“What’s It Gonna Take?” — A Rock Anthem That Might Heal Your Family
A powerful rock ballad about forgiveness, pride, and the courage to come home.
Some songs find you. Others call you out.
Two siblings stand on opposite sides of their mother’s casket.
Years of silence between them.
Regret heavy as the air.
They can’t remember how the distance started—only that it grew.
And now, in the presence of death, something deeper stirs:
the ache for what might still be redeemed.
This song is born from that moment—
the cry in every fractured family,
the hope that love still runs deeper than pride.
Inspired by a true story, “What’s It Gonna Take?” asks the question every heart eventually faces:
What will it take to forgive?
To cross the line?
To begin again—before it’s too late?
🎧 LISTEN NOW ON SPOTIFY | OTHER PLATFORMS
By Shatterglass Scallywags
WHAT’S IT GONNA TAKE?
By Shatterglass Scallywags
[VERSE 1]
You stood on one side, I stood on the other,
Two kids grown cold, born of the same mother.
The room smelled like flowers and unsaid things,
And the casket between us—like a judge without wings.
Your hand was clenched, mine buried in coat,
Swallowed the words that rose in my throat.
She always said we’d find our way back,
But we let the silence widen the cracks.
[VERSE 2]
Remember the treehouse, the backyard wars?
The laughter, the fights, the slammed bedroom doors?
Somewhere along we stopped calling on love,
Just kept score and called the silence enough.
We listened more to the whispers and ghosts
Than to the voices who held us both close.
And now she’s gone—and all I can hear
Is what we didn’t say ringing clear.
[CHORUS]
What’s it gonna take to break the pride?
What’s it gonna take to cross that line?
What’s it gonna take to just let go—
Of who was right and who hurt more?
‘Til one of us is laid inside the Box,
And all we count are years we lost.
[VERSE 3]
We fixated on faults through our narrowest eyes,
‘Til the bars of our blame became our disguise.
Now we’re just shadows of what we could be,
Hanging on to the branches of this family tree.
We could blame Dad, we could blame time,
We could stay stuck in our own design.
Or maybe this loss is a doorway wide—
We could walk through and leave the past behind.
[CHORUS]
What’s it gonna take to break the pride?
What’s it gonna take to cross that line?
What’s it gonna take to just let go—
Of who was right and who hurt more?
‘Til one of us is laid inside the Box,
And all we count are years we lost.
[BRIDGE]
Remember when she made us write it down,
“Love is patient, love is kind”—line by line, all around.
We laughed, we groaned, we thought it was pretend…
But I think she knew we’d need it in the end.
[CHORUS]
What’s it gonna take to break the pride?
What’s it gonna take to stand side by side?
What’s it gonna take to just let go—
Of who was right and who hurt more?
‘Til one of us is laid inside the Box,
And all we count are years we lost.
[OUTRO]
I feel her here with us somehow,
Whispering what she can see now.
Inviting us to surrender the shadows,
And stand in the dawn—
Of apology and forgiveness,
A new day where love is what we have left.
So I’m saying:
I’m sorry.
And I’m saying:
I forgive you.
Because I love you.
I love you.
Ride of a Lifetime is a breathtakingly illustrated storybook that invites readers of all ages to rediscover the wonder, ache, and beauty of life—through the timeless metaphor of an amusement park.
