If there’s anything autobiographical about her song, “Independence Day,” Gretchen Peters thinks she did it subconsciously. The songwriter was 8 years old when her parents were divorced — just the like the little girl that narrates the Martina McBride hit. But while her song was mostly “a piece of fiction,” Peters has met countless fans who have really lived some part of “Independence Day” — a story of a woman who breaks a vicious cycle of domestic abuse by burning her family’s house down. She reflected on the impact of “Independence Day” with Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International.

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