Country singer Lee Greenwood, 82, was hoping to pen a strong concert closer when he wrote a tune in the back of a tour bus in 1983. What he came up with changed his career.
After recording the song later that year, Greenwood released “God Bless the U.S.A.” in May 1984, but it made little impact until being picked up by the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan and, later, Donald Trump.
Now, 40 years after its release, he’s created a new “rock version” of the tune along with Drew Jacobs.
“I never intended it to be a record for the public to hear,” Greenwood told the Washington Examiner in an interview ahead of the new release. “I just wrote it for my country and for myself.”
Greenwood had seven No. 1 country hits during a career that peaked in the 1980s, but he’s best known today for “God Bless the U.S.A.” which reentered the country music charts after the 1991 Gulf War, 9/11, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The song even made the Billboard Hot 100 after the Sept. 11 attacks, and Greenwood says he’s now hoping to reach the rock charts, the only ones on which it has never appeared.
He initially turned down invitations to sing “God Bless the U.S.A.” at both the Democratic and Republican national conventions in 1984, but when Reagan invited him to sing it at the White House he relented. Greenwood became friends with Reagan’s vice president, George H.W. Bush, and later performed the song during the presidential runs of Bush and his son, George W. Bush.
Greenwood figured he was done with it after the younger Bush left office in 2009, but then Trump picked it up again in 2016 and began playing the song as his entrance music at every political rally. Greenwood has performed it at six Republican National Conventions, including last summer’s edition in Milwaukee.
The 82-year-old singer has won the Congressional Medal of Honor Society’s National Patriot’s Award and performed for troops on more than 30 United Service Organizations tours, performing the “God Bless the U.S.A.” each time.
He says the song has never been political but is rather a general expression of his own patriotism. Greenwood’s father was a Navy veteran who joined up after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
“I’m a tunesmith, you know? I’m a musician and a singer and an artist,” he said. “I’m always pursuing the best I can to entertain audiences.”
His signature song has enjoyed surprising crossover appeal over the years. Dolly Parton has released a cover version, and even Beyonce, whose 2016 hit “Freedom” is an anthem of the Kamala Harris campaign, sang “God Bless the U.S.A.” during Fourth of July celebrations in 2011.
The new rock version, which was released just days before the 2024 election, is designed to reach a new generation, including his two sons who are still in their 20s.
“This is a big year for ‘God Bless The U.S.A.’ I have not recorded the song with many people, ever, as I felt like it would be passing the baton to someone else to sing my signature song,” he said in prerelease promotional materials. “However, this rock version is not something that I would have done on my own. So, I am excited to have fans and fellow patriots hear it, share it, and add it to their playlists.”
Collaborator Drew Jacobs developed a following by making rock covers of songs like “The Thunder Rolls” by Garth Brooks, “God’s Country” by Blake Shelton, and “Whiskey Lullaby” by Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss.
While Greenwood’s message is not political, he did find himself in a mild controversy earlier this year when Trump began plugging a special “God Bless the U.S.A. Bible” for $60.
“I want to have a lot of people have it,” Trump said in a promotional video during Holy Week. “You have to have it for your heart, for your soul.”
First issued in 2021, it is a King James version of the holy text and includes the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the chorus of “God Bless the U.S.A.” written in Greenwood’s handwriting.
Trump’s promotion of the book drew blowback from Democrats and some Republicans. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), for example, decried it as “one more example” of Trump’s hypocrisy.
But Greenwood defended Trump from the critics.
“I think that stems from the fact that they don’t like him making money,” Greenwood said. “They’ve indicted him, they’re trying to weaken him financially. Yes, he’s selling sneakers. He sells the Bible. I think he’s selling a watch. He can do whatever he wants to do to defer some of those indictments that are trying to weaken him. So I applaud that. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that at all.”
Greenwood similarly defended fellow country singer Jason Aldean when his “Try That in a Small Town” song was accused of promoting violence, calling Aldean “the biggest patriot” and saying, “It’s a great song. I wish I had it.”
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He’s glad to have become a part of the Trump phenomenon, even if that was never his goal, and predicts a win for the GOP ticket on Tuesday.
“I don’t just think he’s going to win,” Greenwood said. “I think it’s going to be a landslide.”