“I’m from Santa Fe, Texas,” Louis told the judges in an audition clip that aired Sunday. “In May 2018, a gunman walked into my school. I was in art room one. He shot up art room two before he made his way to art room one. Lost a lot of friends. Eight students were killed. Two teachers were killed.”
Richie let out a loud sigh. Bryan’s eyes became watery. Perry sat quietly, biting her lip before dropping her head into her hands and sobbing.
“Our country has … failed us,” she screamed, using an expletive, as tears fell from her eyes. Louis quickly replied: “Facts.”
“This is not okay,” Perry added. “You should be singing here because you love music, not because you had to go through that.”
“I hope that you remind people that we have to change, because you know what? I’m scared, too,” Perry added, echoing a sentiment that many have expressed as the nation grapples with a pervasive streak of gun violence.
On Feb. 13, a gunman killed three people and injured five at Michigan State University. The attack followed two mass killings in California, where separate gunmen killed 11 inside a dance studio in Monterey Park and another seven at two mushroom farms in Half Moon Bay.
So far this year, the Gun Violence Archive has tallied 94 mass shootings in the United States, in which four or more people, not including the shooter, are injured or killed.
“We have tolerated this for so long, for too long,” Richie said during Louis’s audition, wiping his eyes with his fingers. “It’s become a norm.”
Louis said he’s painfully aware of the toll gun violence has on communities. He’s among the more than 338,000 students who have experienced gun violence at school since the 1999 Columbine High shooting in Littleton, Colo.
On the morning of May 18, 2018, Louis was finishing an art project that was due by the end of class, he wrote in an Instagram post that year. Around 7:30 a.m., the loud bangs erupting from a nearby room sent students in Louis’s classroom into a state of panic. Louis rushed into a supply closet with a friend who told him, “Go, get out of here, I got the door,” as bullets flew closer to their hiding spot.
“I ran into the hallway and ended up exiting the back door of the school and realizing I just survived a school shooting,” Louis wrote. “Then it hit me that out of everyone of my friends that sits at my table in art, I’m the only one that has made it outside.”
A 17-year-old student had opened fire on the Santa Fe High School classrooms, killing 10 people and injuring at least 10 others. Christian Riley Garcia, the student Louis credited with saving his life, was among those killed in the shooting. Louis’s best friend, Christopher Jake Stone, was also killed.
Louis dedicated his “American Idol” audition to Stone by singing a song carrying his last name.
“It does mean I get to represent my friends that I lost,” Louis told ABC13. “It’s an honor. It really is.”
Louis said he didn’t realize he had much of a singing voice until a friend told him he talked like singer-songwriter Chris Stapleton, who sang the national anthem at this year’s Super Bowl.
Louis, a self-described Stapleton mega fan, told ABC13 that he soon realized singing like the country star felt natural.
He later posted a video to TikTok in which he sang Stapleton’s “You Should Probably Leave” from the mattress store where he works. The video went viral, racking up over 3 million views and 354,000 likes since he posted the clip in July. Though the mullet-wearing sensation is best known for his country music covers, Louis has also dabbled in other genres, belting out Billy Joel’s “Vienna” and Rihanna’s “Stay.”
After performing “Stone,” the “American Idol” judges unanimously voted to advance Louis to the next round of the competition.
But before Louis headed out of the audition room, Perry asked him to make her a promise: “We’ve got to change,” the singer said. “And I hope you can just lead. Can you do me that favor?”
“For myself, for my school, for you, you got it. Yes ma’am,” Louis responded.
