Today, eleven years after being shot, in pain much of the time, prone to seizures, mostly blind, and walking with great difficulty, Jackie doesn’t sit at home all day bemoaning her fate – not Jackie. Several days a week for nearly ten years, she speaks to “at-risk” teens around the country, in jails or juvenile facilities, as well as schools, police academies – just about any place that has young people that need help or professionals who work with young people who need help, or adults who need to better understand the victim’s point of view. The young people she speaks to (she even allows them to touch the scar on the base of the back of her head where the bullet entered) are many times one mistake away from prison. Jackie’s mission is to wake them up, to help them, to get them making better decisions.
The bullet was traveling at 1,000 feet per second . . .” Read this account starting on page 2, the Dear Desperate portion of these liner notes.
The full track (complete song) sung by Teresa James is included as a Bonus CD Single with this Desperate album. Jackie plays the song at the close of her talks to kids across the country. There is also a book about Jackie’s remarkable life entitled Because I Am Jackie Millar and Oprah had Jackie on her show as well. But the song’s about Jackie.
Jackie was shot (read executed – attempted) in November of 1995. My lyrics to Jackie’s song were written very quickly a few months later, during the summer of 1996, inspired in part by the efforts of a collaboration of three other songwriters (mentioned below); when I heard a demo of what they did (legally, a derivative work) I thought of Jackie and immediately wrote new lyrics and through a mutual friend, sent them to one of the writers, Kent Blazy. My new lyrics fittingly tell of Jackie’s terrible ordeal. I, of course, had no way of knowing whether or not the song would ever be recorded, let alone heard by Jackie. In fact, no one thought Jackie would live, the doctors and nurses said she would die within a day or two at most – that was eleven years ago. Though, the song was written down on paper, it wasn’t recorded for several years – not until November of 1999. Jackie didn’t hear it for several more years – not until around 2003. As you’ll see, the lyrics are quite graphic and I was afraid they would hurt her or perhaps make her needlessly re-live that terrible, painful day. As it turned out, she loved it and asked that it be played over and over and over again. For the last few years, she has played it at the end of her lectures.
Jackie’s Song – writing credits:
Although Jackie’s Song was co-produced and co-written by me, Mike Stults, Jackie’s longtime friend, the complete writing credits should also be made public. The three other writers are listed below my lyrics. I’ve not included all the lyrics, only those lyrics I wrote:
I didn’t hear the sirens that car-jacking day
I was so far gone I couldn’t even pray
Blinding flash exploding sound told me to lay down and die
You said you’d love me forever more
But you never even darkened my hospital door
In your letter you told me now I’d just be holding you down
I prayed let me die but a voice said, “You’re needed”
Never in my life have I felt so completed
Helping others in turn is helping me to turn this around
The writing credits of Jackie’s Song read like a who’s who in
country / pop music. You’ll quickly see that and deservedly so,
Jackie’s Song has quite a pedigree.
The first is Sonny LeMaire, former Exile bass player and writer. Sonny has written ten #1 songs, several for Exile, but many for country acts including the recent Diamond Rio hit, Beautiful Mess.
Next is Bobbie Cryner. A recording artist on both Epic and MCA, she turned to songwriting, scoring a number of hits including Trisha Yearwood’s Real Live Woman.
Then, the most well known of all, Kent Blazy, who with Garth Brooks co-wrote Garth’s first #1 hit, If Tomorrow Never Comes, and since then Kent Blazy songs have appeared on nearly every Garth Brooks album.
And finally myself, producer / co-writer Mike Stults, who has produced recordings featuring some of the biggest artists in country and bluegrass music, including Entertainer Of The Year, Alan Jackson, Grammy and CMA winner Jeannie Kendall (including her recent #1 hit, You Just Don’t Get Me – Do You?), winner of twenty Grammy Awards Alison Krauss, plus bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs, as well as, Rhonda Vincent, and Allison Moorer. I also worked with Hazel Payne of the Grammy duo of the year, A Taste Of Honey and produced many recordings with long-time friend and multi-Grammy winner, Jimmie Haskell. Jimmie also arranged and conducted the strings for Jackie’s Song, as well as two other recordings on this Desperate album.