Scroll through the full list of notable names below:
Gary Allan
Gary Allan made his debut on the country music scene in 1996. The certified-platinum singer has released a total of nine studio albums and two greatest hits collections. The 49-year-old is well known for his chart-topping single, “Every Storm (Runs Out Of Rain).”
After meeting his wife Angela on an airplane, Allan asked her to marry him on Christmas in 2000. Together they had six children. Angela suffered from depression and serious allergies which lead to migraines. In October of 2004, Allan lost his Angela to suicide.
Michael Angelakos
Michael Angelakos is the creative genius behind the indie-pop outfit Passion Pit. Known for their infectious, upbeat, and seemingly happy sound, Angelakos’ songs reveal darker lyrics that display the musician’s struggles with mental illness.
Now, an outspoken mental illness advocate, Angelakos launched The Wishart Group, an organization which helps musicians receive educational, legal, and healthcare services with a focus on mental illness. Multiple new Passion Pit songs were released in early 2017 through The Wishart Group’s YouTube account, and those songs are now available as Tremendous Sea of Love.
Jack Antonoff
Writer, producer, and musician Jack Antonoff has worked with countless artists (Taylor Swift and Lorde, to name a few), is the lead singer of the alternative band Bleachers, and also played in the band fun. Co-producing Lorde’s recently released Melodrama, Antonoff also had a hand in producing Bleachers’ Gone Now, which was released the same month.
Jack has been very vocal about his struggles with anxiety and depression – which began after the loss of two family members when he was young. In fact Bleachers’ moving track "Everybody Lost Somebody," was inspired by his sister’s death -- a song about the grief and pain that nearly everyone experiences at some point in their lives. He says that in addition to songwriting, therapy has helped a great deal.
James Arthur
James Arthur’s rise to fame on the competition show the X Factor in 2012 may have looked easy on the outside, but the “Say You Won’t Let Go” singer has been outspoken about his battles with depression before, during, and after his time on the show.
Arthur, who has become an ambassador for mental health, has spoken candidly in recent years about how isolation (even for music artists) can lead to depression. He reminds his fans it’s important to recognize their triggers.
Sarah Barthel
Sarah Barthel formed Phantogram in 2007 with her music partner, Josh Carter. The Electronic-Pop duo, which was inspired by an optical illusion, released their most recent and third studio album, Three, in 2016.
Barthel brought a different energy into creating the last album. It became a very personal project that had to be put on hold after she lost her sister, Rebecca to suicide. That darkness in Barthel’s life brought Phantogram fans the single, “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore.”
LeRoy Butler
LeRoy Butler was an NFL star with the Green Bay Packers for his entire career (1990-2001). The former Super Bowl winning safety was selected as an All-Pro four times during his career.
Since retiring, Butler has become an advocate for helping professional athletes understand the injuries they face. He has been outspoken about the effects of concussions. The brain injuries often lead to other health battles including depression. Butler also speaks at schools across the country as part of a campaign against bullying.
Kristen Carney
Kristen Carney is a podcaster, stand-up comedian and is a regular on The Adam Carolla Show. She is also the co-host of the dating advice podcast What She Wants (formerly known as Ask Women) and the mental health podcast called Mentally Ch(ill).
Kristen has suffered with depression for 15 years but has found some success with the anti-depressant Effexor. Unfortunately, her co-host Stevie Ryan of Mentally Ch(ill) wasn't able to shake the demons of her depression and took her own life this July. Kristen is carrying on the Mentally Ch(ill) podcast because it's more important now than ever to talk about mental health and suicide prevention.
David Draiman
For three decades David Draiman has been among the most distinctive voices in metal. His band Disturbed shot to fame in the late 90s with their gritty and poignant debut album, The Sickness. After taking a brief hiatus in 2011, the band returned in 2015 with Immortalized, featuring the powerful, stripped-down cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence.”
Draiman has said most of his lyrics are inspired by his own life experiences, including 2008’s “Inside the Fire,” which he has said he wrote about the suicide of a girlfriend he had when he was a teenager.
William DuVall
Currently the lead singer of Alice in Chains, William DuVall made a name for himself fronting a multitude of bands over the years, including supergroup Giraffe Tongue Orchestra, which includes Mastodon’s Brent Hinds, The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ben Weinman, The Mars Volta’s Thomas Pridgen, and Dethklok’s Pete Griffin.
DuVall co-founded Comes With The Fall, the band that played with AIC’s Jerry Cantrell on his solo tour in the early 2000s. Having been familiar with Cantrell, DuVall joined Alice in Chains in 2009, several years after the death of original lead singer Layne Staley, whose struggles with depression were well documented.
Bob Ezrin
Legendary music producer Bob Ezrin is best known for his work with Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, KISS, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Peter Gabriel and Phish. From Toronto, Ezrin has been inducted into both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame. Beginning in 1993, Bob branched out into philanthropy and activism launching various projects like ‘Young Artists for Haiti,’ and eventually ‘Music Rising,’ a charity co-founded with U2’s The Edge.
Bob has been vocal about his own mental health struggles and has said that watching his son David grapple with obsessive compulsive disorder and schizophrenia was more painful. Like his father, David was a music composer and songwriter. Ezrin found out that David died of suicide in 2008, when he and his ex-wife didn’t hear from their son on his birthday.
Justin Furstenfeld
Justin Furstenfeld is the lead singer of the Texas-based rock band Blue October. While the band’s lyrics are riddled with references to addiction and mental illness, their latest album, 2016’s Home, revealed a seemingly happier perspective.
Furstenfeld, who has openly battled addiction and depression, continues to encourage others to seek treatment, providing an honest voice for those struggling with mental illness.
Halsey
Halsey rose to the top of the music charts last year for her collaboration with The Chainsmokers on the track “Closer,” and is watching “Bad At Love” climb the charts from her own Hopeless Fountain Kingdom released in June.
The singer has also been outspoken about her own struggles with a bipolar disorder diagnosis. In fact, it was when 17-year-old Halsey was on her way home from the hospital following a suicide attempt that she realized the impact of music. She has said she was listening to Imagine Dragons in that moment. Halsey, who is biracial and identifies as a bisexual woman, says she has often felt misunderstood, so she hopes to be a role model for those who feel the same.
Khalid
El Paso, Texas born singer Khalid rose to stardom last year with his breakout, platinum-selling hit “Location.” Khalid has the unique gift of infusing a soulful sound into his music. The 19-year-old has quickly become a voice for American teenagers because his lyrics encourage teens to focus on their individuality. In fact, Khalid says his goal is to create happiness, and he has always turned to music to help him through difficult times.
Earlier this year, he joined Logic and Alessia Cara on the Logic’s, “1-800-273-8255.” The song has a powerful message of hope for anyone feeling hopeless.
Amy Lee
One of rock's most talented females, Amy Lee has fronted the band Evanescence since she co-founded the group in the late 1990s. After a three year hiatus, Evanescence returned to touring in 2015 and 2016, and most announced its upcoming fourth studio album, Synthesis."
Lee is passionate about mental health awareness and opening a healthy dialogue.
Logic
Maryland-raised rapper Logic hasn’t had the easiest road to stardom, which he often addresses in his music. However, his latest album, Everybody, featuring the hit single “1-800-273-8255,” has helped propel him into music’s mainstream.
The biracial MC is known for tackling hard hitting issues in his lyrics, including his own racial identity, politics, religion, and more, while promoting peace, love and positivity. Logic has often said that before stardom, when meeting fans, he learned that his music had helped save lives. The connection his fans had to his music is what ultimately led the rapper to write “1-800-273-8255,” a powerful message of perseverance for anyone feeling hopeless.
Metallica
Since the 1980s, Metallica has been selling out arenas and having a profound impact on fans and music as a whole. The Grammy winners are currently touring in support of their latest release, Hardwired... to Self-Destruct.
However, back in 2001, after the departure of bassist Jason Newsted, who claimed private and personal reasons for leaving, and James Hetfield entering rehab, Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and Kirk Hammett decided to seek therapy. The three have since said that therapy for mental health is just as valuable as going to the gym for physical health. After their well-documented treatment, the group added Robert Trujillo, focused on their wellness individually and as a collective, and have of course continued to rock.
Dr. Christine Moutier
Dr. Moutier has dedicated herself and work to suicide prevention after losing colleagues to suicide. She has been a leader in the field of suicide prevention since earning her degree in psychiatry at the University of California.
She has led the charge on changing the healthcare system’s approach to mental health, and even testified before the U.S. Congress on suicide prevention. Dr. Moutier currently serves as the Chief Medical Officer for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and has revitalized the foundation’s education team, while expanding their role to include those with lived experience of suicide.
Krist Novoselic
Grammy award winner and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Krist Novoselic co-founded one of the biggest bands in rock history as Nirvana’s bassist. Between the time they released their debut album, 1989’s Bleach, and their final album, 1993’s In Utero, Novoselic, Cobain, and drummer Dave Grohl (who joined the band in 1990) helped pioneer the grunge movement. While they disbanded when Cobain’s life ended in 1994, Nirvana is still one of the most influential rock bands in history.
Novoselic, who has spoken openly about Cobain’s suicide over the years, has since been involved with politics and continues to make music with his current band, Giants in the Trees.
BJ Shea
BJ Shea is a native New Englander, but has called Seattle home for the last 20 years, the last 13 as host of the BJ and Migs show on KISW Seattle. His personal connection to suicide prevention goes back 5 years ago, when he had to break the news to his daughter (who works on the show with him) that her recent ex-boyfriend took his own life.
Dr. Pavan Somusetty
Originally from Northern California, Dr. Somusetty calls Portland home where he is a psychiatrist and assistant chief of mental health for Kaiser Permanente Northwest. He is the medical director of two Portland-area clinics as well as the Mental Health Solutions team - a newly created resource that consists of patient-access specialists, navigators and therapists that connect patients with the right provider, while reducing mental health stigma and barriers to care in a timely manner. He is the physician lead on Kaiser Permanente Northwest’s suicide prevention initiative, working to educate all staff on how to identify and treat suicidal patients.
Dr. Ursula Whiteside
Licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Ursula Whiteside is the CEO of NowMattersNow.org—which offers skills to manage suicidal thoughts—as well as a member of the University of Washington’s Clinical Faculty. As a group- and individual-certified Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) clinician, Dr. Whiteside aims to minimize the gap between “us and them,” treating high-risk suicidal clients in her small, Seattle-based private practice using DBT and caring contacts.