Lori McKenna is sharing a message with her younger self in the video for her new song, “Killing Me.”
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The video casts her 54-year-old self next to herself as a young adult as she sings of a weight she’s tired of carrying. The weight is of her own design from her inner self-critic, the lyrics finding her trying to silence the negative voice in her head. The video begins by showing the younger woman stressed out, smoking cigarettes and looking at her own reflection in the mirror. Would it kill you to be happy/Cause trying to make you happy/Trying to make you happy is killing me, McKenna sings. Throughout the video, the woman slowly starts letting go of the invisible weight, ending with her running free through an open field at sunset.
McKenna co-wrote the song with fellow hit songwriters Luke Laird and Hillary Lindsey, the latter of whom lends supporting vocals. “The idea started with a relationship and then reached into the thoughts we tell ourselves,” McKenna explains in a press release. “That self-talk – that rattle in our heads usually with something negative to say. I loved the idea of the joyful side of my mind telling the constant critic in there to just hush. Just hush. When it was time for [Director] Derrick Javon to bring it all to life he imagined me confronting my younger self with all this. Another layer.
“Beautifully shot and directed by Derrick and his team and so honestly, joyfully and emotionally executed by Lauren Starr. It was a thrill to watch this group of creators breathe so many new layers into this lyric,” she continues. “I’m so excited to share this video with you.”
“Killing Me” is the first song McKenna has shared off her upcoming album, 1988, which is named after the year she married her husband, Gene McKenna. It will be released on July 21.
Photo Credit: Thomas Heney / Courtesy of Sacks & Co.
