Matthew West's 'Be Close' and Music's Response to Kirk's Death

Showing 5 Matthew West videos from Charlie Kirk's video collection.

Matthew West's musical response to Charlie Kirk's death centered on a specific song, "Be Close," written as a prayer rather than a political statement, part of a broader wave of Christian artists who marked what would have been Kirk's 32nd birthday with original material rather than only public statements. West's own podcast work, built around conversations with athletes, authors, and fellow musicians about faith under pressure, gave him a specific frame for processing Kirk's death: as a story about the cost of being unashamed of one's convictions in public, a theme West has returned to across his broader catalog well before Kirk's assassination made it newly urgent.

His appearance alongside Cole Swindell, John Rich, and Abe Parker in a joint tribute broadcast reflected a specific claim several of the artists made independently: that Kirk's public boldness about faith, and the cost he ultimately paid for it, had directly changed how they approached their own music, pushing them toward material that named their convictions plainly rather than softening them for a broader audience. West framed that shift not as a temporary reaction to tragedy but as a genuine and lasting recalibration of what he considered worth writing and saying publicly.