A successful audition turned into a moment of pain, tears and misunderstanding for the three judges ofamerican idolon February 26 when a young candidate said he had survived a massacre.
Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan fell in love with the talent of Trey Louis, a 21-year-old mattress salesman from Santa Fe, Texas, when he superbly performed the song Stone by Whiskey Myers.
But it was when he recounted being a survivor of a mass shooting at his high school in 2018 that he touched the judges in the heart. Katy Perry, in particular, burst into tears, head in hands, when the young singer – who was in one of the classes where the killer fired – said he lost eight friends and two teachers during the massacre.
“[J’ai] lost a lot of friends,” Louis said, holding back tears. It’s really negative and Santa Fe has had a bad reputation since 2018.”
“Our country af*king let us down,” cried Katy Perry, crying. It’s not OK!”
“You should sing here because you love the music, not because you had to go through that f*king bulls*t. You didn’t have to lose eight friends! I hope you will remind people that we need to change. Because, you know, I’m scared too,” added the 38-year-old singer, who wants Louis to become a leader in the fight against gun violence in the United States.
Moved, Lionel Richie added, with tears in his eyes: “We have tolerated this for so long, too long. It has become the norm.”
According to Gun Violence Archive, there have been more than 80 mass shootings so far in the United States this year alone.