GOD BLESS THE USA: Country Music Star Lee Greenwood Takes You Behind the Scenes of His Hit Song - And Why He'll Never Apologize for Loving America | TRIGGERED Ep.79
GOD BLESS THE USA: Country Music Star Lee Greenwood Takes You Behind the Scenes of His Hit Song - And Why He'll Never Apologize for Loving America | TRIGGERED Ep.79
A CONCERT EVENT UNLIKE ANY OTHER HONORING VETERANS AND AMERICA’S PATRIOT – LEE GREENWOOD!
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Guys, welcome to another awesome episode of Triggered, and today is an extra special one.
We have award-winning country music legend Lee Greenwood.
All of you, of course, know Lee's hit song, God Bless the USA, which you may all know as Proud to be an American.
It's the song you hear at every Trump rally.
It's probably basically the MAGA anthem at this point.
Here's just one of the many examples of the song in action.
Check it out.
Over his career, Lee recorded hit after hit.
He's been at the top of the country charts.
He's been at the top of the Billboard charts.
He's even been a Grammy Award winner.
Lee is also a huge supporter of our troops.
He's done 16, 16 USO tours in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, the Philippines, Panama, and many, many more.
He's one of
America's First Voices.
Literally.
He's just known as that.
He's done an incredible job.
And he's soon releasing a Veterans Day tribute film called An All-Star Salute to Lee Greenwood.
Lee's going to join us
in just a couple seconds so make sure you're checking it out make sure you like you share you subscribe so other people can see this story and we can keep getting the message out guys like any other week uh it's another week where we see censorship we see the bias and we need to make sure that other people have
The ability to see through the noise.
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And with that, guys, joining me now, country music all-star, American Patriot legend, Lee Greenwood.
Lee Greenwood.
How's it going, Lee?
Great.
Thank you, Don.
Great to talk to you and great to be on your show.
Likewise.
So, so many Americans, Lee, you know, they hear your song, God Bless the USA, but it's become really a rally cry for patriotism in this country, right?
We hear it at all my father's rallies.
We hear it anywhere where people love America.
Take us back to when you first wrote that song and how it's actually
Really gained in popularities over the years.
Yeah, it's been an interesting ride.
I have to go back to my childhood when I was drum major from a high school band, and we would march in parades, and I'd see the military marching alongside of me, and it gave me inspiration about patriotism at a very early age.
I started working for the U.S.S.O.
when I was like 15 or 16.
I'm from California, so I worked all the air bases and army bases, marine bases.
I even flew to Alaska before it was a state, so you know how old I am.
What was that?
1957, I think?
But then I moved to Nevada and for years I played in the casinos of Nevada.
We're kind of in a bubble and I'm the Vietnam era age.
I did not serve in the military.
My father joined the Navy right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, so we have military.
In my family.
But when I moved to Tennessee and I got my country music career, things just sort of changed in my head.
I'm like, well, now I have a voice.
I have something I can do.
And about three and a half years into my career, playing every doghouse, outhouse, and roundhouse around the country, I discovered that this country is much more alike than we are different.
And some night in my bus as I'm traveling between Texas and Arkansas, along with a lot of the other songs I wrote in my first 10 albums, I wrote God Bless the USA in the back of my motor coach, my bus.
And when I played it for my producer, he said, well, this is kind of out of context for what you are known for.
And we'd already received quite a few awards for ballads and country music.
And when I took it to Universal and had them look at the album, it was 1985, called You've Got a Good Love Coming, which we already had
$25,000 in a video we filmed in a London train station.
I was adamant about releasing that.
And Universal said, no, we're going to go with this other song you wrote about America.
And I'm like, really?
Because I was kind of surprised.
And you know, Don, after the first four or five shows that we had in my performance, it was amazing.
I could not follow it with anything.
So it became the closer.
And then I started working for the military here in Tennessee, the National Guard.
And we did like
10 or 12 USO tours around the world.
Most of it was the Guard in Tennessee.
Sometimes we had the Virginia Guard, I mean, the West Virginia Guard, Minnesota and Alaska fly us on a lot of our missions.
And it just became suddenly an anthem for the military.
That made me very proud, by the way.
And then, of course, you remember, you know, things started to change in our country about the cancel culture and all that, because it was right after the emergence of a new patriotism, and that was after the terrorist attack.
And I went to New York three different times to raise America's pride about being who we are.
And that's kind of why I wrote the song, I'm Proud to be an American, because I am proud of who I am.
And I'm not Italian-American.
I may have some history of English and Irish and Scottish, but, you know, I'm an American first.
And so, when I wrote that song, it sort of resonated with everybody who is an American of any descent.
It's like, that's where American first, you know?
Maybe the indigenous people, the Indians, have a right to say, I'm Indian American, but even they have a pride in saying, I'm American first.
And I guess that's where USA began to take off, and it's about 10 or 15 years down.
And now here we are, 40 years later, and the song still resonates with people, in particular our military.
Yeah, I mean, do you think that some of that, I mean, obviously, you know, as a New Yorker, right, you know, at least formerly New Yorker before I had to get out of the People's Republic of New York, you know, the time post 9-11 was really an interesting time, right?
Because you think of New York, everyone's brash, everyone's aggressive, everyone's
But, like, there was a lot of unity.
You know, people sort of put aside some of their petty differences.
It was actually probably the most amazing time to have lived there.
And it lasted.
It wasn't like one of those fleeting moments that, you know, people are nice for a few minutes and then they forget.
It was, you know, it was probably a couple of years.
Do you think the song's popularity has even grown because there does perceive to be this sort of
You know, threat to, you know, what patriotic Americans probably think of as America.
Do you think, you know, sort of the attacks from the radical left has changed?
When the song came out, you know, as many years ago as you said, I sort of feel like both sides sort of felt the same way about their country.
Maybe they disagreed on some nuance, but today that nuance is more extreme.
I mean, could there be something to that or not?
Yeah, I think so.
You know, as you know, I went to New York three different times.
We sang at the Firearms Memorial at Yankee Stadium, the Policemen's Memorial at Carnegie Hall, and then I did the 4th Game of the World Series, and that was to uplift America.
See, what I believe is, one of the things that terrorists really wanted to do was take away our lifestyle.
And of course, with the invention of the TSA, of course they did.
I mean, it really changed the way we thought about security.
I was going to say, I'm not sure about every time, Lee.
I think they all experimented with getting rid of it.
Uh, you know, they've added other things.
I guess they added, you know, the black national anthem, which I don't think anyone had ever heard of prior to sort of, you know, woke culture taking over, uh, taking over sports.
But, but I guess it is a consistent theme because it's what the people actually want.
And you'll be amazed if you take away the rhetoric of the left, which is basically a minority voice.
This country is all
Positive about our country, about the origin of our country.
And I told somebody the other day, we're talking about the attack on Israel, and I posted a thing and I said, America fought for our independence and we won.
It was bloody.
Even the civil war was a conflict.
We tried to find out who we were.
We are a unified nation, even though we're very different.
But Israel is fighting for its life and its right to exist.
We're good to go.
I can't tell you how it hurts my heart when I hear about Hamas cutting the heads off babies and burning people alive and raping women out until they die.
I'm like, you've got to be kidding me.
I've got to give Israel a thumbs up.
Go get them and take them out.
I mean, that's the right thing to do.
Yeah, and listen, I think, I agree with a lot of what you're saying there.
You know, I'm not for sending American troops on the ground.
I think Israel's, you know, they're its own nation, they're big boys, they've got incredible defense forces, you know, they can take care of their problem.
The last thing I want to do is get into another war.
And I think you saying that probably jives with every, I mean, you're one of the guys that has probably done more
With the USO and our veterans and everything than anyone, and I imagine they feel the same way.
After 20 years in Afghanistan to pull out, you know, the way we did, it's just disgraceful.
So, you know, I'm okay with them defending themselves, certainly against a murderous regime, those raping and killing children in the streets.
You know, and then hides behind women and children, or has been launching missiles from schools and hospitals for years, and then they say, oh, it's outrageous that Israel would strike a hospital.
It's like, no, no, no, they're not striking a hospital.
They're striking a missile launch site.
There's a difference.
So, you know, to think of a Hamas leadership literally hiding behind women and children so that they can create the moral outrage when Israel strikes back and defends itself is,
It's truly sick and evil, but that's the nature of the world right now.
Well, let me just turn to the topic which most interests me, and that is taking care of our soldiers.
As I said, my father was Navy, my wife Kim's father was Army, and I never served in the military, so it is my mission really to focus on the needs of our military, particularly at a time in stress like this when they're asked to go into harm's way.
There have been a lot of shows recently that have been filmed live and then aired in motion picture theaters, to name a couple.
Beyonce and Taylor Swift both have done that, and this coming month they have both of them in motion picture theaters.
We have done the same, but more of a slant towards country music and toward our veterans.
We filmed a wonderful show in Huntsville, Alabama with 40 wonderful singers, and this is aimed at lifting up veterans on Veterans Day.
And just to be specific, it's called Adopt-A-Vet.
If you're a listener, go to adoptavet.com.
For $50, you can send a veteran and their caregiver to see this wonderful film in motion pictures all across America.
Even corporations, if you'll buy out a theater and send vets for free, that would be my aim, is to make sure veterans are honored on Veterans Day this year.
It's November 12th.
Adopt a vet in all theaters across America.
So, who else partook in that with you?
Because I know this is something that you've been doing for a long time, right?
It's not like it's the trend.
You've done 16 USO missions, if I read that correctly, right?
Yeah, and it was always my privilege to do that.
I've been in four fighter jets for the Air Force.
A CAT shot off the Kitty Hawk.
I shot an M1 tank in Barstow.
I've been mixing it up with the military for a long time, and it's always a privilege to go on these USO tours around the world.
As a matter of fact, a lot of people don't know, I was on Bob Hope's last tour around the world.
That was eight stops in eight days, eight shows, 25,000 miles.
With two C-141s and Hawaii Orchestra, Connie Stevens, and I can't remember who all was on there, but I was a straight man for Bob Hope.
That was pretty interesting for a singer.
What's the best Bob Hope story?
Because I imagine he was, you know, he was one of, let's call it the original wild man.
You know, when I first joined that tour, I was pretty hot.
I was in Nashville.
We just had come out in 88, and I'd been touring, and we were in the news all the time.
I got the call to go to the tour.
I had to leave Nashville to get to Los Angeles and join the troupe, and then we went to Hawaii to pick up the orchestra.
Our first show was in the Philippines with 10,000 airmen in the stadium there at Clark Air Force Base, and so they played the music.
He does his monologue, and they just love him.
And so the years of Vietnam, you know, there was nobody else that really could bring all of the Hollywood stars and athletes to the soldiers like they did.
So it was kind of cool being there.
So I'm waiting in the wings.
He finished the monologue and introduces me.
And when he does, they start my anthem.
The band starts playing, the full orchestra.
It's pretty cool.
And the crowd, the men all just jumped up and started applauding.
He walked past me and he said, who are you?
I thought that was pretty funny.
He doesn't seem like the kind of guy that has minced words.
You know, I know my father has some pretty interesting stories with Bob Hope as well, so that's pretty amazing, yeah.
I'm sure that felt great going on stage and just being crushed right off the bat, right?
Yeah, well they, you know, I have just so enjoyed meeting the soldiers.
I've only come under fire one particular time because they keep me away from the front lines.
And that was in Panama.
And we had, I was in a Jeep with a soldier with a letter for 200 Marines in the jungle.
Really?
Really?
And then we got in the compound where the Marines were and they went out and took him out.
There was like 10 guys that just kind of rogue around looking for something to shoot at.
And I saw him in the hospital before he was discharged.
So fast forward about 30 years, and I'm in Ohio doing a show.
And my tech comes to me, Mike Thamer from Cincinnati says, there's a guy in the audience who says he was your driver in Panama and he wants to come back and see you.
I said, does he miss a finger?
He said, yes.
He had joined the CIA and terrific.
He had a great family.
And we come back and we visited about those moments.
It is interesting, you know, to be in an area where our troops really are under fire, under combat.
I can't imagine, you know, when I'm in that situation, I really give me a gun, you know, let me be part of
Part of the force.
I don't want to just stand back and watch this happen, but of course, I'm not trained to do that.
And I, you know, I have some great respect and admiration for those who are.
Well, you're also not like Hillary Clinton, you know, telling a story that never actually happened.
Otherwise it would have come out a long time ago, right?
When they're under fire and their gunship was taking fire.
They're like, you are in a different country.
We don't even know what you're talking about, but it doesn't matter.
It sounds good on the campaign trail, huh?
I hate that.
I just hate that.
So, yeah, you're someone who's been, honestly, very open, unapologetic about your patriotism, but that's really in sharp contrast to so many of the others in the entertainment industry today, where, you know, they shy away from that.
You saw a couple of the big celebrities put up stuff, you know, just, they're standing by Israel, and then, you know, the Hamas caucus goes after them, and they have to take it down.
You know, why is that?
When did it stop being cool
You know, to love America and show business, because it seems like there's a lot of pressure to be... It's a lot easier to be anti than it is to be pro, and I just don't think that jives with the American populace, but that doesn't matter today.
Well, maybe that's just who I am.
And I know when we sang for President Trump, your dad, at the inauguration there at Lincoln Memorial, there were a couple of entertainers who got scared off.
There's an old adage that says, if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.
And I have to stand for who I am and what I believe in.
I think so.
You have to do what you believe in.
And I believe in America.
I believe in freedom.
I believe in what America has done over the past, this past year, we visited Normandy.
And if you, if any American has not seen Normandy, you need to go there and know how much blood we left on those shores for the freedom of another country.
So I'm like, hey, you know, I believe in what America stands for.
You're not going to share me off that.
Yeah, that was actually one of the, uh, I went with my father for the, I guess it was the 75th anniversary of the, you know, of D-Day, uh, and went to Normandy with him.
I mean, you know, flew in on, uh, you know, Air Force One and then ultimately Marine One, and you see those beaches from the air, and I mean,
What an incredible experience.
You're right.
Any American who can get over there, you have to see it.
Truly amazing.
It's sad to see the difference.
It's sad to see some of those veterans now
Being targeted by the radical left, and it's just crazy, you know, what's going on right now.
You know, I've noticed that also.
I mean, talk about, you know, you're in Nashville and country music.
The performers are, for the most part, really conservative.
And yet, it feels like there's a lot of pressure from the record labels to go a different way.
I know a couple of guys, I won't name names because I'm friendly with so many people in the industry there, especially country music, because again, you know, they're probably 90-95% MAGA, but there are a lot of them, frankly, that in 16,
Hey man, can you do something about this and come out and say, I can't do that, my record label would lose me.
Some of those guys are very vocal now.
I think they found a sweet spot, but they wouldn't have touched it even in 16, and now they've probably made pretty good business on it.
Why is that?
Is it bad for business being pro-conservative in country music even still today?
No, I don't think so.
It is in other genres, but not necessarily in country music.
I mean, the patriots in country and those who surround the fringes of country, for instance, two of my very close friends, Tony Orlando and Gary Sinise, and we talk occasionally about that.
With Charlie Daniels gone, one of the most outspoken patriots, we're all pretty much on the same page.
And you may be right that money comes first for the record companies.
And I think
It's not necessarily that they don't want him talking about America in a positive tone, they just don't want him talking political at all.
And Don, you know, I don't use my stage for a pulpit.
I make some nuances, so if you joke or hear it, they know what I stand for.
But I never get up and start preaching about it.
I think maybe my silence is the greatest asset.
Rather than telling everybody, because we've been on stage so many times with your dad, you know, and it's a really thrill, by the way, to be able to sing for him.
And we're going to do that again soon, by the way, and be on the campaign.
So we're looking forward to that.
And I just hope that this war, Israel, I just hope that it ends really soon.
We don't get Lebanon and Egypt and Syria involved.
And I certainly would hope that we don't get a conflict with Israel and Iran, even though Iran's the really bad guy here.
But, you know, they got to do what they got to do.
And let's just pray, you know, that our soldiers and airmen and seamen are safe if they get involved.
Yeah, 100%.
I think we have to do our best to get out of these wars.
We don't need another never-ending war.
I think Israel can take care of themselves.
But they are up against a lot of really bad actors in the regime.
They're being funded indefinitely.
People are talking about Hamas.
They don't have water.
They don't have this.
It's like, well, that's what happens when you turn your water pipes into missiles and rockets.
It's not the same.
You know, despite what people would have you believe.
No one's advocating for the murder of women and children, but when the regime that represents those people hides behind them, convinces them not to leave, sets up in those places, you know, is someone supposed to sit idly by as rockets get launched into their city and not do anything about it?
I mean, you know.
It's a little bit crazy, but it was shocking over the last, you know, week and change to see just how anti-Israel so many people are.
You know, the tolerant left that tells you we got to be tolerant of the LGBTQIA+++++, you know, every crazy machination of trans.
They don't really seem to like the Jews very much.
Wait a second, what is going on here?
You know, you understand that antisemitism is a thing, but I don't think anyone realized just how bad it is and just how rampant it is.
Yeah, I really hate that.
I'm always for the underdog.
I like people to have a voice.
I think that's what America is, our democracy.
It's like, give everybody a voice.
Unfortunately, the left seems to have a media voice that is overwhelming.
And you talk about it enough, you almost make people believe a lie.
And they do that a lot.
Fake news.
Of course, your dad was the first to mention that.
And he's right.
I mean, there's so much fake news out there.
If you say it enough, people go, well, yeah, maybe that's true, you know?
And people still talk in the older generation about what's on the news.
Well, the news is not necessarily what you need to watch.
You need to watch what's not in the news and find the real answers and the truth.
So, you know, we try to do that all the time as well.
I do have a great time, by the way, touring the United States because I have an interesting perspective.
As we go coast to coast and find audiences.
Now, okay, a lot of my audience are kind of biased, you know.
I have ABC Supply presents Lee Greenwood on tour.
It's a conservative red, white, and blue company out of Beloit, Wisconsin, and I'm proud to say that.
And I am a Christian, and I'm proud to say that as well.
I'll get some nasty letters about that, but I really don't care.
You know, I have to stand where I stand, and like you, hey man, you know, both feet on the ground ain't gonna scare me off.
Yeah, no, I mean, that's a, you know, you hit a couple things.
A big portion of this show is about making sure that people understand what's between the lines.
I think for me, you know, throughout, you know, Russia, Russia, Russia, and coming into politics as just a business guy that, you know, wasn't all that involved, it's like, you know, you actually, you wanted to give so many of these institutions and government the benefit of the doubt, but then you realize, like, wow, you really can't.
You know, they've been, so I look at everything through a very skeptical,
And cynical lens at this point, and that's not because I want to, it's because you have no choice.
You know, they've not proven themselves to deserve the benefit of the doubt anymore.
And so, you know, it's a scary time, but I think a big part of this show is, you know, trying to get people to understand that.
You know, again, with me, Russia, Russia, Russia.
Don Jr.
committed treason.
I'm like, I did what?
I don't even know what they're talking about, but it didn't stop them from doing it.
And when they go after, you know, General Flynn, well, you know, you say, well, you know, it's the FBI, it's the CIA.
There's got to be some truth to that.
But these same people are calling, you know, concerned parents that, you know, PTA medics domestic terrorists.
So, you know, the bias.
Uh, is there.
And we have to call that out.
And I think people are starting to figure out that sort of the utopian America that we thought we lived in, or many perhaps believed in, probably doesn't exist.
And we have to fight hard to make sure that those ideals, those values, the things that we actually, you know, certainly on the conservative side hold dear, that they remain for the next generation.
Yeah, and I have to bring up the point about our border.
With the infiltration of Hamas into Israel, and they didn't even know it, there was a thousand of them had got inside the country.
With our borders open, and there's a recent entrance of many people coming across the border from that part of the country.
We have no idea who they are.
We really need to take great care in this next year or so and find out how in the world we can protect ourselves from those people who came into this country legally.
They've got to be terrorists.
There is something gonna happen.
I hope the CIA and FBI are aware and their eyes are wide open because it is a warning.
I know that we've tried to close the border and for some, I can't believe that they will not let us do that.
I mean, it's almost crazy at this point.
I mean, they know they've apprehended 250 or so, you know, known, like, terror watch list people.
You had, you know, Iranians last week at the border.
You had this, like, imagine how many got through.
I mean, these are, these are not stupid people.
They're reasonably well funded by, you know, governmental entities over there.
You see the protests.
Uh, massive protests across America, pro-Hamas, uh, you know, anti-Semitic stuff going on, and, you know, thousands and thousands of people showing up.
It's like, wait a second, I mean, you're telling me that there's, you know, some of these people couldn't be sleeper cells just coming across our border?
You know, it's only a matter of time.
I mean, I spoke a lot last week about
You know, this is why our Second Amendment exists, contrary to the Democrat narrative.
It's not about, you know, deer hunting.
It's not about that.
You know, this is why you have an AR-15.
This is why you have a 30-round mag.
This is why those who want to eliminate the Second Amendment and some of those things, that's what it's for.
I mean, I also have a hard time believing that, you know, Israeli intelligence
Didn't get an inkling of a very well-coordinated attack with people flying paragliders into Israel.
I don't believe that either, so I can be cynical across the board.
I'm not just going to take the talking points from one side.
I have a hard time that there was a lapse of intelligence that big, but there's no question that these things are going on.
There was a place in, I think it was
Colorado, Arkansas, where they're busting people who are openly advocating for jihad in America.
And we're letting these people in.
We welcome them in.
We don't vet the people coming in from Afghanistan.
Some of them were on terror watch lists.
And we just say, welcome home.
I'm sure they'll be great.
You know, what could possibly go wrong?
And Israel is exactly what could go wrong.
And so we better do something about it.
You know, there does not seem to be much political will.
The Democrats certainly don't want to do it.
They seem the opposite of that, and too many Republicans are far too weak to fight for the issue.
Yeah, the bipartisan thing doesn't seem to be working very well.
I've always believed that there's an axiom you can go by.
No matter what you believe or what you do, do the right thing.
I think it was General Schwarzkopf who said that.
Do the right thing, no matter what it is.
And we are certainly not doing the right thing as far as protecting our nation.
All I can hope for, and I have two young sons, Dalton, who just got a PhD in cancer research at Vanderbilt, and our younger son, Parker, who has enrolled at the University of Miami and getting his master's in engineering and producing music, that they have a chance to move forward to this next generation because we're in a free country.
The problem is we just have to keep it free and we have to have security.
We do not have security right now.
And my heart goes out to the police.
Police are really under fire in this country, and I don't get it.
If a guy breaks into your home and you can't defend yourself, and you dial 911, who do you think is going to come?
Is it going to be a cop?
I thank them every day when I see them.
I say, hey man, thanks for what you guys do, because they certainly don't make it easy on you to keep us safe.
And it's scary.
They're threatening people's livelihoods, and their pensions, and this.
It's a scary deal, and yet we see on a daily basis how that's worked out in the places that wanted to defund the police and all of that.
So, you know, yeah, I mean, let's talk about that a little bit.
You mentioned the word sort of bipartisan, and that seems to be, you know, something that doesn't exist much of these days.
I know that, you know, God bless the USA.
Many of them know it as just proud to be an American.
It's played at every Trump rally.
So if Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders
I know there's lots of liberal artists that if, you know, if the song is played up in a, you know, rally at the beginning of the rally, they're sending cease and desist letters and they're going nuts and they're taking the woke talking points and trying to use that as a pulpit to, I guess, you know, in many cases, probably make themselves relevant again.
You know, what would happen if that happened with your songs?
Well, first of all, it's not going to happen.
I think that's right.
The candidate on the Democrat side would be shot instantly.
He would be lynched and he would lose the nomination in a primary.
99.99999 to zero, basically.
But the point about music, I've always believed music is for everyone.
And even God Bless the USA, which is more of a military anthem, and then yet a song for our citizens of America, you know, that is played at every immigration ceremony.
When people come from another country and they wait however long, seven years to become an American, God bless them.
I don't think so.
Yeah.
The cancel culture has to work both ways.
We've got to be playing the same game that they are.
But I think you're right.
It probably wouldn't happen because that's the thing.
You saw it at the Democrat convention last time.
The only thing they forgot was American flags.
And that's scary, right?
I mean, that wouldn't have happened.
You know, that's not Kennedy's Democrat Party, right?
That's an entirely different thing.
That's Rashida Tlaib's Democratic Party.
That's Ilhan Omar's Democratic Party, where, like, of course they don't care about Americans.
They're far more concerned about, you know, again, people in far-off lands who hate us.
We want to make sure that we give them every opportunity to come here, to bring that, to take us down, and it never seems to end.
Yeah, you're right, and I hate it.
I just wish we could somehow figure this out.
And you know what brings us together, unfortunately, is an attack on our own country.
A military attack, as you saw, and we pointed out in 9-11 when we got hit.
We were one country, at least on the surface.
And we went after the terrorists and we found them.
It cost us a lot.
We lost a lot of soldiers, but there's not been a terrorist attack since then.
But I'm telling you, we better be alert because it's coming.
We have too many people filtering across the border, have no idea who they are.
Like you said, we got 250 of them.
Who knows how many got through?
And it doesn't take very many to disturb a nuclear power or something, a nuclear reactor that produces power for a city.
It wouldn't take much to blow it up.
And so it's like, you gotta be ever alert, man.
I was, you know what?
I was a dealer in Vegas for a while.
I don't know if you know that, but I dealt a Tropicana Hotel for four years.
I assume that means cards and not drugs, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Let's be clear.
Some leftist is going to take this.
Lee Greenwood was dealing drugs.
It was terrible.
No, no, no.
And so I'm standing at a dead table, and a pit boss comes up behind me and grabs a chip, and I didn't see it.
And he said, here's the problem, he says, when you're dreaming, they're scheming.
I'll never forget that, because to be ever alert, and we've been suckered a couple of times in Pearl Harbor, the attack on 9-11, we didn't see any of that coming.
We really have to be more alert in this next century, because everybody wants to take America out,
Everybody wants to get in who wants to be free.
There's nobody leaving this country to be free.
We are the it.
We're the beacon of freedom.
And as long as Statue of Liberty stands in our harbor, we're still going to be that.
Yeah, no, it's interesting, right?
I remember all the liberals in 16, you know, if Trump wins, I'm leaving.
I'm like, it's strange.
They're still here.
I remember sort of a funny, a funny thing.
Yeah, it happened after the election.
It was before my father was sworn in, but after the election there's this, you know, cigar club in New York I used to go to a lot and, you know, Al Sharpton was there all the time and, you know, Rudy Giuliani was there and I remember it was a couple days after the election and
You know, literally Al Sharpton is here at a table with his people.
I'm here with some friends.
Rudy Giuliani is there with some friends.
And Al Sharpton walks by to go to the men's room.
And I go, listen, you know, it's New York.
I don't pretend to agree with them politically, but you sort of know each other.
You're like, you know, you just joke around and whatever.
Let's call it like you're frenemies, right?
So we're joking around and I just yell across the room.
I go,
Al, what the hell are you doing here?
And he looks at me.
Ah, Junior, you know I'm always here.
I go, no, no, no, man.
You said you were moving to Canada.
What the hell are you still doing here?
It's almost like it's all bullshit.
And of course it was.
So uh you know everyone in the place just you know everybody's yelling across the room everyone in the place goes nuts it was pretty funny even he got a little chuckle out of it uh you know because that's that's the reality but you know you mentioned that you're a car dealer in in Vegas so talk about it how do you go from being a car dealer in Vegas
To, you know, being a country music star.
What was that first big break in the business?
When did it start to sink in that you could actually do that for a living and not have to deal cards at the Tropicana?
16 years old.
I left Sacramento, California as soon as I got my high school degree, and I went to work in Nevada immediately, and I was in and around the casinos for 20 years.
Lake Tahoe and Reno first, and I settled in Las Vegas, you know, entertaining along all of the famous people, the Rat Pack.
I knew Sammy Davis quite well, Jack Jones, Juliet Prowse, the Fifth Dimension.
They all were friends of mine, and they saw me many years playing for shows.
I was writing music for shows, and I'm so close to the money.
I'm so close to the tables and casinos.
Surely, I can have some of it if I become a dealer.
And it was interesting, I was good at math in school, so it was an easy break in, and I had some people that helped me get a gig, and it's all about who you know.
And so I did that for a while, and I just like, you know, this is dead end.
I'm not, you know, maybe if I work long enough, 25 years, I might be able to get my own joint, you know.
And get a being licensed with the state of Nevada or Atlantic City or whatever.
But it just it got so bold, boring and I and I never give up singing.
I was doubling and tripling playing other shows, writing music for producers for other shows.
And when the economy hit, I was even playing just single a solo in a place that was really elite in one of the casinos.
But when my record hit, that's when, you know, I mean, I finally decided I've got to get out of this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I'm not from the South, born in Los Angeles of course, but I'm not really big city.
I was raised on a farm in California, and my wife Kim and I have been married 31 years now, and she is from the same kind of area as I was, actually born in Ohio, but she's a Tennessean.
Because when her family couldn't get work in Tennessee, they worked on the rubber plants in Ohio, in Akron, and then they came back to Tennessee finally when things got well here.
And so I'm very comfortable in Tennessee.
I love where I live, and I love what I represent, and I walk the walk.
Don, I talk the talk and walk the walk, just like you.
So what year was that that you left Las Vegas?
I'm sort of curious what it was like back then.
It was great, by the way.
What year was that?
That was kind of between the time of Elvis, of course, and Howard Hughes, and all of that mystique that surrounded all of that.
But when I left in 1979, I went to Nashville and just
I went back a few times, but instead of working some crummy little lounge or casino back room, I ended up working the main room.
Then I woke up for Crystal Gale, and then the Oprah Winfrey boys and I started headlining my own shows.
And it was kind of fun going back and looking at it from that different perspective, because as a struggling musician, it was week to week.
And so when you go in there and you play for like two or three weeks or a month or whatever as a resident in a major casino, it's a whole different ballgame.
I guess the same thing would be in New York.
I mean, if you've got plenty of money and you're living high on the hog, that's great.
But if you've got your low resources, it's a whole different world.
No, it's a lot harder.
Yeah, it's very curious to see, you know, Vegas in the 70s versus, you know, Vegas in the, you know, 2010s and 20s, you know, probably two very different worlds, even in terms of the demo that they're chasing and stuff like that.
It's, you know, it's amazing to me how, you know, so much of the Vegas revenue is no longer even from gaming.
It's, you know, entertainment and this and family.
I imagine in the 70s it was not at all that.
When I first went there, they actually had shills, where someone would come and sit at a blackjack table, who was hired by the casino, and they'd have 20 checks, which would represent a dollar, each one, and they would bet one at a time, just showing there was something going on.
And then, when entertainment started to be an issue, you had lounges with major acts, and I played with a lot of them.
Over a 20-year period, and who would bring the people in.
And then after a while, the casino got so well off from gambling, then they reduced the size of orchestras and bands down to three people playing in a corner somewhere.
We had a little music, you know.
But when I was there in the early years, you could almost get free food in the morning, free food in the afternoon.
Shows were cheap, and hotel rooms were cheap.
They would give anything away to get you in the casino.
And, you know, it's an old, old game.
Really, it's worldwide.
Everyone has gambling casinos.
I went to Monte Carlo with my wife.
I stopped in at his, and I didn't like the gambling there.
It was terrible.
They had $25 slot machines and cigar smoke everywhere, you know.
It was like a bunch of old guys around a poker table.
I'm like, this is not gambling.
This is as I know it, you know.
And you look at Atlantic City, and now, of course, all the Indian casinos, no matter where they are across the United States,
They run really well.
I mean, they've done Nevada like a superstar.
They have really capitalized on a way to bring people into the area and geographically put casinos around the United States.
And I have to give them credit.
They hire us, entertainers.
We still work casinos.
Some of these great places, whether in Oklahoma or where, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Upper New York, up there in Connecticut, some of the greatest casinos, they look just like Vegas to me anymore.
Yeah, no, they definitely have.
And I'm not much of a gambler myself.
I don't get much excitement over it.
I figure every day of my life is enough of a gamble.
I don't need to add more excitement to it.
But the alternate options that they have, it is very different than that historically.
And it's amazing to watch that evolution.
So I want to get back to the USO events that you did.
If you'd done 16 all over the world, you're talking about the Philippines.
Panama, getting shot at.
How did you first start getting involved in those events, but then more importantly, in doing so, how has it shaped your worldview?
Being on the ground with those guys, in those situations, did it change the way you think about things, or did it just sort of reinforce what you already believe?
Yeah, the latter.
Because I was very young when I first started doing USO tours,
I had a band and we played, let's see, we played 29 Palms from the Marines, Fort Ord for the Army, the Presidio for the Army, McClellan and Mather Air Force Bases around my home in Sacramento, California, and I told you we even went to Alaska when I was 16 years old, and we couldn't play in Alaska at the block house where the bombers were unless I had a girl in the act.
Oddly enough, so I had to hire a Hawaiian dancer just to have a girl in the act.
Why was that?
Was that a diversity, equity, and inclusion thing?
The early precursor?
I guess that's early equality.
But we couldn't play.
The agent says, you have to have a girl in the band.
So, OK, fine.
So we brought one.
It was meaningless, you know.
But I could see, you know, when we did our USO tour several times, we had women that went with us.
Miss USA would go with us.
I even met Kim on a USO tour, our tour in the Atlantic, the North Atlantic.
And I had Miss USA, Miss Delaware, Miss Tennessee with us on our tour for like 12 days.
And we fell in love there.
And that was a great thing.
So don't tell me the government doesn't give you anything, but I... At least you're one of the few people that may have gotten something for your tax dollars.
But it was fabulous.
I mean, it didn't change my view.
I already knew what the military does.
I've seen it so many times.
We build a lot of homes for wounded warriors over the past 12 years, and seeing them get another shot at life really makes it important for me.
And that's why it's so very important to have on Veterans Day this year
If people just go to adoptavet.com, send a veteran and caregiver to the movies for free.
You will love this film that we did.
Yeah, tell us about it.
What's the premise?
You know, tell us about it.
It's a tribute to my career over 40 years, and I brought to bear 40 different singers from all genres.
Gavin DeGraw, Luke Bryant, Michael W. Smith, and the Isaacs who sing one of my songs, Jamie Johnson, the Oak Ridge Boys, Crystal Gale, the Gatlin Brothers.
I mean, there are 40 different singers in all genres who come, and they're all highlighted singing a song I had as a career hit.
I mean, I sat in the audience and watched this go down.
It was unbelievable.
But to send a veteran to see that, there is a tribute to the veterans at the very end.
And yes, I do.
God bless the USA with the entire cast.
I mean, you don't want to miss this one.
It's November 12, all motion picture theaters across America.
AdoptaVet.com.
So I have people, 50 bucks, you can send a veteran and a caregiver for free.
I'm sure you know one.
I'm sure we know a lot, and I think that'd be great.
Obviously, I imagine the most memorable time with the military is getting shot at in Panama, but how has, if at all, spending that time with the military, how has it shaped your music?
I don't think it really has.
You know, I've been a tunesmith, if you will, a writer, since I was like 20, you know, and a musician since I was 10 or 11 or 12.
Basically, when I step on stage, and I've had two shows this week, night for last, I was in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at the Alabama Theater, and I'll be playing with Alabama again on December 1 in Huntsville, just like I did in the early days when Alabama was touring.
We make music, I think, that reflects the mood of the culture.
And with the song with Jason Aldean that basically talks about protecting his own home in case that some ants, you know, and the cancel culture jumped all over that.
Basically, it's just, if the song wasn't going to be a hit, and it was a hit long before the video was released, and suddenly some tried to make something of it.
Jason Aldean is a patriot, just like the rest of us here in Nashville.
Yeah.
And we may, listen, Don, if our music doesn't resonate with the people, we would not make any more of it because we wouldn't be a star anymore.
Yeah, that was like the Trump speech when Trump announced, you know, in 15, you know, he's running.
You know, the comments, you know, when they were, he talked about rapists at the border, which of course there's plenty.
It's like a known thing, but it didn't matter.
That didn't become an outrage cycle.
At that moment.
It became an outrage cycle two or three weeks later when his message started resonating with Americans.
When he climbed into polls all of a sudden it became a big deal.
Just like Jason could, and Jason's a friend also, uh but he could put out that song and yeah it was a great song it was doing great and then someone's like wait a minute it's doing too good now we have to try to take him down we got to try to shame you uh into that and and change things.
So
I guess country, the country's changed a lot since God bless the USA came out and it was first released.
Even the way we view our military leadership has changed.
Are you concerned that too many of our leaders in Washington are losing sight of what it really means to be an American these days?
Because I see what they're pushing and I see where the country is.
I look at military recruitment.
I'm saying these people do not, they're not looking at the same thing.
They're playing two different games.
Two entirely different worldviews.
We're good to go.
And I mean, there you go.
I mean, that's it.
Well, yeah, I wish that was the case.
Unfortunately, I don't think they often do because I mean, I guess, do you ever worry about cancel culture yourself?
I know that Joe Biden, you know, removed you from the National Endowment for the Arts.
I mean, my father put you on there.
I imagine there's not many conservatives on there.
You decide where some governmental funding goes for the arts.
It'd be nice to have some representation, understanding that the arts is probably skewed far more to the left.
But what was your reaction to that and your thoughts on that?
Because I imagine you were probably one of the few sort of outspoken conservatives and probably one of the few outspoken patriots on that panel.
Yeah, there were two of us, and we got let go at the same time.
Of course, through George Bush, and then through Obama, and your dad.
And then when Biden fired me, I really wasn't surprised.
But I'd been there for 14 years, and it's a six-year term.
That's fine.
You know, I think I did a good job and my heart was in the right place, trying to always make sure that whatever part of the budget we had to make sure that the culture of America is always in the forefront and historically protected.
That was our aim.
Yeah, more left than right, but they represented different kinds of things, which my field is not sculpture or museums or dance necessarily, and we had people who were all artistic, and so that's where we came together and united as a panel.
It's a 14-member committee, a council, but I don't think
We didn't discuss politics much.
However, the White House always had somebody sitting in on our meetings, and that bothered me.
I didn't like that.
We were supposed to make decisions on our own, and they would report back to the White—no, I don't know that they had anything to say about it, but they always had this, like, cloud of influence over the Council, and particularly when Obama was president and when Biden was president, and I think that's why they got rid of me.
I imagine so.
But listen, it's great that you're out there still fighting.
It's great that you're doing what you're doing for the veterans, that you've never lost touch of that.
You know, as bleak as things may seem at times, you're doing the right thing for that.
So, you know, please let our guys know, again, where they can find, you know, the All-Star Tribute to Lee Greenwood so that, you know, they can check it out.
They can send veterans there.
They can, you know, do their part in giving back a little bit.
Yeah, please.
It's a salute to the music in my 40-year career, and all of the music that we've had as hits sung by 40 different artists, and they all have a different impression, and it thrilled the heck out of me.
It is a great film, edited by folks who really know what they're doing, in motion pictures across America on November 12th.
That's Veterans Day weekend this year, 2023, and you can, for $50, go to adoptivet.com,
Adopt-A-Vet.com and send a veteran and his caregiver to the movies for free.
That's all we ask.
We'd like to fill up theaters across America with our veterans this year.
They deserve it.
Well, Lee, thank you very much for everything that you do.
Thank you for your continued support and, most importantly, the friendship.
And I look forward to seeing you a lot in the coming year as we get into election year because, you know, God knows that patriotism needs to shine through.
So thanks so much for everything that you do, man.
Thank you.
God bless.
Stay healthy.
All right.
Thanks a lot, Lee.
Well, guys, Lee, thank you very much.
Thanks for all you do.
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