An emotional Wyatt Flores, who has been open about his own struggles with mental health on and off stage over the past year, performed an unreleased theme song Wednesday night at the Grand Ole Opry, dedicating it to his fans and acknowledging the late Aubrey Wyatt.
Playing the Opry for the second time during his rapid rise to prominence in country music, the 23-year-old Flores sang “Please Don't Go” — the 2022 viral hit that led to nearly all the success he's had since — for the second tune in his four-song set. “Please Don't Go” is written as a plea to a loved one not to take their life.
Flores then played a song called “Oh, Susannah,” which has not been released on any platform so far, including Half life, the eight-song EP he dropped in April. In the lyrics, the narrator speaks to an unnamed person who is presumed to have taken his life. The refrain of the chorus ends with, “I thought I was a savior/But I was a fool in drunken behavior. Why did I believe I could save you, my love/Without you killing me?'
Aubreigh Wyatt was a 13-year-old girl in southern Mississippi who died in the late summer of 2023. Her death — which occurred shortly after Flores' maternal grandfather took his own life while Flores was on tour — was ruled a suicide by medical examiners. . One of the latest posts on a TikTok account in Aubreigh Wyatt's name featured her singing along to “Please Don't Go.” In recent weeks, a series of viral social media posts dedicated to her have resurfaced with Flores' song.
Before the chorus of “Oh, Susannah,” Flores stopped playing and – fighting back tears – addressed the crowd at the Opry House.
“I've put labels on a lot of things, and I've struggled with how to report it,” Flores said from the stage. “Normally I don't want to bring this up, but for the amount of people who keep asking me… I will. Aubreigh Wyatt was a young girl who killed herself last year. And I remember being in Colorado in October when I saw a TikTok of her mom talking about it, and they said she liked my music. I sent my condolences. Now, there's a bunch of stuff that comes up in the whole thing because he was bullied. I keep getting asked to do something about it…because the last video she posted on TikTok was her song “Please Don't Go”.
“I had to step away from music earlier this year for a lot of different reasons,” he continued. “One of them was feeling the weight of the world from trying to help people, but it didn't feel like I was me. As cool as it is that I can do this…and the music I portray saves lives. But, there's also the dark side of it, where you don't know if that song just kept them on Earth a few days longer.
“I didn't write this song, 'Please Don't Go,' for everyone out there in the world. I wrote this because of the situation I was in with a girl I loved. But, this song is for everyone. “Oh Susanna” is you. I wrote this for you. And I'm sorry.”
The crowd erupted in applause and followed it up with a standing ovation when Flores left the stage.
Flores is four months removed from a self-imposed mental health hiatus that took him off the road and out of the studio for four weeks. In February, he broke down in tears on stage during a show in Kansas City, Missouri, telling the crowd that his dreams were coming true, but he felt completely numb. In the time between his grandfather's death and his time off, he often spoke from the stage about suicide and the importance of seeking help. In addition to “Please Don't Go,” Flores released a cover of the Fray's “How to Save a Life,” part of Half life ER.
The Oklahoma native was named to the class of 2024 Opry NextStage. His Wednesday night performance was followed by a four-song set by fellow Opry NextStage stalwarts 49 Winchester, whom Flores cites as one of the biggest influences of his career. On August 16, Flores and 49 Winchester will co-headline a show at the Whitewater Amphitheater in New Braunfels, Texas.
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/wyatt-flores-suicide-oh-susannah-1235057984/