Dwight Yoakam Talks Gun Control, Violence in Song Lyrics With Piers Morgan

Dwight Yoakam has been receiving great critical acclaim for his new CD, '3 Pears', and has been on just about every talk show there is on TV to promote the album. When he stopped by the CNN studios recently for an interview with Piers Morgan, though, Yoakam was given the opportunity to talk about a lot more than music. Gun violence took over most of the interview.

"Guns are very serious instruments of survival and defense, but they're weapons. They're dangerous weapons and you've got to be very cautious with them, around them, about them..."

The discussion of the recent mass shootings in the United States also came up, and the use of semi-automatic weapons. Piers said "I just don't understand why anyone needs an AR-15 style military weapon", to which Yoakam pointed out:

"I don't know if I can give you an answer that will satisfy your sense of sane logic...I don't trust the government...I think we're worried about tyranny from here."

Morgan asked Dwight about violence in his song lyrics, specifically 'Buenos Noches From a Lonely Room (She Wore a Red Dress)', which ends:

"I placed the gun to her head
'Cause, She wore red dresses,
but now she lay dead..."

Morgan asked, "Do you believe that any musician...do they have any responsibility in terms of the rhetoric about guns?".

"In terms of 'Buenos Noches From a Lonely Room'...it actually goes back to Irish/Scottish/Welsh folk songs. It was a great tradition of murder and mayhem in some of those. And it was handed down into Appalachian culture here and bluegrass music...that's poetic license."

It was nice to hear two people with opposing opinions having a calm discussion about guns. The end of the interview had both men parting ways on good terms, agreeing to disagree. No yelling, finger pointing, or threats came about. I know this isn't the kind of result that makes front page headlines, but it's peaceful discussion about a difficult topic, and we need more of that. Thanks, Dwight!

Here's the full interview:

Dwight Yoakam continues to tour in support of '3 Pears', and will return to Billy Bob's Texas in Ft. Worth March 16th, and Stubb's BBQ in Austin March 29th and 30th.