Margo Price releases her official music video for “Hey Child,” the climactic centerpiece of her latest album, That’s How Rumors Get Started (Loma Vista). Directed by Kimberly Stuckwisch, ‘Hey Child’ features a soaring, scorching slow-burn of an arrangement backed by the Nashville Friends Gospel Choir. The new visual delivers a gripping and tenacious depiction of the personal demons that Margo Price has overcome throughout her career, from the jail time she served for substance abuse to the power she has reclaimed from years of tragedy and despair.
Watch the video for ‘Hey Child’ HERE
On the history of the song and its new video, Margo Price says: “‘Hey Child’ was a song that was written back in 2012 not long after my husband Jeremy and I lost our son Ezra. We were playing shows with our rock and roll band Buffalo Clover and occupying most of the bars in East Nashville. We had begun hanging with a rowdy group of degenerate musician friends and partying harder than The Rolling Stones. We were outsiders to what was going on with mainstream Nashville in every sense and it was the beginning of my bourbon drinking phase. The song was about how many of our talented friends were drinking and partying their talents away but after a few years had passed, we realized it was just as much about us as our friends. I had retired it when the band broke up but Sturgill Simpson resurrected it when he asked me if I would re-record it for That’s How Rumors Get Started.
She continued: “I knew I wanted Kim to direct the video. She and I wanted to show pieces of my past lives and how I have moved on. It was both therapeutic and painful to revisit those memories and who I used to be. I know so many people who struggle with substance abuse. I just lost a family member to alcohol. My second cousin Tammy locked herself into a hotel room and drank herself to death two months ago. In another life, that could have been me.”
Director Kimberly Stuckwisch adds: “‘Hey Child’ explores the perpetual cycle of addiction and depression, the scars you carry around with you from its relentless push and pull, and the daily struggle to regain control of what has left you powerless. The video takes on a cyclical journey, starting off with Margo’s ‘mind’ (the camera) being in full control as it pushes and pulls her through the moments and memories that led her to this dark reality. It’s only when she decides to take back control and to face her demons head-on, is she able to run back through her past and out the door, finally breaking free of the relentless cycle.”
