELATED: 3 Songs You Didn’t Know Jim Carrey Wrote]

Return to ‘Hee Haw’

The title, a play on Heston’s previous slogan, Carrey portrayed the late actor in the Funny or Die music video for “Cold Dead Hand,” directed by Nick Corirossi and Charles Ingram.

Also performing with his backing band, The Eels, as Lonesome Earl and the Clutterbusters, the video is set around an episode of the late-’60s to early 1980s variety show Hee Haw. Along with playing Heston as a Hee Haw guest, Carrey also plays the cowboy-hat-topped “Earl,” backed by members of the Eels dressed as John Lennon, Mahatma Gandhi, and Abraham Lincoln, several iconic figures who advocated for peace and were killed by gun violence.

“Cold Dead Hand” also gives a call-out to Heston:

Charlton Heston movies are no longer in demand
His immortal soul my lay forever in the sand
The angels wouldn’t take him up to heaven like he planned
‘Cause they couldn’t pry that gun from his cold dead hand

It takes a cold dead hand to decide to pull the trigger
It takes a cold dead heart and as near as I can figure
With your cold dead aim you’re trying to prove your d–k is bigger
But we know your chariot may not be swinging low

“I find the gun problem frustrating,” said Carrey, “and ‘Cold Dead Hand’ is my fun little way of expressing that frustration.”

Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images