Zac Brown Band Addresses PTSD in Intense ‘Someone I Used to Know’ Video
Zac Brown Band set their new song “Someone I Used to Know” to an intense music video that tells the story of a high school football star who enlists, goes to war and returns with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Brown doesn’t appear in the dramatic video until the very end, when he offers a voiceover and a brief interview explaining the song. “‘Someone I Used to Know’ is a touch point to remind people that they don’t have to be alone in what they feel,” he says. “Pain and depression doesn’t discriminate; this song is me facing that part of myself of where I want to go and not where I’ve been.”
The video, directed by Phillip R Lopez, isn’t for the feint of heart: it opens with a vivid sex scene (an anomaly in country music videos) and features an interlude in which the main character and his fellow troops are attacked while on patrol. Upon his return home, he struggles with relationships, employment and his underlying PTSD.
“Someone I Used to Know” is Brown’s first new single in over a year. He and his band will launch the Down the Rabbit Hole Live Tour in March.