I can’t say there was much of anything Sunday night (April 5) that really piqued my interest during the Academy of Country Music Awards show telecast. I saw mostly the same artists, heard many of the same songs and was rather disappointed in many of the performances, save maybe Jamey Johnson or Lee Ann Womack. However, there was one moment and one performance in particular that made this show award-winning in my book. This would be when Lt. Andrew Kinard, a soldier whom had been injured in Iraq, so eloquently presented Trace Adkins and the West Point Glee Club performing “Til the Last Shot’s Fired.” He told the audience, “As you listen to this song, please consider: It’s not about the war, it’s about the warrior.”
Without doubt, Adkins and the glee club delivered a most compelling and haunting performance. I spoke with Adkins about this particular song right before his release of his latest album, X, and besides sharing that he had to go all the way to the Pentagon for permission to use this particular glee club, he also discussed his feelings on the song’s grave topic. “This song asks the question, ‘What if?’ What if soldiers are in this kind of … I don’t want to say purgatory, but that’s kind of what it is. What if these soldiers are in a place where they can’t rest until the last shot’s fired, until war doesn’t exist? What if only then they can find peace? I think if we knew that, and if that were true, there probably wouldn’t be wars anymore. So I thought that was a real unique way of looking at it. And it pays tribute to soldiers but at the same time asks that question.”
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