Tom Morello, Shea Diamond & Dan Reynolds - Stand Up Lyrics

Tom Morello, Shea Diamond & Dan Reynolds Lyrics

"Stand Up"
(feat. The Bloody Beetroots)

[Shea Diamond:]
Stand up
'Cause you are standing for nothing
Just shut up
'Cause your words mean nothing

[Dan Reynolds:]
Everyone is at each other's throats
Everyone thinking that they know things that they don't know
Everyone painting the third coat on the wall of belief
Send me relief

When I call the police will they just kill me?
Will they just kill you?
When I call the police will they just protect me cause I'm white skinned too?

Every time you talk the system knows
Everywhere you walk the cameras go
Everything I say you already know
Everything in state is about to blow
Way back before Jim Crow

When I call the police will they just kill me?
Will they just kill you?
When I call the police will they just protect me cause I'm white skinned too?

[Shea Diamond:]
Stand up
'Cause you are standing for nothing
Just shut up
'Cause your words mean nothing

Everybody stares like I'm just my gender
But I'm a living soul with my own agendo
Tell me how you are the priest and the prosecution
Tell me how you have a God who loves executions

Corruption in the blue line ripples out
Eruption in the streets bring the few and proud
Attention when the knees fall to the ground
Silently loud

When I call the police will they just kill me?
Will they just kill you?
When you call the police would they just protect you cause you're white skinned too?

[Dan Reynolds:]
Every day that passes I'm angrier
Every time the cops get a hall pass - build another barrier
Now it's stereotypical
No I'm not cynical
Political hypocritical

Corruption in the blue line ripples out
Eruption in the streets bring the few and proud
Attention when the knees fall to the ground
Silently loud

[Shea Diamond:]
Stand up
'Cause you are standing for nothing
Just shut up
'Cause your words mean nothing

If you walked a mile in my shoes
You'd probably take 'em off wouldn't you?
If you had to live in my truth
You'd probably tell a lie wouldn't you?

[Dan Reynolds:]
When I call the police will they just kill me?
Will they just kill you?

[Shea Diamond:]
Stand up
'Cause you stand for nothing
Nothing
You stand for nothing
Stand up
'Cause you stand for nothing
Just shut up
'Cause your words mean nothing
Stand up
'Cause you stand for nothing
Just shut up
'Cause your words mean nothing

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Writer(s): Simone Cogo, Daniel Coulter Reynolds, Eren Ross Cannata, Justin Tranter, Tom Morello, Shea Diamond

"Stand Up" was premiered on July 2, 2020. The track inspired by ongoing protests for racial justice across the nation.

To make this song Tom Morello has teamed up with Imagine Dragons' Dan Reynolds, artist/activist Shea Diamond and producer duo the Bloody Beetroots.

"I grew up in the tiny lily white, archly conservative town of Libertyville, Illinois. When I was a kid, someone hung a noose in my family's garage, there was occasional N-word calling, etc, etc. On June 6 of this year, there was a Black Lives Matter rally and march in that same town that drew over 1,000 people. It seems that the times, they are a'changin'. I was so inspired that night, I reached out to Dan from Imagine Dragons. The Bloody Beetroots and I had conjured a slamming track and within 24 hours Dan had sent back a completed vocal. We got Shea Diamond, a Black transgender woman with a long history of activism, on the track and the coalition was complete," explained Morello in a press release.

"Stand Up" lyrics

Tom Morello, Shea Diamond & Dan Reynolds Lyrics