Local writer's anti-suicide song gets music video

Tosh Newman lost a friend to suicide in July of 2022, and the way he dealt with it was by writing a song about it.

"At first, it was done because that's my therapy," Newman said.

But the end result was more than therapy. Newman had put together a song called "Heaven Don't Need You Yet," that takes a stand against the overall notion of suicide that others have connected themselves to for their own anti-suicide campaigns.

Newman debuted the song in September of that year on local radio with his own demo recording, and he performed it at a number of suicide prevention events in the local area.

In January of 2023, he and other members of the anti-suicide community of Jackson and West Tennessee gathered at Hub City Brewing for a single release party.

The song reached another level of recognition last week as Newman released the music video for the song on YouTube.

"I don't even know how long we've been working on this, but it's been a while," Newman said. 

The video focuses separately on a pair of individuals who represent two of the segments of our society that are the hardest hit by suicide - teenagers and combat veterans.

Newman enlisted the acting talents of a couple of his friends to portray the two main people in the video.

Travis McNatt, a local veteran, portrays a veteran going through a mental crisis while walking on an elevated train track while looking at a photo of a buddy from his time in service.

Paige Helton was the Miss Tennessee Park Volunteer Iris Teen princess for 2024, and as she continues to compete in pageants, her platform is suicide prevention. Helton portrays a teenage girl who's a victim of cyberbullying.

Both people get a note floated to them from some unknown place above them seemingly from the sky that has one word printed on it in all capital letters: "STAY."

"That word has significance because we keep repeating it in the bridge of the song," Newman said. "But it has extra meaning because the letter stand for 'someone's thinking about you.'

"Her platform was suicide prevention, and that worked well with the point of the song and S.T.A.Y. has become a big part of her platform," Newman said. "So I was glad we were able to partner with her that way."

Because of the way the concept of the song started, Newman said his intentions for this song are to raise funds for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

"This song isn't about me or look at me because I wrote this song," Newman said. "It's about understanding that we never know what someone else is going through and reaching out with a helping hand for them.

"Because most of us don't realize the impact we have on others. And I think if more of us reached out to more around us, the number of people who die by suicide would drop quickly."

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news