Marc Cohn Promotes Gun Reform in ‘Work to Do’ Video

Marc Cohn promotes gun reform in his moving “Work to Do” video, the title track from his new collaborative album with the gospel group the Blind Boys of Alabama.

Directed by his daughter Emily, the clip features several people writing inspirational messages on Post-its as the folk artist sings with animated stills behind him. “My dad and I are huge fans of Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’ music video, so this was a nice way of nodding to that,” Emily tells Rolling Stone. 

The video was unveiled in time for National Gun Violence Survivors Week. Cohn himself is a gun violence victim, having been shot in the head during an attempted carjacking in Denver, Colorado, in 2005. “It was some kind of miracle that I survived that night,” Cohn says. “I was told that the caliber of the bullet, along with the fact that it travelled through a windshield and grazed the driver’s chin contributed to slowing down the bullet sufficiently enough to cause it to lodge a centimeter short of my skull — nestled in just enough soft tissue to save my life. I never lost consciousness, I watched them remove the bullet from my head. I stared at the x-ray in disbelief.”

“We wanted to find a way that the song and video could have a direct impact on gun reform,” Emily says. “Highlighting Everytown For Gun Safety, a movement of Americans working together to end gun violence and build safer communities, felt very fitting.”