Sugarland tackle some of the toughest issues facing society today in their new song "Tuesday's Broken." The song was written in response to the wave of deadly school shootings across the nation; readers can press play above to hear the track.

Kristian Bush says the words of "Tuesday's Broken" came to him during a cross-country flight as he read news of another tragedy. He told his bandmate, Jennifer Nettles, that the song was one they definitely shouldn't write -- but she disagreed.

"She is a person who gives me courage on things that I don’t have courage on," Bush tells Taste of Country of Nettles, whose heart-wrenching vocals are set against a slow, acoustic backdrop in "Tuesday's Broken": "Yesterday, hell rained down / Another kid, another school, in another town ..."

The next-to-the-last track on Sugarland's forthcoming new album, Bigger"Tuesday's Broken" dives into its subject without getting preachy. “I loved taking the onus off of the action and giving it to the emotion of the person," Bush says. "It’s not empathy. It’s asking the right question.”

The chorus of "Tuesday's Broken" makes a plain cry to get to the heart of the problem, the hurt behind the tragedies we see all too often: "What if we looked in his eyes and asked, 'Where does it hurt?' / Would he find all he was worth?" 

Bigger is due out on June 8.

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