Trey Louis, 21, sang “Stone” by Texas-based Southern rock band Whiskey Myers in honor of a friend that died during a school shooting. Credit: Shutterstock / s_bukley

A video of a Texas school-shooting survivor’s heart-wrenching American Idol audition has gone viral, pulling in more than 1.5 million YouTube views since it was posted two days ago.

Contestant Trey Louis, 21, attended Santa Fe High School outside of Houston, in May 2018, when a gunman’s rampage left eight of his classmates and two teachers dead.

During Louis’ audition, which aired on Sunday on ABC, he told the three judges — Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan — that he wanted to participate in the competition because of the tragedy.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Slhz5ZM2x94

The Houston-area mattress salesman sang a rendition of “Stone” by Texas-based Southern rockers Whiskey Myers. Louis later told ABC’s Houston affiliate KTRK that he chose the song to honor Chris Stone, a friend who died during the shooting.

“This is not OK,” an emotional Perry told Louis. “You should be here because you love music.”

“Our country has [expletive] failed us,” the pop singer added.

All three judges voted to move Louis on to the next round of the competition.

There have been 93 mass shootings in the U.S. so far this year, according to the national Gun Violence Archive.

Coming soon: SA Current Daily newsletter. We’ll send you a handful of interesting San Antonio stories every morning. Subscribe now to not miss a thing.

Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

Related Stories

This article appears in Feb 22 – Mar 7, 2023.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...