Today’s visualizer video see’s Ron Pope wandering around deep in contemplation – as well he might be since ‘I’ve Gotta Change (Or I’m Gonna Die)‘ is a song with a heavy subject matter to which Pope can easily relate. He injured his back a few years ago and he had two choices – white-knuckle his way through the ordeal, taking advantage of other therapies to cope with the injury or take the Opioid painkillers. These come with a hefty warning about addiction – now they do anyway – and Ron Pope was wary of the risks but as he says: “I find it deeply unsettling that a gang of billionaires acting as a cartel were allowed to purposely lie to our doctors, saying those pills were safe and non-habit forming, then they killed over a million people and got tens of millions addicted to drugs, and nobody at the top got an ounce of real punishment for it. Not only did no one go to jail, these crazy rich folks are still crazy rich. When someone has ten billion dollars, fining them six billion dollars is meaningless. It doesn’t make a material difference in their lives. All of that infuriated me. These people should be in prison and every dollar they have should be put back into the communities they destroyed.” It’s a topic that Ron Pope could relate to in another way as he knew people who’d become addicited, he knew people who had died thanks to this “super safe” medicine. But, considering upwards of 100,000 people died from opioid abuse in the US last year alone, it’d be quite surprising to have not ever been touched by this.
The single is from Ron Pope’s upcoming new album for release in 2025, and he’s slated to perform at The Long Road festival in the UK this August.
