Epoch Times - Gary Sinise on Playing Nearly 600 Free Concerts for Troops with the Lt. Dan Band
Aired: 2025-05-25
Duration: 02:05


=== Entertaining Troops with Lieutenant Dan Band (02:05) ===

[00:00:00]  Lieutenant Dan Band was born in 2003, 2004, when I just started doing USO tours and I wanted to go out there and entertain the troops, like Kid Rock was doing, right?
[00:00:12]  First trip I was on, he was rocking out.
[00:00:16]  I was Lieutenant Dan, shaking hands and taking pictures.
[00:00:20]  But I wanted to entertain, so that's where the band came from.
[00:00:23]  I had musicians I played with.
[00:00:24]  I liked to play bass.
[00:00:25]  I put a variety show together of all kinds of music that they would appreciate and enjoy.
[00:00:31]  And it's also, you know, I pay the band.
[00:00:35]  I do it for free.
[00:00:36]  It's part of just my mission, you know.
[00:00:39]  And now the band has done almost 600 concerts over the last 20 years or so on military bases.
[00:00:49]  All over the country and overseas.
[00:00:52]  And it's all free concerts for people.
[00:00:55]  Occasionally we've played in some clubs and that kind of thing, but mostly it's military.
[00:01:01]  It's over 170, I think.
[00:01:05]  That's the number I have in terms of military bases.
[00:01:08]  I think it's over 180 now.
[00:01:11]  It's quite the number.
[00:01:13]  Yeah, that's a lot of military bases, you know, around the country and overseas to visit.
[00:01:20]  And if, you know, and so, you know, and many of those bases I've been to multiple times.
[00:01:27]  So it's hundreds of trips, and I did 100 USO tours over the years.
[00:01:34]  And then the Gary Sinise Foundation became solid enough.
[00:01:41]  That I could make the band and my work with the band a part of the mission of the Gary Sinise Foundation.
[00:01:48]  So the American people who donate to the Gary Sinise Foundation, they help me take the band to military bases and hospitals to entertain the troops and to lift spirits.
[00:02:02]  Thank you to the American people for allowing us to do that.