Why Brandi Carlile Recited a Statement from Thomas Jefferson in the Song ‘SNL’

Two rarities during the music performances on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend: real rock ‘n’ roll was performed. Even rarer than that, Thomas Jefferson was quoted – prominently and at length – where a guitar solo might have gone.

During Brandi Carlile’s performance of the hard-rocking U2-style “Church & State,” Carlile gave a spoken recitation on the title subject between choruses. Viewers may have thought the words sounded familiar but were difficult to place. From the constitution perhaps?

Not quite, but close. The words Carlile chose to share with ‘SNL’ viewers come from a riff on the Constitution, if you will – Thomas Jefferson’s famous letter to the Danbury Baptists, from 1802. In words, Carlile quietly reads back to her new album, but comes across as something closer to a howl on “SNL,” Jefferson writes:

“I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the entire American people, who declared that their legislatures shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, and thus erecting a wall of separation between church and state.”

Carlile rarely speaks too openly in terms of party politics, but it’s clear where she stands, and never more so than in a song that manages to come across as a current protest song just by quoting Thomas Jefferson. Add in Carlile’s own lyrics – “While the empire failed…” and “I saw the ivory towers before the revolution began” – and it’s clear that “Church & State” isn’t exactly meant to be an 1802 piece.

In recent conversations with Variety on the new album ‘Returning to Myself’, Carlile spoke at Election Night 2024 about writing ‘Church & State’ with her co-producer, Andrew Watt, and bandmates Phil and Tim Hanseroth, as a protest song, or at least a reflection song, about what they saw happening in America.

And yes, she readily acknowledged the U2 influence that “SNL” viewers were quick to notice.

“On November 5, we were in the studio as a band, and it wasn’t an introspective night. It was a night where I couldn’t keep my hands off my phone because I saw myself waking up with a realization about the country I was living in. And I was listening to ‘Bullet the Blue Sky,’ and I was leaning into my early years and just mustering up a little bit of anger. And that night we made a burning, searing song,” which, she says, prompted her to read “a conversation on the radio.” First Amendment” in the recording “instead of a guitar solo.”

Carlile explained, “When the lyrics for that song were coming together, I couldn’t stop thinking about the wisdom of Thomas Jefferson’s speech to the Danbury Baptists. There is so much wisdom in the Constitution, and even the notes on the Constitution are full of wisdom – the footnotes, if you will. What he said to the Baptists was intended to reassure them that they would be allowed to practice their faith, spirituality and religion, whatever you want to call it, freely under the Constitution. But he also We make a very important distinction that We are not an autocracy. We are not a theocracy. We cannot rule over people with our interpretation of an extremely opaque scripture and religion, as it relates primarily to the Christian religion. As we have seen over time the integration of so many beautiful cultures and beliefs in the United States, it is a connotation that is safe for all people, because it allows the law to be secular as it should be and a life-giving part of that text.”

Carlile, who identified herself as a person of faith in her bestselling memoir, says of this lyric and song: “In my faith, Jesus was clear about not ruling a people based on an interpretation of religion. Even Jesus said, ‘Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s.’ So I cannot support rules and laws that I know are secretly based on an interpretation of a religion that I cannot support, even if I agree with the religion.”

Speaking about the distinct U2 influence in the song, Carlile said it goes back to her childhood. “One of my top five favorite albums of all time growing up was ‘The Joshua Tree.’ I even entered a contest once as Bono, when I was fifteen, to win a singing contest, singing “Running to Stand Still.” I was wearing sunglasses and stuff and I fell to my knees at the end of it. I already had the lesbian haircut he has, so it wasn’t that hard.”

The musical seed for the song was planted a while ago, before she brought it up again with Watt and the Hanseroth twins on election night. “I got a song from Tim a few years ago, this beautiful concept and the riff and this drop-D and all this cognitive dissonance in the song, and I sank my teeth into it. And I said, whatever that is, that’s a direction we feel like we could go in musically. And then I put it away in the back of my mind and forgot about it until November 5.” It was a blur at first until co-producer/co-writer Watt got more involved. When her band jams, “it sometimes becomes a bit of a sonic tornado, but Andrew had an idea for this distinct guitar line, this distinct bass line, and I think for me it was the U2 knob,” with parts reminiscent of Peak Edge and Peak Adam Clayton. And don’t forget peak Larry Mullen Jr.: “Matt Chamberlain just kept it going with that crazy drum riff. That was an aerobic workout.”

If you’re not sure where the recitation in the song comes from, you’re not alone.

“I love Andrew Watt so much. Every time we talk on the phone, he says, ‘I fucking love ‘Church & State,’ I love it when you read the Declaration of Independence.”… I love Andrew Watt, man. It doesn’t matter where he thought it came from. He agreed with it, he believed in it, and it really excited him. He loved that part of the song and he was so encouraging, and he was in the exact same place we were.”

Although ‘Church & State’ is rooted in anger, it offers a hopeful denouement. In an album full of mortality awareness, Carlile takes that as a positive as she looks at failed leadership, declaring: “When vulnerability overcomes them / And they start to crawl / Stretching out their bloody hands / Guess who gets to make the call? / Well, they don’t see, what we see / But we believe, we believe / That they won’t live forever… They’re here today, then they’re gone forever… We’ll find a way / Imagine if we could.”

Carlile’s second appearance of ‘SNL’ was a gentler song from the new album also tied to the 2024 election, ‘Human’, which was written the night before the results were announced and which more indirectly references the mood many were feeling at the time.

Carlile’s appearance on the Miles Teller-hosted episode was her second as musical guest in 2025. Earlier this year, she sang with Elton John to promote their double album ‘Who Believes in Angels?’