When country artist Matt Rogers learned that a close personal friend and a decorated veteran of both the U.S. Marine Corps and Army died by suicide on May 30, 2024, he was in the middle of a tour. He couldn’t make it back in time for the funeral. Instead, he did what he could from the road—he wrote.
He and his guitarist, Nick Reed, a combat veteran, began working on a song in a hotel room after a show.
“Nick’s lost friends the same way… We more or less wrote this song out of therapy,” Rogers told CNN in a May 2025 interview. “Late one night after a show in the hotel room, kind of venting about a broken system and this epidemic that’s running rampant in our veteran community.”
The result is “Camouflage,” a raw anthem that captures the pain and complexity of what so many veterans face long after they come home.
The chorus opens with a line that echoes how gratitude toward veterans can sometimes come across—a polite and subtle ask to move on: “Thank you for your service, you’re good to go / Sorry ’bout your buddies that ain’t coming home.” Later in the song, Rogers circles back and shifts the tone: “Thank ya for your service and welcome home / No matter what you’re going through you’re not alone.” It’s less about closure and more about creating space for what people carry.
Every stream of “Camouflage “raises money for the Brother’s Keeper Veteran Foundation, a nonprofit that provides transitional services, mental health resources, and peer support for veterans and their families. More than $25,000 was raised through streaming and a benefit concert at Blake Shelton’s Ole Red in Nashville, where Rogers performed for the Brother’s Keeper Veteran Foundation.
Rogers reflected on his friend’s passing during his CNN segment, remembering him as more than just a decorated veteran.
“I wanted to honor a friend, a husband, a father,” Rogers said. “And bring awareness to just how out of control the epidemic of veteran suicide is. Twenty-two a day is the number given by the VA—likely higher. There’s obviously something that has to change.”
According to Veterans Affairs data, more than 120,000 veterans have died by suicide since the start of the Global War on Terror, more than fifteen times the number killed in combat during that same period.
Part of what pushed Rogers to act was the disconnect between what the military asks of its members and what they’re given in return once they come home. In his CNN interview, he pointed out that while “[the] support system is there… we can be doing better.”
Rogers doesn’t expect everyone who hears the song to have served in the military. In fact, he hopes many haven’t.
“The coolest thing about this particular song is if this is a mission you can get behind, all you have to do is stream it,” he said. “Streaming the song literally raises revenue for this organization to do work for our veterans.”
“Camouflage” is available on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and all major streaming platforms.
If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available. Call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
