‘Sometimes Things Need to Burn to Understand Where You Need to Be’
A year ago, Breitbart’s Jon Kahn, the singer-songwriter behind the Trump-inspired, Billboard-topping “Fighter,” lost his home of more than 20 years in the Palisades fires. Now he channels that devastation into a moving new song and video, “After It Burns,” an intimate and cutting reflection on the loss, anger and determination that follows when everything familiar is reduced to ashes.
“After it Burns” is raw and honest, but it’s not nihilistic. There is beauty in that and, more importantly, there is hope.
The video opens with real Ring doorbell camera footage of Kahn’s white picket fence in flames, the kind of moment that seems unreal until it’s played back on a screen. Kahn watched it with his father only miles away. “I looked at my dad and said, ‘Here we go,’ and he just nodded. There wasn’t much to say,” Kahn recalled.
From there, the video transitions into a close-up, character-driven portrait of Kahn performing the song. and it’s not hard to feel how personal it is. The lighting, framing and atmosphere evoke fire without resorting to spectacle. Aside from the Ring footage, there are no direct visuals of the disaster that destroyed thousands of homes and claimed lives in Palisades and Altadena on January 7, 2025.
A punch, then a turn to hope
The words hit hard in the second person, as if the fire itself is being faced and judged. It’s the sound of someone looking at the thing that took everything: You walked in, you didn’t use the door and if I ever see your face I’ll tell you to go back to hell because that’s the only place I won’t look for you. I won’t waste another day in the ashes. Kahn doesn’t soften the anger, but he doesn’t stop there either. The song ultimately lands on a promise to carry on and smile again on the other side of the burn.
He told Breitbart that the message goes beyond just a disaster and speaks to anyone experiencing catastrophic loss. “This is a song for the thousands of victims who have experienced what I did, but perhaps even more broadly, I hope it moves those who have experienced catastrophic loss in their lives,” Kahn said. “It happens every day, whether it’s hurricanes, illness or death. I lost my home. I lost a lot of things. But I’m still here and there are so many who have had worse.”
Kahn’s house before and after. (Courtesy of Jon Kahn)
Kahn speaks to FOX’s Trace Gallagher shortly after the Palisades fire
Nashville, a new chapter
The road back was strewn with obstacles, but also unexpected lessons. Kahn has since moved to Nashville, a move he had been considering for years. He said he could never really take the plunge until the fire forced a hard reset. “I just couldn’t pull the trigger. I think I was stuck in my life, and it’s hard to believe, but the fire may have been the push I needed to start a whole new chapter,” he said. “After a pretty rough start, Nashville is starting to feel like home. I guess sometimes things have to burn down to figure out where you need to be.”
“Good and evil, not right and left”
For Kahn and many other victims, the past year has been a time of insurance battles, confusing permitting and what he described as a fundamental failure by city and state leaders. In fact, CBS reports that only 500 of 16,000 homes are built a year later.
“The only ones who came in and did exactly what they said they were going to do were the federal authorities led by EPA Administrator Zeldin,” he said. “The EPA cleared the land in approximately 30 days. What followed was beyond disheartening and resembled an attempt to break the collective will of residents.”
“There was no leadership and no accountability from Karen Bass or Gavin Newsom,” Kahn continued. “It is and continues to be their lack of leadership that makes the path to recovery even more difficult.”
Kahn stressed that, for victims, the issue is not partisan.
“It’s not really about right or left, it’s about right and wrong,” he said. “Great leaders, left or right, make you feel safe, and I think it would be hard to find a victim of these fires who feels like anyone supports them. Where is Bass? Where is Newsom? Where are the two senators from California, Schiff and Padilla? Why are the only investigations being done by Senators Scott and Johnson, two Republican senators who are not from California?”
Singer/songwriter Jon Kahn. (Courtesy of Jon Kahn Music)
“Being creative is the only way I know how to cope with difficulties”
Despite the aforementioned obstacles, Kahn returned to the one thing that kept him going for years: his music…but not right away. He didn’t write a song for months after the fires. He simply, as he put it, “walked past all his instruments, looked at them, then kept walking”, but eventually he sat down at an out-of-tune piano and “After it Burns” said: “Being creative is really the only way I’ve known in my life to deal with difficulties. To me, it’s the most honest way and I can only hope that the song will reach some people who are dealing with their own difficulties.”
You entered
You didn’t use the door
And you fed yourself
But you still wanted more
Now there’s not much left to say
I know now that I was the only one in my way
And somehow I’ll find the will
So I can find a way
Through the ashes
Broken matches
Nothing lasts like this
I should have lasted
All that matters now is where you turn
A clear sky that you can see for miles
After burning
Where did you go
You left so much behind
That you can’t take with you
Because you can’t take what’s mine
And if I ever had to see your face
I’ll tell you: go back to hell
Because it’s the only place
I won’t look for you, I won’t waste another day
In the ashes
Broken matches
Nothing lasts like this
I should have lasted
All that matters now is where you turn
A clear sky that you can see for miles
After burning
All this beautiful rain
To come down
This beautiful rain
Don’t stop now
And from these ashes
Broken matches
Something new
In all this tragedy
All that matters now is where you turn
Clear skies that I can see for miles
And I know that one day
I will smile again
After burning
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FIGHTER by Jon Kahn
Jerome Hudson is editor-in-chief of Breitbart News Entertainment and author of the book 50 Things They Don’t Want You to Know About Trump. Order your copy today. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter And Instagram@jeromeehudson
