Activist rock band Living Colour throws its groove behind mental-health awareness

In its 35-year history, pioneering funk-metal outfit Living Colour has never shied away from social issues. Its hit 1988 debut, “Vivid,” featured songs about gentrification, racism, fame and American ideals.

“When I look back at some of the things we said — songs like ‘Funny Vibe,’ ‘Open Letter (To a Landlord),’ ‘Which Way to America’ — it’s current stuff,” says guitarist Vernon Reid, whose band headlines the Charlotte Cares About Mental Health benefit concert at Amos’ Southend on Friday.

“At least now we’re starting to confront the isms and the schisms,” he adds.

He points, for example, to “Vivid’s” “Which Way to America.”

“The references are obsolete — VCRs and such,” he says. “But the question we ask —which way is the country heading and how do we get there? — that question was asked at the beginning of the republic, and we’ll be asking it a long time after this administration is gone.”

Part of that route to a better America would include widespread mental healthcare and destigmatizing mental illness.

Living Colour got involved with the benefit here in Charlotte through Reid’s friendship with Fonda Bryant, a mental health advocate on the board of the National Alliance for Mental Illness. Bryant’s father was R&B and blues singer Johnnie Taylor.

“The connection was made through music through her lineage,” Reid says. “The conversation started from there, and she told me about her work with mental illness and depression.”

It was a subject that resonated with Reid, who had watched friends and peers struggle with mental illness.

“I think about Chris Cornell and it just hurts,” he says. “What an amazing artist. Other than my own band, Soundgarden was my favorite rock band. When I think of him or Kurt Cobain — everyone thinks they should have been at the top of the world as successful white men at the top of their game. Depression doesn’t work that way.”

Reid says that while politicians are quick to blame mental illness for the onslaught of mass shootings and gun violence gripping the U.S., little has been done to address it.

“Where’s the funding? If the problem is mental health, where are the studies?” Reid says. “Why is it that so many shooters come from a particular background? Is that background ever examined? Why are these mainly angry white men and what gives them the right to shoot people they don’t know? And at the same time, nothing is being done about it.”

While the widespread conversation now recognizes mental illness as a major problem, it’s still a taboo subject.

“We talk about the stigma, but the stigma persists,” Reid says. “Everything is dumped on the mentally ill. It’s been handled badly by every institution you can name, although the medical profession may handle it better — because they have to deal with it. Our religious institutions are some of the worst. There isn’t a dialogue about mental illness. Everything is considered volitional in traditional religious dialogue. Where is there room to talk about it?”

“What if Cain was being paranoid, or Judas had a mental disorder? Or John the Baptist was OCD? It’s funny, but it’s not funny. People are ruled by these modalities and it leads to shame and embarrassment,” he says. “I’m happy to help raise awareness. We all have to do our part to roll the stone, even if the stone is going to roll back.”