Nashville’s celebrated Hall of Fame singer-songwriter, Jeffrey Steele, recently shared his artistic journey with News Daily host Mike Slater. On Monday, Steele recounted how he courageously stood his ground against industry pressures urging him to alter the lyrics of his latest hit, “A Voice.” The song features a tribute to conservative icon Charlie Kirk, a choice that insiders claimed could hinder its mainstream success.
Steele explained to Slater that the line in question—”The Charlie Kirk choir all lighting our lighters, finally waking up”—was met with resistance from those in the music industry. “When I first started playing the song, the first thing, there’s a line in it about Charlie Kirk,” Steele recounted. He was repeatedly advised to modify this section with promises of enhanced radio promotion and greater mainstream reach.
Reflecting on these suggestions, Steele expressed disbelief. “Can you imagine?” he remarked. “You can’t go to country music radio if you have a line in it about what the country is feeling. And I’m like, what are you talking about? I’m not gonna change the line of the song. Are you kidding me?” Firm in his beliefs, Steele decided to take a stand, rejecting the advice with a resolute, “No thanks, I’ll do it myself.”
The decision not only upheld his creative vision but also paid off significantly. Steele’s song is experiencing remarkable success. “It just blew up on iTunes,” he shared, describing the track as an anthem for Americans who feel voiceless—soldiers, police officers, nurses, farmers, parents, and others who find themselves underrepresented and misrepresented in today’s society.
The result? It’s “blowing up,” Steele said.
“It just blew up on iTunes,” Steele said about the anthem he says is about those Americans who feel they no longer have a voice in this country — the soldiers, police officers, nursed, farmers, parents, and others who feel underrepresented and misrepresented today.
“We put it out over the weekend, it went to number four already [on the iTunes chart]. And so today’s like the official day that we go. And it’s already blowing up the chart,” Steele said.
The country crooner thought early on that he had something special with “A Voice,” given the raw reaction he had received from live audiences every time he performed the song on the road.
Jeffrey Steele said he had originally planned to write “A Voice” for another artist with an incredible voice. And, of course, that’s something he’s done hundreds of times throughout his incredible decades-spanning career. He’s written hit songs like “My Wish” and “What Hurts the Most” for Rascal Flatts, “The Cowboy in Me” for Tim McGraw, and more recently the Democrat-slamming smash hit by Aaron Lewis “Am I the Only One?” which went to #1 on the Billboard charts without any mainstream radio play.
But this one felt different. Steele says his good friend John Rich encouraged him to record “A Voice” and make it his own hit song.
“I swear it’s every night, like I get to the final note of the song, before the big note and people are like waiting to respond,” Steele told Slater about the audience reaction to him performing “A Voice” live. “And then I get to the big note and they just get up on their feet. And I’ve never seen this in all my years. I’m getting to the end of the song and, and people are like, you can tell people just want me to end it so they could get up and clap.”
Steele is encouraging fans to buy and download the song from iTunes.
He told Slater the he really needs fans to “download iTunes. I mean, you can go to all your streaming channels, but iTunes is the best because it shows up on the music charts that way as a purchase. And it just lights up the numbers on the chart. Because we’re completely independent with no record label. So we, we have to keep showing the numbers to stay in the game.”
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A VOICE – Lyrics
I’m the Soldier, I fought and died for you
Gave up my Life
To give you the Right,
to live the life you choose
I’m the Farmer, out here dying on the Vine
Trying to feed your Family,
barely feeding mine
I swear to God sometimes
I wish I had a Voice
I would raise it now
For all the silent ones,
no one seems to care about
Speak for all of us,
Crank the volume up,
and let the simple truth cut through the noise
I wish I had a voice
I’m the Hero Front Line Nurse,
I give it all I got
They praised me till the day I spoke my mind
and lost my job
Third generation Cop,
proud to wear this Badge
But it’s hard to put bad guys away, with my Hands behind my Back
Wonder what my Dad would think of that
I wish I had a Voice
I would raise it now
For all the silent ones,
no one seems to care about
Speak for all of us,
Crank the volume up,
and let the simple truth cut through the noise
I wish I had a voice
I’m the Trucker, they’re phasing out
She’s a housewife, but you can’t say that now
I’m a laid off Factory Worker who’s Factory’s China bound
We’re the Coal Miners, Firefighters,
The Charlie Kirk choir all lightin’ our lighters,
Finally waking up, we had enough, of the Liars setting the World on fire
We’re the Children, crying out for help,
a million miles away from home who can’t speak for ourselves.
Will you be our Voice
Will you raise it now
For all the silent Ones,
no one seems to care about
Speak for all of us, crank the volume up, and let the simple truth cut through the noise
Will you be
Yes I’ll be
I will be your voice
– News Daily with Mike Slater can be heard every week day from six to nine a.m on SiriusXM Patriot, on on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 125 and XM Satellite Radio channel 125.
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