Matt Lovell thought he may die. The songwriter was shot in the chest during an attempted carjacking in the Five Points area of East Nashville on January 20, but miraculously, he survived.
"That guy show me with intent to kill," Lovell recalled of the shooting. "You're not playing around if you shoot someone in the chest."
Benefit concert planned for Matt Lovell at The Basement East on February 16th featuring CMA Award winners Brothers Osborne, Lucie Silvas, and more. Tickets are still available.
There are still tickets available for Matt Lovell's gunshot recovery concert ft. @brothersosborne @LucieSilvas @trentdabbs @emilywestmusic pic.twitter.com/dGaP0lGvsV
— Jesse Knutson (@NC5_JKnutson) February 16, 2017
Lovell had just left The Red Door Saloon after wrapping up a songwriting session when he was confronted at his car by a teenager with a gun, and a shot was fired.
Lovell was able to make his way back to The Red Door Saloon to ask for help.
"Thankfully the doorman at Red Door had just finished his EMT training literally that day," Lovell said, adding that the doorman kept him alive until paramedics arrived. "Even the cops at Red Door were saying, 'He's probably not going to make it, we saw where the bullet went in.'"
The bullet scratched Lovell's lung, lacerated his liver, and damaged his gallbladder, and right when paramedics arrived, they put him in an ambulance and rushed to the hospital.
"I kept asking them if I was going to make it and they were very honest. They kept telling me they didn't know," Lovell said, adding that he kept coming close to losing consciousness, so the paramedics would keep him awake by asking him to say his name.
"Every time I said my name, I felt a little more alive, so I started to chant, 'My name is matt Lovell and I'm going to live,' over and over again," he said.
After arriving at the hospital and going through a six-hour surgery, Matt Lovell was on the road to recovery, lucky that none of his vital organs were severely damaged in the shooting.
"When I woke up, I just felt so much more hope for life than I've ever felt, I felt so much happier. Happier than I've been in years," Lovell said.
Immediately, friends and fellow musicians in town started reaching out to Lovell, to show their support and to raise money for the songwriter, who like many other songwriters in town, did not have health insurance.
Charlie Lowell, a member of the band Jars of Clay and a close friend of Lovell, started a GoFundMe page, which as of February 15th had raised more than $43,000.
"It's been an overwhelmingly beautiful human experience to feel the love and support that I've felt," Lovell said. "What's come in the wake of the shooting has been nothing but the most amazing love and light that I've ever really seen."
Lovell was told by doctors that he should be able to have a full recovery and be able to get back to his music, which is great news for Lovell, as he had been working on his first album for a year leading up the shooting, with his first single "Nobody Cries Today" expected to be released in the coming weeks.
"Getting to put out a record after all of that is going to feel like such a great thing," Lovell said, adding, "It's kind of eerie. Some of the songs sound like I was almost talking about this event in my life."
The album was recorded at Gray Matter Studios in Nashville, and he said the community from Gray Matter has been one of the most supportive through his journey to recovery.
"Nashville is a very supportive and loving town, but I think even within that, it's hard to find what we have at Gray Matter," Lovell said.
Artists who work at Gray Matter Studios as well as friends of Lovell have planned a benefit concert for Lovell which is scheduled to be held on Thursday, February 16th at The Basement East.
The event will feature the CMA Award winning duo Brothers Osborne, Lucie Silvas, Trent Dabbs, Leigh Nash, Kree Harrison, Emily West, and many more. Lovell is also planning to take the stage to sing in public for the first time since the shooting.
