Like many people around the country, singer-songwriter Annie Bosko was devastated when she heard the news about the mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville in March 2023. “It was disbelief,” Bosko recalls to American Songwriter about how she felt the moment she heard about the shooting. “You feel sick to your stomach. What do you do in a moment like that besides just pray?”
Videos by American Songwriter
Bosko also turned to another source of healing at that moment: songwriting. She happened to be in a writing session with Danny Myrick when they heard the news that a perpetrator had entered the elementary school and killed three 9-year-old children and three adults. Though they were working on another song at the time, Bosko and Myrick decided to pivot and start writing a different song, one whose seeds had been planted a year prior.
In 2022, Bosko’s friend was battling cancer and told she only had a few months to live. Her friend then came to Nashville to fulfill activities on her bucket list like flying on a private jet and seeing a show at the Bluebird Cafe. Around the same time, Bosko’s 19-year-old cousin had passed away, her mother reciting a poem called “Dandelions” at her daughter’s funeral. Almost a year later to the day, when Bosko found herself in the writing room with Myrickon on March 27 at the time the shooting occurred, she got a strike of inspiration to revisit the song she was working on at the time of her cousin’s death that became “Dandelions.”
[RELATED: Music Community Reacts to Nashville School Shooting]
“One of the inevitable parts of the human experience, and what I think is one of the most difficult and unnatural parts of the human experience, is loss,” she expresses of the inspiration behind “Dandelions.” “I think it’s something that we inevitably all have to go through. We really channeled that and wanted to write something that would relate to everyone who lost a loved one.”
Rather than taking a heavy approach to the tragedy, Bosko and Myrick opted to keep the lyrics light and hopeful. If God picks dandelions/I know why he picked you/Bet you’re making all his wishes come true/Well they say he’s got perfect timing/Maybe so, but I’m still dying/‘Cause I lost my whole heart when I lost you/How I wish he hadn’t picked you so soon, Bosko sings in the gentle chorus.
“It just felt so wrong that they were taken. They were so innocent,” Bosko says of the song’s meaning relating to the loss of children’s lives. “I think that’s what hit a little different about The Covenant School shooting on that day was the innocence of a child’s life being taken. The magnitude of that definitely inspired and shaped the lyric.”
After recording a demo of the song, Bosko’s manager sent the work tape to a friend who then sent it to the family of Hallie Scruggs, one of the 9-year-olds killed in the shooting. The family was so moved that they invited Bosko to sing it at Hallie’s funeral at their home. Despite the somber affair, Bosko witnessed a community pulling together, her song serving as a source of solace lighting up the darkness—so much so that the children requested that she sing the song repeatedly. “It was love, and prayer and community coming together to support,” the singer shares of the scene that night at the Scruggs’ home, citing Hallie’s parents as “resilient and strong.”
“By the last time, I had a group of 20 or 30 little kids around me singing the chorus. It was really so touching,” she continues. “Throughout my life, I’ve always witnessed the healing power of music and how I could use my voice to channel something bigger to help people. I think at that moment, it was really witnessing the healing effect that music has.”
Bosko gets to share “Dandelions” on an even larger platform when she opens the Grand Ole Opry’s special, Music Heals: A Night of Support for Nashville’s Covenant School, airing on the Circle Network on Saturday (August 19) at 9 p.m. ET. She’s donating 100 percent of the proceeds from the song to ACM Lifting Lives in an effort to support the families impacted by the shooting.
The singer hopes that “Dandelions” uplifts the people who hear it and acts as a source of comfort for those grieving the loss of a loved one. “We definitely wanted it to carry light and make you feel like this person is in a better place, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that you’re still struggling [with] losing them because they were so special,” she professes. “We intentionally wanted this song to uplift people who were going through loss and give them hope. I really hope it’s a source of healing for anyone who has lost someone that they love.”
Photos Courtesy of Annie Bosko/Essential Broadcast Media
