In two short years, Wyatt Flores has gone from a largely unknown singer/songwriter from Oklahoma to being hailed as country’s “next big thing.” The songs that brought him fame deal with topics like mental health, addiction, and questioning one’s self-worth. When he gained the platform that he has today, he started being open with his fans about the struggles behind the songs. During a performance at the Grand Ole Opry last night (July 10), Flores used his platform to address the suicide of a young fan named Aubreigh Wyatt.
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Aubreigh Paige Wyatt was a 13-year-old Ocean Springs, Mississippi resident who died by suicide on September 4, 2023. Recently, her name has made headlines in part because her mother is facing a lawsuit after using her ever-growing social media following to expose the students who allegedly bullied Aubreigh to the point of suicide. The girl’s final post was a video of her singing along with Flores’ fan-favorite song “Please Don’t Go.” As a result, he has been tagged in countless posts about his late fan and has received countless messages about the situation. This led him to use the Opry stage to address the situation.
Wyatt Flores Addresses Aubreigh Wyatt’s Suicide
While playing an unreleased song titled “Oh, Susannah,” Wyatt Flores paused to talk about Aubreigh Wyatt. “I’ve been getting tagged in a lot of things, and I ‘ve been struggling with how to bring this up,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “I usually wouldn’t bring it up, but for the amount of people that keep asking me to bring it up, I’ll bring it up,” he continued. “Aubreigh Wyatt was a young girl who committed suicide last year. And I remember being in Colorado in October when I seen a TikTok of her mom talking about it, and they said that she liked my music. I sent my condolences. Now, there’s a whole bunch of stuff popping back up over the entire thing right now because she was bullied.”
Then, Flores revealed why he was talking about Wyatt. “They keep asking me to do something about it, they keep telling me things because the last video that she had posted on TikTok was her singing ‘Please Don’t Go,’” he explained.
Flores on Stepping Away From Music
“I had to step away from music early on this year, right after I played the Opry because of a lot of different reasons. One of those was feeling the weight of the world and trying to help people and not feeling like I was,” Flores recalled. “As cool as it is that I get to do this as my job and the music that I portray, it gets to save lives. There’s also the dark side of it where you don’t know if that song kept them on earth just a couple days longer,” he added.
“I didn’t write that song, ‘Please Don’t Go’ for everybody out there in the world. I wrote it because of the situation I was in with the girl that I loved. But this song is for y’all. ‘Oh, Susannah’ is you. I wrote this for you. And I’m sorry.”
The 988 Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones, and best practices for professionals in the United States, via 988Lifeline.org.
Featured Image by McKenzie Whitman
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