Exactly one year ago, Jon Kahn, a singer-songwriter known for his Trump-inspired, Billboard-topping hit “Fighter,” faced a personal catastrophe when the Palisades fires claimed his home of over two decades. Now, he channels that experience into “After It Burns,” a powerful song and video that delves into themes of loss, anger, and resilience when one’s world is reduced to ashes.

“After It Burns” is an unflinching portrayal of raw emotion, yet it steers clear of nihilism. Within its honesty, there lies a profound sense of beauty and, more crucially, hope.

The video begins with a striking piece of reality: actual Ring doorbell footage capturing Kahn’s white picket fence consumed by flames. It’s a scene that feels surreal until it’s replayed on a screen. Kahn watched alongside his father from a few miles away. “I looked at my Dad and said, ‘it’s gone,’ and he just nodded. There wasn’t much to say,” Kahn recounted.

What follows is an intimate portrayal of Kahn performing the song, with the lighting and framing conjuring the essence of the fire without resorting to spectacle. Apart from the initial Ring footage, the video refrains from directly depicting the disaster that ravaged thousands of homes and claimed lives in the Palisades and Altadena on January 7, 2025.

The lyrics confront the fire itself, as though it stands accused: You came in, you didn’t use the door and If I ever should see your face, I’ll tell you go back to hell ‘cause that’s the only place I won’t look for you. I won’t waste another day in the ashes. Kahn’s anger is potent, yet he allows the song to evolve beyond it, ultimately promising to persevere and find joy beyond the devastation.

A Gut-Punch, Then a Turn Toward Hope

The lyrics hit hard in the second person, as if the fire itself is being confronted and put on trial. It is the sound of someone staring down the thing that took everything: You came in, you didn’t use the door and If I ever should see your face, I’ll tell you go back to hell ‘cause that’s the only place I won’t look for you. I won’t waste another day in the ashes. Kahn does not soften the anger, but he does not stay there either. The song ultimately lands on a promise to keep going, and to smile again on the other side of the burn.

He told Breitbart the message is broader than one disaster, and meant for anyone living through catastrophic loss. “This is a song for the thousands of victims that experienced what I did, but maybe even more broadly than that, I hope it moves those who have experienced any catastrophic loss in their lives,” Kahn said. “It happens every day, whether it be hurricanes, illness, or death. I lost my house. I lost a lot of stuff. But I’m still here and there are so many that have experienced worse.”

Kahn’s House Before and After. (Courtesy of Jon Kahn)

Kahn Speaks to FOX’s Trace Gallagher Shortly After the Palisades Fire

Nashville, a New Chapter

The road back has been filled with barriers, but also unexpected lessons. Kahn has since relocated to Nashville, a move he had been considering for years. He said he could never quite make the leap until the fire forced a hard reset. “I just couldn’t pull the trigger. I think I was stuck in my life, and it’s hard to believe, but the fire may have been the push I needed to start a whole new chapter,” he said. “After a pretty rough start, Nashville is starting to feel like home. I guess maybe sometimes things need to burn to understand where you need to be.”

“Right and Wrong, Not Right and Left”

For Kahn and many other victims, the past year has been a grind of insurance fights, confusing permitting, and what he described as a fundamental failure of city and state leadership. In fact, CBS reports that only 500 of 16,000 homes are being built one year later.

“The only ones who came in and did exactly what they said they were going to do were the feds led by EPA Administrator Zeldin,” he said. “The EPA cleared the lots in roughly 30 days. It’s what came after that was beyond disheartening and seemed like a play to break the collective will of the residents.”

There was no leadership nor was there any accountability from Karen Bass or Gavin Newsom,” Kahn continued. “It was and is their lack of leadership that makes the road to recovery even more difficult.”

Kahn stressed that, for victims, the issue is not partisan.

“It’s not really about right or left, but rather, right and wrong,” he said. “Great leaders, left or right, make you feel safe, and I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a victim of these fires who felt like anybody had their back. Where is Bass? Where is Newsom? Where are the two senators from California, Schiff and Padilla? Why are the only investigations being spearheaded by Senators Scott and Johnson, two Republican senators who are not from California?”

Singer/Songwriter Jon Kahn. (Courtesy of Jon Kahn Music)

“To Be Creative Is the Only Way I’ve Known to Deal with Hardship”

Despite the aforementioned hurdles, Kahn returned to the one thing that has kept him grounded for years: his music…but not right away. He didn’t write a song for months after the fires. He simply, as he put it, “walked by all his instruments, looked at them, and then kept walking,” but eventually he sat down at an out of tune piano, and “After it Burns” poured out “To be creative is really the only way I’ve known in my life to deal with hardship. For me, it’s the most honest way and I can only hope that the song reaches some folks who are dealing with their own hardships”

You came in
You didn’t use the door
And fed yourself
But still you wanted more

Now there ain’t nothing much left to say
I know now I was the only one in my own way
And somehow I’ll find the will
So I can find a way

Through the ashes
Broken matches
Nothing lasts that
Should’ve lasted
All that matters now is where you turn
Clear skies you can see for miles
After it burns

Where’d you go
You left so much behind
That you can’t take with
‘Cause you can’t take what is mine

And if I ever should see your face
I’ll tell you Go back to hell
‘Cause that’s the only place
I won’t look for you I won’t waste another day

In the ashes
Broken matches
Nothing lasts that
Should’ve lasted

All that matters now is where you turn
Clear skies you can see for miles
After it burns
All that beautiful rain
Coming down
That beautiful rain
Don’t stop now

And from those ashes
Broken matches
Something new
In all that tragic
All that matters now is where you turn
Clear skies I can see for miles
And I know one day
I’ll smile again
After it burns

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FIGHTER by Jon Kahn

Jerome Hudson is Breitbart News Entertainment Editor and author of the book 50 Things They Don’t Want You to Know About Trump. Order your copy today. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter and instagram@jeromeehudson