Article Contributed by Shore Fire Media
Published on 2026-10-02
Twenty years ago, on September 25, 2006, just 90 seconds into the New Orleans Saints’ first game back in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina, Steve Gleason broke through the Atlanta Falcons line and blocked a punt. It led to a touchdown. New Orleans erupted as the nation watched the moment unfold on Monday Night Football.
For a city still living with the devastation of the storm, it became far more than a football play; the moment became known as “The Rebirth.” Two decades later, Gleason is returning to that idea through a new medium. Today, he announces REBIRTH, a powerful new music project via Ineffable Joy Records, co-written by the former Saints safety and ALS advocate, who was diagnosed with the illness in 2011.
The 12 songs will be released episodically beginning today. Each song is a story unto itself, and together they trace a larger journey through what happens when the future you imagined disappears, what remains when the body changes and how people find a way forward when there is no returning to who they were before.
Listeners can visit rebirthsongcycle.com to join Steve on this journey, with access to new songs ahead of their wider release on streaming services. The experience will include behind-the-song bonus video episodes, interviews, alternate versions and demos, along with special photos and artifacts connected to the songs and the making of REBIRTH.
REBIRTH draws in part from poems Gleason has written, but the songs came together through a deeply personal songwriting process with Gleason at its center. Beginning in October 2025, he entered a series of intimate writing sessions with some of the people closest to him, starting in Slidell, Louisiana, before moving to North Idaho, where Gleason grew up, and back to New Orleans.
Over roughly six months, Gleason and his collaborators wrote from inside his life. As the material took shape, Gleason shared some of the most personal songs with his wife Michel, including songs that confronted difficult periods in their relationship or drew directly from their life together. Her feedback helped influence the direction of the project at key moments.
“Music is one of the ways I access parts of myself that ALS cannot touch. I can’t play guitar anymore, but the need to express myself has endured,” says Steve Gleason about REBIRTH. “We went into experiences I had been carrying for years and found music that could hold them. I could not have made these songs alone. Making this felt impossible. Which is generally where the good stuff begins.”
REBIRTH does not attempt to turn Gleason’s life into a victory lap. Instead, it goes somewhere more vulnerable. Some songs return to the shock of his ALS diagnosis. Others enter the private reality of a marriage reshaped by illness. Fatherhood runs through the song cycle as Gleason considers what it means to pass something on when time suddenly feels different. Again and again, REBIRTH asks a question that has followed Gleason for years: When so much can be taken from a person, what cannot?
The first music from REBIRTH arrives today with “Soul Is Invincible,” featuring Louisiana soul singer Marc Broussard, and “Sonic Boom,” featuring New Orleans icon Trombone Shorty.
Listen to “Soul Is Invincible” and “Sonic Boom”
“Soul Is Invincible” grew out of one of the earliest writing sessions. Rather than treating invincibility as the ability of one person to withstand anything, the song locates strength in the bond between people when circumstances strip everything else away.
“Sonic Boom” looks toward the moment that gave REBIRTH its name. Driven by brass with the momentum of a second line, the song returns to September 25, 2006, not as a piece of football mythology, but as a memory still living in New Orleans. Trombone Shorty brings his unmistakable voice and horn sound to the song.
Gleason produced REBIRTH with Stephen Rehage and Jim Salters. The recordings draw from the musical community of New Orleans and reach beyond the city as well. Musicians include members of E-Collective, PJ Morton, Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, Ben Schneider of Lord Huron, Anders Osborne, Ivan Neville, bassist Tony Hall of Dumpstaphunk, drummer Alvin Ford Jr., 16-year-old New Orleans pianist and singer River Eckert, and guitarist and producer Shane Theriot.
Pianist David Torkanowsky, guitarist Ari Teitel and keyboardist Brandon Coleman also serve as musical directors. Recording sessions took place at Esplanade Studios in the Tremé. After sitting vacant for years following Katrina, the historic former church was restored as a recording studio.
On September 25, Gleason marked the 20th anniversary of “The Rebirth” at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, where he addressed the school’s student body about his journey and the lessons it has taught him about possibility, creativity, art and pursuing a life without limits or fear. The moment brought REBIRTH directly to a new generation of New Orleans artists. NOCCA has fittingly framed the spirit of the moment as “Limitless.”
The celebration continues on October 5, when the Saints once again host the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football. Fans are invited to gather at Lafayette Square beginning at 3 p.m. to greet Gleason in person, hear remarks from Mayor Helena Moreno on the steps of Gallier Hall and join a celebratory procession to the Caesars Superdome.
The parade will feature a float from Kern Studios. Commemorative REBIRTH second line handkerchiefs will be distributed to the first 500 participants.
At Champions Square, Louisiana soul singer Marc Broussard and his band will open the special pregame concert with a set of their own music. Gleason will then join special guests for the first-ever live performances of songs from REBIRTH, presenting several pieces from the song cycle before closing the set with “Soul Is Invincible” and “Sonic Boom.”
The performance will also give fans an early listen to unreleased songs that will not be heard again until their respective chapters of REBIRTH arrive. Once inside the Dome, Gleason will participate in the coin toss before leading the stadium’s “Who Dat” chant ahead of kickoff.
The Monday Night Football matchup brings the story back to the same two teams, on the same stage, two decades after the play that forever connected Gleason to New Orleans’ recovery.
Gleason’s own life changed dramatically five years after that night. In 2011, at age 33, he was diagnosed with ALS. Six weeks after his diagnosis, his wife Michel learned she was pregnant with their first child. His experience was later chronicled in the acclaimed 2016 documentary Gleason and again in his 2024 memoir A Life Impossible.
In the years since his diagnosis, Gleason has become one of the most influential advocates for people living with ALS and other neuromuscular diseases. Through Team Gleason, he has pushed for greater access to assistive technology while helping people continue to communicate and live with purpose after diagnosis.
In 2024, he received the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the ESPYS. He also became the first former NFL player to receive the Congressional Gold Medal.
