Country music singer Lee Greenwood, whose patriotic hit "God Bless the USA" gained great prominence during the Gulf War and after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, says there’s a lot to fix in the U.S. with current social and economic divisions but prays "whichever president comes in front of the public will do their very best to help the unification and stop the division.
"The rest of the world looks at us totally different than we do, and sometimes they even laugh at us when we have trouble, or we have something that tears us apart," he said Monday during an appearance on Newsmax's "Wake Up America."
"I mean, rioting, you would think we are a third-world country all of a sudden and from my perspective, everywhere I go, I see people who want to be just an American. They just want to have a great life and live every single day helping their neighbors and helping veterans. I mean, where is the strife?"
Greenwood first cut "God Bless the USA" for his 1984 album, "You’ve Got a Good Love Comin."
"At the age of 11, 12, 13, I started working at McClellan Air Force base, which is right near our home there and I realized the sacrifice of the military early on in my life," he told Newsmax.
"It took me a while to get over to Nashville. It was an interesting trip for me because your kind of in a bubble, you kind of didn’t see the outside world, and I wanted always to write something that would unify our country. When I got to Nashville, I signed onto MCA Records, the world changed for me. It was a time of peace as well, cause I’m Vietnam era. Things just kind of moved along where they should. I had several hit records in a row, I was on a stable with a lot of famous artists. And just one night I got out of my truck, and I said, ‘I think I’ll write that song I’ve been wanting to write all my life.’ It was 1983.
"It reflects for me the freedom that I had to do what I wanted to do to make my life fun and it is. I thank every single soldier, sailor, Marine, Coast Guard, Space X people that are doing their very best to make this country free."
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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