“I feel like rock music has been talking about mental health for a very, very long time,” proclaims Badflower singer Josh Katz. The powerful and passionate band from Los Angeles has had an instant impact since releasing their debut album, OK, I’M SICK, earlier this year, tackling touch issues like abuse and mental health with energy and emotion.
“This is not a new thing at all, but it’s less just the songwriting and it’s more the conversation. We end up talking about mental health in basically every interview we do,” Katz continues. “For us personally, we don’t have any of the answers and we make that very clear in our music and in our interviews that we don’t have the answers to the problems that we suffer from, but we’re certainly loudly talking about it and letting people know that so many other people feel the same way.”
Badflower will be a part of I’m Listening on Sunday September 8, as all Entercom radio stations across the country will mark the start of National Suicide Prevention Week with a special two-hour commercial-free broadcast dedicated to ending the stigma of talking about mental health.
For Katz, the open dialogue about real feelings has helped bring him closer to fans. “We put our song out and all of these other people were coming up to me and saying, ‘you’re describing exactly how I feel,’” he says. “Now when I go on stage, I feel like I’m playing for a crowd of people who really know me, and we really know each other, so I don’t have that uncomfortable ‘I’m pretending to be a rockstar’ vibe on stage, I can just totally be myself.”
“I hope that everybody feels inspired to feel like themselves at our shows or any situation.”
At 7 AM local time on September 8 on your favorite RADIO.COM station, you can call-in live and join artists like Badflower, athletes, and medical professionals for an in-depth conversation about mental health and suicide prevention.
Prior to Sunday’s show, please SHARE YOUR STORY on how mental health or suicide has impacted your life. Select stories will be included in the broadcast.
For more information on this year’s broadcast, visit ImListening.org.