None of us are immune to heartache — just ask Hollywood A-lister Pedro Pascal.
The “Mandalorian” and “Last of Us” star contributed a spoken-word voice note to Omar Apollo’s appropriately titled song, “Pedro,” which debuted Friday on the artist’s new album, “God Said No.”
Most of the track is dominated by an over-two-minute vocal recording the actor sent Apollo about a devastating experience he had during a mid-COVID Christmas season. The message gets so personal that he concluded it with, “I can’t believe I’m sending you this.”
Pascal was traveling from Budapest to Switzerland during the second wave of COVID in Europe following a job, “too scared to go back to the U.S.” and nursing a heart that “was pretty shattered by something,” he said.
“I remember walking, I think it must have been Lucerne,” he said in the message. “I remember thinking the saying ‘it brought me to my knees,’ and it was this sort of residential area. And I remember just literally being kind of brought to my knees by a park bench.”
“And I remember asking the park bench to come alive and save me, ’cause I didn’t feel like there was kind of any moment past that moment,” he said.
“But there was. There was.”
As of Saturday, Pascal has not commented on the song publicly. Apollo worked with producers Teo Halm, Carter Lang and Blake Slatkin at London’s Abbey Road Studios, as well as at studios in Los Angeles, Miami, and New York to bring his latest project together.
Speaking to Zane Lowe for Apple Music, Apollo reflected on “Pedro” and shared how Pascal came into the mix on the album.
“I played him ‘Glow,’ and that song is about grief and the complexities of it. I had the idea that it would be really beautiful if he said a story about grief – a colossal loss,” Apollo said, adding, “He sent a voice memo. It’s a very beautiful story. It’s very heart-shattering.”
In a May interview in GQ, Pascal also opened up about his friendship with Apollo following the news that he’d be featured in some way on the upcoming project.
“Omar is a very good friend of mine. I love his music. He’s also like me, someone who grew up bilingual. He loves Corona, I’ve had Corona with him,” he said. “And so I love being a friend in each other’s journeys, and uplifting whatever I can creatively, supporting whatever creative experience that he’s having as a friend, as an artist, as a Latino, as a Spanish speaker. It just means a lot to me.”
“God Said No” has been heralded as deeply personal and emotional. In each of its 14 songs, Apollo wrestles with the end of a two-year relationship that left him reeling. On “Life’s Unfair” he claims, “I would have married you,” but on “Against Me” he makes it clear that “you know that I am the baddest bitch” before admitting, “I’ve changed so much, but have you heard?/ I can’t move how I used to.”
Listen to “Pedro” in full below.
