Shine
by Cold

Album: The Things We Can't Stop (2019)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "Shine" finds Cold frontman Scooter Ward reflecting on the effects of bullying as he sings about triumphing over physical abuse at home.

    I wanna see you shine
    I wanna see you go for the win
    I wanna see you move
    I wanna see you love your life again
    For you
  • Ward personally experienced bullying throughout his early formative years. More recently he has watched his young daughter and stepdaughter deal with it at their schools. "Nobody wants to have their kids come home bawling and having a hard time," the singer told Billboard. "Just to know it still existed was heartbreaking."

    Upset at what his children were going through, Ward went online and started looking up the topic, which inspired this track. "Like most Cold songs, I wanted to give people an outlet, make them feel like there's a way out, that this isn't going to last forever and it might - that's a 'might' - get better," he said. "That's why the chorus is so uplifting. I'm trying to say that you feel alone when it's happening, but nothing lasts forever."
  • The Things We Can't Stop was Cold's first album since Superfiction in 2011. It starts with a 53-second intro that leads into "Shine." In the intro, a string section plays as a young girl talks about her bout with depression. It was taken from an interview from decades earlier at a time when children were plied with pills to treat this "sickness."

    In a Songfacts interview with Scooter Ward, he explained: "The song 'Shine' is about bullying, which leads to depression, and the string section, we were like, 'Let's put that in as the intro. Let's put her voice on top of it, because it's impactful.' I wanted the record to start off with holy s--t, here we go. It's not Superfiction [Cold's 2011 album]. This is going to hurt, but hopefully it helps."

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