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Speaker 1: You're dealing blackjack, you're working chicken joints because you can't

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Speaker 1: make ends meet in Vegas. Did you consider giving up

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Speaker 1: at that point?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy eight, you come across Mel Tillis's band leader,

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Speaker 1: and he hears you and says.

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Speaker 2: What he said, I want to sign in my publishing company.

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Speaker 2: I said, well, that's all fine and good. He said,

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Speaker 2: but I want you to come to Nashville. I said,

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Speaker 2: there's no way I'm moving to Nashville, Tennessee. You know,

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Speaker 2: I'm singing James Taylor and Elton, John Ellie Joel I'm

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Speaker 2: seeing Earth, Wind and Fire. I have my own thing here.

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Speaker 2: He said, But you'd be great in country.

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Speaker 1: He wrote, God Bless the USA. I mean you told

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Speaker 1: me Elvis was an partial influence.

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Speaker 2: So when I saw him singing, he'd always end the

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Speaker 2: show with the Trilogy, and it ended up with battle

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Speaker 2: him with the Republican. And I said, if I ever

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Speaker 2: get a career in music, I said, I'm going to

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Speaker 2: do the Trilogy to close my show, and I will

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Speaker 2: kill them with it. Lo and Behold, I wrote my own.

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Speaker 1: It's clearly the theme song of the Trump presidency. Did

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Speaker 1: he ever tell you why he chose your song. I'm

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Speaker 1: Raymond Arroyo. Welcome to Arroyo Grande, where we dive into

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Speaker 1: the wild currents of this culture and dredge up perspectives

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Speaker 1: and practical life lessons from incredible culture makers. Coming up

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Speaker 1: a Grammy winner that has left such a mark on

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Speaker 1: the culture, the legendary Lee Greenwood is here. Go subscribe

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Speaker 1: like a royal Grande wherever you get your podcasts or

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Speaker 1: on our YouTube channel. Right now, go ahead to I'll

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Speaker 1: wait and coming up a surprising how it ends about

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Speaker 1: gliding through difficulties and landing at your place in the

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Speaker 1: world with style. You will love this. You're gonna love

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Speaker 1: this Lee Greenwood interview as well. Pay attention to how

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Speaker 1: receptive Greenwood was to the opportunities when they presented themselves,

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Speaker 1: and how he adapted his art to the moment. Greenwood

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Speaker 1: also tells me how he came to write the anthem

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Speaker 1: God Bless the USA and why it and he remained

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Speaker 1: vital all these years later. Here's Lee Greenwood. Lee, I

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Speaker 1: want to start with your background. When we talked earlier,

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Speaker 1: you talked about growing up on a chicken farm in

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Speaker 1: middle California. How did that shape your musical tastes.

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Speaker 2: Well, they didn't. We were sharecroppers. We had about a

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Speaker 2: thousand chickens a year, a couple of cows during to

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Speaker 2: being a farmer and a ranchers. That the farmer has

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Speaker 2: to chase the cows on foot, that they don't have

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Speaker 2: any horses. And it was a good life, I mean.

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Speaker 2: But did shape my musical career was my mother. My

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Speaker 2: father joined the Navy after debombing of Pearl Harbor, and

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Speaker 2: my mother divorced him. Happens in military families. He couldn't

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Speaker 2: actually handle two kids. I have a sister older, still

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Speaker 2: living in Boise, Idaho, has moved out of California as

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Speaker 2: I have. Yeah, and so she played honky tonk piano

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Speaker 2: in the nightclubs.

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Speaker 1: In the nightclubs, not at home.

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Speaker 2: Well, we had a spin at piano, but she was

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Speaker 2: never there. Really, she's working all the time.

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Speaker 1: Did you pick up the piano from her yourself? A

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Speaker 1: bunch of me myself?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 1: What did you teach yourself? What? Yeah? Piano?

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Speaker 2: Piano and sacks, Well, sax came later. Actually, my mother

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Speaker 2: was one day at the house I groom McColl ands.

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Speaker 2: She was trying to teach me how to play, and

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Speaker 2: I said, I'm not learning how to play that, and

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Speaker 2: she said, but you have to know I'm not. So

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Speaker 2: I quit and went played baseball and I became a

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Speaker 2: baseball All Star. And then three years later my grandfather,

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Speaker 2: who was actually not my real grandfather's name was Thomas Jackson,

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Speaker 2: married into my family when I was very young and

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Speaker 2: explained that he did love my father, although I didn't

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Speaker 2: know my father when he was in his working years,

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Speaker 2: said he was a great welder a ship. And so

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Speaker 2: his brother, my grandfather's brother, played saxophone and his teeth

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Speaker 2: were all worn out because in those days the mouthpiece

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Speaker 2: was harder than the ivory. Oh wow, and so playing

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Speaker 2: in clubs and he didn't play anymore, and he gave

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Speaker 2: me a saxophone.

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Speaker 1: Wow.

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Speaker 2: So I played it. And then we were doing not

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Speaker 2: USO but Red Cross Show. I was like thirteen, and

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Speaker 2: remember of Woody Remember the Woody Car.

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Speaker 1: You're no, no, no, I know them. I mean I've

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Speaker 1: seen them. Okay, I wasn't in them, but I remember them.

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Speaker 2: Willie Stationwag. And so they put the saxophone up on

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Speaker 2: the top and down the highway and it blew off

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Speaker 2: the top and went across the road and smashed in

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Speaker 2: the mill in pieces. So the Red Cross bought me

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Speaker 2: another one.

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Speaker 1: So that's a sidebar that was fortuitous.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So then now I have the saxophone and I

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Speaker 2: play it in school and I go on and I

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Speaker 2: play in high school. I play all of the instruments

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Speaker 2: of the band because my high school music teacher, who

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Speaker 2: was a trumpet player, a jazz player, knew I wasn't

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Speaker 2: going to college. So I played the timpanine the symphony orchestra,

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Speaker 2: I played tenor saxophone in the dance band. I paid

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Speaker 2: alto saxophone in the marching band, and I was a

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Speaker 2: drum major for the high school marching band.

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Speaker 1: That's what you gathered up, all those susatal melodies, and

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Speaker 1: I sang a.

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Speaker 2: March and then I had two years of music theory

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Speaker 2: in my senior year. Music theory is important because now

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Speaker 2: it gives me the tools to be able to arrange

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Speaker 2: and write music. And when I left high school at

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Speaker 2: seventeen years old and went to Nevada, you had all

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Speaker 2: that had all of it. I was well equipped.

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Speaker 1: Well, I got to say, as I look at your career,

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Speaker 1: one of the things that jumps out and It's something

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Speaker 1: that I don't think you spend enough time sharing with people.

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Speaker 1: Your adaptability to the circumstances of the moment. You were

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Speaker 1: able to adapt very quickly. You go out to Vegas

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Speaker 1: and you're singing with your leading bands. Your leader let

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Speaker 1: a group called the del Reeves. Then you have the

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Speaker 1: lead Greenwood affair. What happened in the interim there after that?

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Speaker 1: And what kind of music? It was pop music right

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Speaker 1: in Vegas.

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Speaker 2: It was everything pop was country rock, rhythm and blues,

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Speaker 2: adult contemporary, rhythm and blues, soul, Broadway. We did everything.

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Speaker 2: That's what pop music was, OK. And yes, you put

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Speaker 2: you may a very interesting point. Every one of the

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Speaker 2: bands and shows I played in Vegas was doing something different.

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Speaker 2: I would dance in this show, I would sing in

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Speaker 2: that one. When Bibete di Castro of the Dicastro Sisters

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Speaker 2: broke away from her sisters, she had a show at

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Speaker 2: the Desert End Hotel, I'm going to lead you down

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Speaker 2: the rabbit hole.

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Speaker 1: I want to go take me.

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Speaker 2: She hired four singers to douce to me, background choreography

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Speaker 2: and background vocals.

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Speaker 1: And you were one of those boys.

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Speaker 2: With one of the boys. There was two boys two girls.

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Speaker 2: One of the girls would end up being Lieutenant Governor

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Speaker 2: of the state of Nevada, Lauri Mancuso Black and so

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Speaker 2: and we're still very good friends over the years. And so,

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Speaker 2: now that's that's not the interesting part of the story.

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Speaker 2: The interesting part of the story is she was working

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Speaker 2: forty on and forty off. Who was the other act

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Speaker 2: that would work forty on? Now we're getting somewhere. Her

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Speaker 2: name was san du Scott and the Scottis and she

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Speaker 2: was a beautiful singer from Scotland and she had a

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Speaker 2: band with her at that particular time in history. I

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Speaker 2: had a reason to leave Vegas. I wanted to get

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Speaker 2: out of town. I just had enough. I joined the band.

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Speaker 2: We go to Puerto Rico for thirty days, and then

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Speaker 2: we go to New York. And the reason we were

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Speaker 2: going to New York is for the Ed Sullivan Show.

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Speaker 2: Now you know the timeframe.

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Speaker 1: Wow.

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Speaker 2: So I'm with the band that's going to play on

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Speaker 2: the Ed Celan Show and she quits the business. I'm

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Speaker 2: stuck in New York, living in Hoboken, dead of winter,

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Speaker 2: Frank Sinatra's hometown. Joey Dea and the Starlighters have a

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Speaker 2: club downtown called the Peppermint Twist, and it was the

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Speaker 2: name of the dance at the time, the Peppermint Twist.

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Speaker 2: So I go downtown with the guys. My eyes are

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Speaker 2: wide open. Gods, this is so different than Sacramento, so

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Speaker 2: different from Vegas. It's New York, you know. But it's

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Speaker 2: very cold. I'm gonna get pneumonia, okay. And so I

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Speaker 2: told the drummer Dino Dinelli, who lived in Hoboke, and

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Speaker 2: I said, I've got to go back. So I take

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Speaker 2: my plane ticket that I had home. It's the only

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Speaker 2: thing I had back, and I go back. I'm working

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Speaker 2: the El Cortez Hotel, Vegas. Back to Vegas, work in

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Speaker 2: the El Cortez Hotel. When Frank Sinatra walks into the

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Speaker 2: Fremont and Discovers Way Newton, I'm three blocks from there.

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Speaker 2: I'm working with a wrestler named the Golden Boy. It

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Speaker 2: was terrible. I get another job on the strip. Now

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Speaker 2: I get the contract job. And I'm a member of

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Speaker 2: the union. I've been the member of the three sixty

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Speaker 2: nine unions since i was seventeen. So I called Dino Dinelli,

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Speaker 2: great drummer, and I said, I got a gig on

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Speaker 2: the strip. How about you joining me. I can take

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Speaker 2: care of your travel dues five hundred a week. He said, well,

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Speaker 2: my cousin and I put the bit of the band

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Speaker 2: that we were going to be in, and the organ

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Speaker 2: players named Felix Cavalier, and he said, we put this

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Speaker 2: band together, and a guy came and want to make

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Speaker 2: our records, and I said, okay, well good luck.

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Speaker 1: Who's that guy?

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Speaker 2: Three months later the Good Love and had their first record,

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Speaker 2: the Young Rascals. So I would have been a member

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Speaker 2: of the Young Rascals band.

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Speaker 1: Just stick by that much.

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Speaker 2: And now Phelix Cavalier lives in Nashville, Tennessee. And the

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Speaker 2: band that used to work for me called six where

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Speaker 2: that was that the RNC plays his music on the road.

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Speaker 1: You are kidding me about the full circle?

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Speaker 2: There are the full circle moment.

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Speaker 1: Talk to me a bit about this because I'm fascinating

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Speaker 1: and I think it's something people can take away from

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Speaker 1: your amazing journey when you could do so much and

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Speaker 1: you still can. Here you are, but then you're you're

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Speaker 1: dealing blackjack, you're working chicken joints because you can't make

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Speaker 1: ends meet in Vegas. What happens then? Did you consider

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Speaker 1: giving up at that point. Oh absolutely, this is the

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Speaker 1: late seventies, right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And so I'm you know, I'm dealing cards and

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Speaker 2: deal roulette. I was at the Tropic Cana for three

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Speaker 2: years and went down to the mid Downtown for another

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Speaker 2: year and a half work in the graveyard shift, and

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Speaker 2: I figured, if I get that close to money, I

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Speaker 2: must get some. But I didn't.

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Speaker 1: There wasn't see it coming and going. But you couldn't touch.

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Speaker 2: It, couldn't touch it. And so I tried. I could

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Speaker 2: have been a shift boss eventually, maybe a manager of

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Speaker 2: a casino, maybe even have my own joint after a while.

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Speaker 2: And I was considering that seriously. But after three and

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Speaker 2: a half years and opening, you know, act for for

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Speaker 2: other things, main room, I I had successful lounge shows.

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Speaker 2: There was no doubt about it. I decided to go

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Speaker 2: ahead and stay with the music, and I pursued it

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Speaker 2: with a passion. But it was a luck. It was

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Speaker 2: luck that brought my career to me. In Nashville in.

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Speaker 1: Nineteen seventy eight, you come across Mel Tillis's band leader

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Speaker 1: and he hears you and says, what because this is

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Speaker 1: another big shift. And see, some of us could never

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Speaker 1: make that shift. We just don't have that bandwidth, Lee

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Speaker 1: Greenwood did, Yes, what does he tell you?

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Speaker 2: Well? I was playing piano bar at the MGM after

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Speaker 2: I left the show where I was at the Nugget.

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Speaker 2: The Nugget was always very popular and it was always

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Speaker 2: lucky for me. I found two hundred dollars on the

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Speaker 2: floor one time at the Nugget. So Mel Phillis is

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Speaker 2: in the main room and the bass player from Virginia,

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Speaker 2: Larry mcphaden, who is deceased now, said to me at

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Speaker 2: the MGM. He said, I love what you do. And

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Speaker 2: I have a publishing company with Ray Pillow, who is

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Speaker 2: a grand old opery star in Nashville. And he said,

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Speaker 2: I want to sign you in my publishing company. I said, well,

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Speaker 2: that's all fine and good. He said, but I want

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Speaker 2: you to come to Nashville. I said, there's no way

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Speaker 2: I'm moving to Nashville, Tennessee. You know, I'm singing James

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Speaker 2: Taylor and Elton John Ellie Joel, I'm seeing earth Wind

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Speaker 2: and Fire. I have my own thing here. He said,

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Speaker 2: But you'd be great in country.

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Speaker 1: Wow, and you make the leap? Not did that happen?

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Speaker 2: Not quickly?

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Speaker 1: Did you move to Nashville first or what happened.

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Speaker 2: No, we went to Nashville and recorded some songs with

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Speaker 2: Mel Tillis's band Many that I had written myself and

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Speaker 2: got BMI interested. I signed with BMI as a writer.

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Speaker 2: My mother was a BMI writer, and one of my sons, Dalton,

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Speaker 2: I mean Parker is now a BMI writer, So full

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Speaker 2: circle there, yeah, And I recorded these. I go back

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Speaker 2: and they said, I think we have an interest in

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Speaker 2: MCA Records if you'll drive to Nashville and stay with

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Speaker 2: me for a couple of months. So I drove through

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Speaker 2: Oklahoma City and I signed with an agency called the

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Speaker 2: Jim Halsey Company, which to this day manages the Oakrerage Boys.

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Speaker 2: And so we go one to Nashville.

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Speaker 1: I'm eighty one, right.

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Speaker 2: On seventy nine, nineteen seventy.

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Speaker 1: Nine, Yeah, I got, that's right, we got. I don't

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Speaker 1: wonder how old we are. Don't want to get ahead of.

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Speaker 2: You all, and so yeah, So I signed at MCA

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Speaker 2: and Reba McNary, George Straight, the Orkidge Boys, and Barbara

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Speaker 2: Manda all on the same label, and I got into

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Speaker 2: the big time. I mean it was like overnight, and

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Speaker 2: we coorded our first record called It Turns Me Inside Out.

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Speaker 2: The second Red rig on Her Finger, Time on Her Hands,

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Speaker 2: both were smash hits, and then they signed me to

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Speaker 2: a seven year deal.

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Speaker 1: Wow. Who were your biggest influences once you once you

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Speaker 1: landed in country and said okay, I'm going to do

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Speaker 1: this now.

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Speaker 2: I like Ronnie Milsap. I love his approach to music.

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Speaker 2: I love Kenny Rodgers. Would I would eventually write Kenny

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Speaker 2: Rodgers a hit song that's right as well, which one

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Speaker 2: that's called a love song? And but I love their style.

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Speaker 2: I love what they brought to the business. Barbara Manjau

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Speaker 2: and ended up being a very close friend.

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Speaker 1: Of mine, recorded a lot with her.

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Speaker 2: I recorded an album where I wrote the title song

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Speaker 2: of the album, the duet album called You Were Meant

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Speaker 2: for Me. And so it's it's it's interesting how the

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Speaker 2: relationships evolved in country music because I went there and

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Speaker 2: embraced the community and all of the artists embraced me.

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Speaker 1: Is that the key you have to be willing to

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Speaker 1: kind of put yourself out there. Absolutely were you at

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Speaker 1: all war You had to be a bit consumed. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you were a Vegas guy from the from the West coast, suddenly, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: dropped in the middle of country. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I tried to play that down. You know they didn't

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Speaker 2: want to hear that.

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Speaker 1: Did you? Did you put the Statson on and the

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Speaker 1: Janes at the beginning? Would happen?

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Speaker 2: Actually, Jordash, that was the big it's at the top.

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Speaker 2: They were nice and tied on the hips and I

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Speaker 2: like that. But no hat, And maybe I, as I

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Speaker 2: look back now and I'm losing more hair, I probably

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Speaker 2: should have started with a hat like Tim McGrath, you

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Speaker 2: me both, It wouldn't have mattered. But no, I I

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Speaker 2: was my own brand of country.

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Speaker 1: You toured with Loretta Lynn, Yes, tell me what you

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Speaker 1: got from her? What did you pick up from her?

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Speaker 2: Gentle soul? She was humbled by everything that she did

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Speaker 2: and saw. She comes to very poor beginnings. We didn't

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Speaker 2: have much growing up, but I had a pair of

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Speaker 2: socks that I could wash out every h I doubt

301
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Speaker 2: if they had anything. And as a coal miner's daughter,

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Speaker 2: as it's foot, she was just wonderful to me and

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Speaker 2: everybody around her. I also toured with Tammy Wynette, Charlie Pride,

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Speaker 2: the Orchard Boys, the Gatlin Brothers, Kenny Rodgers Alabama, we're

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Speaker 2: back touring with Alabama again. Now this year two thousand

306
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Speaker 2: really were oddly enough.

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Speaker 1: When did you start touring with them in the eighties?

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Speaker 2: It was no later than that. We were in competition

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Speaker 2: in the early days. Okay, it would be a little

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Speaker 2: bit later in the late eighties.

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Speaker 1: Wow, and all these years later you're touring again again.

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Speaker 2: It's amazing and they can still fill up an arena.

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Speaker 1: So can you well and sing and sing yourself in that? Really?

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Speaker 1: Do you work at it every day? Do you do

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Speaker 1: you warm up every day? Do you do your scales? No?

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Speaker 2: But I will tell you that if I don't sing

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Speaker 2: for a month, you feel it. Well, it's very hard.

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Speaker 2: It's a struggle to get back. So I have shows

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Speaker 2: all the time. I sing every week and shows.

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Speaker 1: Just to keep yourself in the game and feeling like

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Speaker 1: you can.

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Speaker 2: No, it's about the money.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of flexibility. Okay, tell me about you write a

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Speaker 1: McDonald's jingle yes, which makes you some bank speaking of money,

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Speaker 1: and a couple of I mean big hits. Yes, somebody's

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Speaker 1: going to love you. Io you you win a Grammy

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Speaker 1: for Iou.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I did.

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Speaker 1: And then in nineteen eighty three you write the song

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Speaker 1: that is really defined your career in many ways. Yes,

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Speaker 1: how did that happen?

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Speaker 2: And I will tell you that it's an umbrella, but

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Speaker 2: it's not a parachute. And I embrace the fact that

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00:15:52,160 --> 00:15:54,880
Speaker 2: it is an umbrella and it gives me some shadow

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Speaker 2: from the sunlight. But it has had an interesting journey.

336
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Speaker 2: Universal was the one that made the call for the single.

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Speaker 2: I would have never chosen it. My producer, Jerry Crutchfield

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Speaker 2: and I we had three hits by his brother Jan Crutchfield. Yeah,

339
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Speaker 2: and we always chose very carefully the songs that would

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Speaker 2: pattern our career and how we wanted to move forward.

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Speaker 1: And you write the song on this particular song on

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Speaker 1: a tour bus while you're out touring.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I set up a piano. We were doing

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Speaker 2: three hundred days a year the first three years. Oh

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Speaker 2: my gosh. I never and when I did came home,

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Speaker 2: I would sign autographs for fans on pictures for twelve hours.

347
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Speaker 2: When I got home, get some sleep, go back on

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Speaker 2: the bus, change my wardrobe. And so we were out

349
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Speaker 2: so long. I had my piano hinged to the wall,

350
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Speaker 2: and then I had a circular bed and the time

351
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Speaker 2: you could have a bed like that, we didn't have

352
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Speaker 2: a turbo. The turbo engine now prevents you haven't it.

353
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Speaker 2: You have to have been on one side in the stateroom.

354
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Speaker 2: And so I would lift the piano up and put

355
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Speaker 2: it on my knees, plug in my headphones so I

356
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Speaker 2: would not disturb the crew. Because I rode the bus

357
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Speaker 2: with the crew. I didn't like toom to the band.

358
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Speaker 2: They had their own band. And that's when I wrote

359
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Speaker 2: USA one night, and it was fall of eighty three.

360
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Speaker 2: I can't pinpoint the month or day, but it was

361
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Speaker 2: probably October.

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Speaker 1: What was the inspiration for it? Why? I mean you

363
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Speaker 1: told me Elvis was an partial influence. Yeah, tell us

364
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Speaker 1: about that story. Great.

365
00:17:17,520 --> 00:17:20,159
Speaker 2: Yeah, I worked at Hilton Hotel with a show. I

366
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Speaker 2: had my own band called the Lee Greenwood Affair at

367
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Speaker 2: the time, two girl singers who are unbelievable and a

368
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Speaker 2: quartet and and the guitar player. And that band is

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Speaker 2: still my very close friend. He was We had two

370
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Speaker 2: things in common when we met at twenty one years old,

371
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Speaker 2: basketball and music. And he's still he's still the basketball

372
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Speaker 2: player and musician. He lives up in Indiana near Chicago.

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Speaker 2: But there was a great band, and and I loved

374
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Speaker 2: I love what we did. But going in and seeing

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Speaker 2: Elvis perform was such a higher level than where I

376
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Speaker 2: was and is. And I love because he did exactly

377
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Speaker 2: what I wanted to do. He just did it better.

378
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Speaker 2: And he was a magic I mean, one of the

379
00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:04,399
Speaker 2: most handsome American young men. When he became famous, you

380
00:18:04,440 --> 00:18:07,240
Speaker 2: know his movies, and of course Colonel Parker took advantage

381
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Speaker 2: of him and all that, but he still was adored

382
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Speaker 2: by America and all of the audiences. Some they sold

383
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Speaker 2: out every night. Regardless at the end of his career

384
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Speaker 2: he really wasn't very good, that didn't matter. He was

385
00:18:18,240 --> 00:18:21,360
Speaker 2: still the image of Elvis Presville. So when I saw

386
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Speaker 2: him singing, he'd always done the show with the trilogy

387
00:18:23,800 --> 00:18:26,040
Speaker 2: and it ended up with Battle Him of the Republic.

388
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Speaker 2: He was very reverent, and I liked that he could

389
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Speaker 2: have been a preacher. He was not from Memphis, Tennessee.

390
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Speaker 2: He was from Mississippi, but he was raised in Memphis,

391
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Speaker 2: and Graceland therefore was built in Memphis. But I said,

392
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Speaker 2: if I ever get my country music career, and at

393
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Speaker 2: that point I hadn't had it yet. Oh, and I said,

394
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Speaker 2: if I ever get a career in music, and I

395
00:18:49,840 --> 00:18:52,040
Speaker 2: assume it would be country. I tried rock, I tried pop.

396
00:18:52,080 --> 00:18:54,040
Speaker 2: It wasn't going to Vegas was a dead end street.

397
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Speaker 2: I wasn't going to go anywhere. I had to go

398
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Speaker 2: somewhere else. I said, I'm going to do the trilogy

399
00:18:58,520 --> 00:19:00,639
Speaker 2: to close my show, and I will kill them with it.

400
00:19:01,400 --> 00:19:04,000
Speaker 2: And so lo and behold. I wrote my own.

401
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Speaker 1: He wrote, God Blessed the USA When you first performed it,

402
00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:13,680
Speaker 1: What was that like? Because the audience always tells you correct.

403
00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:19,720
Speaker 2: You're very stute. No matter what artists you have. If

404
00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:22,000
Speaker 2: you're popular with the public, your next song that you

405
00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:25,160
Speaker 2: release is going to be popular. I don't care. They're

406
00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:27,360
Speaker 2: going to applaud it's a new song. Oh my gosh,

407
00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:29,359
Speaker 2: we love that, you know. I learned all the lyrics.

408
00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:31,840
Speaker 2: I sing along with you. You were careful. We're tune Smith's.

409
00:19:31,880 --> 00:19:35,000
Speaker 2: We know what we're selling. USA was not supposed to

410
00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:38,880
Speaker 2: be a record. When Universal made the call said we're

411
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Speaker 2: not going to release you Got a Good Love Coming

412
00:19:40,560 --> 00:19:42,520
Speaker 2: the title of your album. We're going to release God

413
00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:44,840
Speaker 2: Bless USA. They never would have heard the song of

414
00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:47,040
Speaker 2: radio had Universal and not did that?

415
00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:50,119
Speaker 1: Really, what's the story of you taking the tape to

416
00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:54,399
Speaker 1: the MCA executive on Halloween. Yeah, what is that story? Lee?

417
00:19:54,600 --> 00:19:56,000
Speaker 2: I write the song and I have it on a

418
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Speaker 2: cassette And you're right, it was cassette tape. That's all.

419
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Speaker 1: God blessed the USA. You've written And what is it

420
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Speaker 1: a demo?

421
00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:04,639
Speaker 2: Yeah? Well no, it's yes, it's it's my playing piano.

422
00:20:04,720 --> 00:20:07,639
Speaker 2: You're playing okay pan and saying it and uh. And

423
00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:11,520
Speaker 2: I had my walkman with me and I fly from

424
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Speaker 2: Nashville to Los Angeles. Why I'm doing a show called

425
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Speaker 2: solid Gold.

426
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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I remember that.

427
00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:20,040
Speaker 2: Solid Gold was posted by a friend of mine from

428
00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:25,240
Speaker 2: the Fifth Dimension named Marilyn Marylyn. I remember he was

429
00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:27,800
Speaker 2: a very good friend of mine. So they booked me

430
00:20:27,840 --> 00:20:30,920
Speaker 2: on the show. After the show, I do a couple

431
00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:32,760
Speaker 2: of hits I forgot. Marylynd comes out and hands me

432
00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:35,240
Speaker 2: a bottle of champagne. He said, thanks for coming. We

433
00:20:35,320 --> 00:20:37,320
Speaker 2: get a hug. Come back when you get another hit,

434
00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:40,320
Speaker 2: I'll have you back on the show. Great, it's eight o'clock.

435
00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:42,560
Speaker 2: I got the red eye out at one twenty in

436
00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:44,720
Speaker 2: the morning to Nashville. That's when they had a red eye.

437
00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:45,119
Speaker 1: Wow.

438
00:20:45,480 --> 00:20:48,359
Speaker 2: And and his shoes. He wasn't full. You were the

439
00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:52,080
Speaker 2: only guy, and so I'm saying, what do we do

440
00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:54,600
Speaker 2: for four hours? I really wasn't hungry, and I asked

441
00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:57,040
Speaker 2: them limo driver, I have a stretch limo. That's what

442
00:20:57,200 --> 00:21:00,760
Speaker 2: MCA provided me. I said, we're just irving as off flute.

443
00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:03,680
Speaker 2: And he said, I know exactly where he lives. I

444
00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:05,760
Speaker 2: took him to his house last month. He said, there

445
00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:08,720
Speaker 2: isn't Hollywood next to Barbara Streisen. I said, take me there.

446
00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:14,359
Speaker 2: It is Halloween knight, it's dark. I pull up in

447
00:21:14,359 --> 00:21:16,199
Speaker 2: front of his house. There is no gates, there's no

448
00:21:16,240 --> 00:21:20,600
Speaker 2: fence between the street and his front door. I would

449
00:21:20,640 --> 00:21:25,320
Speaker 2: say is twenty yards less fifteen yards. He is standing

450
00:21:25,359 --> 00:21:28,440
Speaker 2: in the doorway with his three children dressed as bumblebees,

451
00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:29,560
Speaker 2: and they're going trick or treating.

452
00:21:31,840 --> 00:21:33,960
Speaker 1: And Lee Greenwood steps out of the limo with his

453
00:21:34,040 --> 00:21:36,639
Speaker 1: demo and a bottle of champagne. And what do you

454
00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:37,160
Speaker 1: say to him?

455
00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:38,000
Speaker 2: Trick or treat?

456
00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:40,280
Speaker 1: Of course? Or tree?

457
00:21:40,359 --> 00:21:42,919
Speaker 2: He waits in the doorway because he sees the limo

458
00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:43,880
Speaker 2: must be somebody here.

459
00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:44,320
Speaker 1: Who's this?

460
00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:46,439
Speaker 2: And I walk up to him. I say, you know,

461
00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:48,399
Speaker 2: trick or treat? And he said who are you? And

462
00:21:48,440 --> 00:21:51,080
Speaker 2: I said, I'm Lee Greenwood. I'm on your Nashville label. Oh,

463
00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:53,080
Speaker 2: I know who you are. Come on in. Wow, the

464
00:21:53,119 --> 00:21:56,000
Speaker 2: little short guy about five five. I'm five seven, so

465
00:21:56,400 --> 00:21:57,120
Speaker 2: that makes him short.

466
00:21:57,160 --> 00:21:58,120
Speaker 1: You're tollered over him.

467
00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:00,919
Speaker 2: Yeah. So we go into and he said, what are

468
00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:02,320
Speaker 2: you doing in LA? I told him I was a

469
00:22:02,359 --> 00:22:05,639
Speaker 2: solid goal and I said, but I wanted to stop

470
00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:07,159
Speaker 2: by your house because I have a song i'd like

471
00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:10,960
Speaker 2: you to hear. Takes a cassette, puts it an access

472
00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:15,520
Speaker 2: player and listens to the three minutes and twenty seconds interesting.

473
00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:17,800
Speaker 2: He said, do you have a project? And I didn't

474
00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:20,800
Speaker 2: want to tell him I did because Jerry Crutchfield, my producer,

475
00:22:20,840 --> 00:22:22,760
Speaker 2: and I were always quiet about that. We don't want

476
00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:25,520
Speaker 2: LA to tell us what to do. Neither did Barbara

477
00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:27,320
Speaker 2: Menjoe or neither did George Straight.

478
00:22:27,520 --> 00:22:28,480
Speaker 1: That's why you had hits.

479
00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:34,600
Speaker 2: Well, we were our own profit center, and so I said, yeah,

480
00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:36,800
Speaker 2: you know, we're in that process. He said, well, when

481
00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:39,679
Speaker 2: you finish the album, bring it to me. But that

482
00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:41,760
Speaker 2: opened the door. So when I went home and talked

483
00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:44,000
Speaker 2: to my producer, Jerry Crutchfield, and I said we were

484
00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:46,679
Speaker 2: having in trouble getting ahead of George Straight because his

485
00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:49,239
Speaker 2: manager was the A and R director at MCA. He

486
00:22:49,280 --> 00:22:51,639
Speaker 2: always released his records in front of mine. I was like,

487
00:22:52,359 --> 00:22:54,840
Speaker 2: you know, we still had hits, but we wanted to

488
00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:57,200
Speaker 2: get ahead of this. So Jerry said, for the first time,

489
00:22:57,480 --> 00:23:02,800
Speaker 2: let's take this to LA Well that again, thank you Lord.

490
00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:05,879
Speaker 2: So we go there. They listened to the entire album,

491
00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:07,600
Speaker 2: and Irving as Off is the one that turned to

492
00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:09,480
Speaker 2: me and said what should be the single?

493
00:23:10,119 --> 00:23:13,080
Speaker 1: So he asked me, so you chose it?

494
00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:17,359
Speaker 2: No? I looked at my producer and went nope. I said,

495
00:23:17,359 --> 00:23:19,879
Speaker 2: what do you think. He's the one that made the choice.

496
00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:25,720
Speaker 2: He was the president of Universal Records, Pictures, MCA, Dot Records,

497
00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:28,760
Speaker 2: a whole bunch of umbrella so he's a very powerful

498
00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:31,560
Speaker 2: industry person. So he's the one that made the choice.

499
00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:32,640
Speaker 1: And that was it.

500
00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:35,160
Speaker 2: That was it. So now you asked me the question,

501
00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:36,960
Speaker 2: what did I feel like when I first sang it

502
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:37,480
Speaker 2: for the first.

503
00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:39,480
Speaker 1: Time, Yes, in front of an audience. What was that

504
00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:40,159
Speaker 1: reaction like?

505
00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:42,760
Speaker 2: And did I want to say? I want to say

506
00:23:42,760 --> 00:23:47,959
Speaker 2: it was Well, I didn't expect any anything different than

507
00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:50,520
Speaker 2: in the other hits I'd already sang. I expected the

508
00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:51,200
Speaker 2: same response.

509
00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:54,359
Speaker 1: Yeah, collitex enthusiastic.

510
00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:57,440
Speaker 2: More than I was very popular at the time, I'd

511
00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:00,840
Speaker 2: won Male Vocalist already three you were hot, so yeah.

512
00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:04,200
Speaker 2: The performance, I think was it for the in Florida

513
00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:08,840
Speaker 2: Stadium and the audience went crazy, and at that moment

514
00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:11,159
Speaker 2: I knew I could not not close my show with it.

515
00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:16,520
Speaker 1: Incredible And then the President Reagan and the RNC uses

516
00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:19,640
Speaker 1: it in a film in nineteen eighty four when he's

517
00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:21,600
Speaker 1: being running for reelection.

518
00:24:22,480 --> 00:24:24,320
Speaker 2: They asked me and I gave him permission to do that.

519
00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:28,800
Speaker 1: Wow. And then how many other presidents end up using it?

520
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:34,239
Speaker 2: Only four Conservative? But I sang for ten presidents at

521
00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:36,639
Speaker 2: the Reagan Library. It was Nixon, Carter Ford, Bush, and

522
00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:39,400
Speaker 2: Reagan and all their wives and Lady Biry Johnson, and

523
00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:41,040
Speaker 2: I had to keep moving back and forth so the

524
00:24:41,080 --> 00:24:43,680
Speaker 2: media could cover all of them. Then the hurricane relief

525
00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:47,199
Speaker 2: at Texas A and M Lady Gaga and Alabama was

526
00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:49,160
Speaker 2: on that show. I am seed the event, I sang

527
00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:53,160
Speaker 2: with the cadets and then the audience was President's Obama, Clinton, Carter, Bush,

528
00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:53,639
Speaker 2: and Bush.

529
00:24:53,760 --> 00:24:56,000
Speaker 1: Oh my lord, you've hit them all. Why does it

530
00:24:56,040 --> 00:24:59,960
Speaker 1: still resonate todaily? Why is that there's that song still

531
00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:01,320
Speaker 1: all have a hold on people?

532
00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:05,160
Speaker 2: I wrote it that way. I wanted to make sure

533
00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:05,720
Speaker 2: it for all.

534
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:10,919
Speaker 1: Time and that it would touch deep the patriotic.

535
00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:11,960
Speaker 2: Heart house to be in Americans.

536
00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:14,040
Speaker 1: Why are you proud to be in American?

537
00:25:14,520 --> 00:25:16,560
Speaker 2: Well, not just because I was born here, but there's

538
00:25:16,720 --> 00:25:19,280
Speaker 2: a chance for everybody like me who can start with nothing,

539
00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:22,280
Speaker 2: lose everything, go back again and have it again.

540
00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:27,040
Speaker 1: You know. Lee's story brings to mind a figure skater

541
00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:30,720
Speaker 1: who did a double axle out of defeat into cooteur

542
00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:34,040
Speaker 1: and wait until you hear how it ends. Little Vera

543
00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:38,760
Speaker 1: had one dream to skate in the Olympics. She labored

544
00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:41,159
Speaker 1: for years on the ice, but when she failed to

545
00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:45,119
Speaker 1: qualify for the nineteen sixty eight US Olympic team, she

546
00:25:45,359 --> 00:25:51,480
Speaker 1: pivoted into something unlikely, covering fashion. Within a few years,

547
00:25:51,520 --> 00:25:54,959
Speaker 1: at twenty three, Vera landed a spot at Vogue magazine

548
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:59,200
Speaker 1: as the youngest editor in the periodical's history, and nearly

549
00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:02,800
Speaker 1: two decades aids later, when the editor in chief position

550
00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:08,600
Speaker 1: opened up became available, Vera was not selected. She told

551
00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:12,040
Speaker 1: Women's Wear Daily, my career has been every bit as

552
00:26:12,119 --> 00:26:16,600
Speaker 1: much about adversity as it has about passion, coupled with

553
00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:23,840
Speaker 1: the necessary willingness to accept change and accept change. Vera did.

554
00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:28,320
Speaker 1: She took a job at a fashion label designing accessories.

555
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:32,040
Speaker 1: But that's not how it ends. I'll tell you that

556
00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:37,760
Speaker 1: in a moment. Okay, back to how it ends. Vera

557
00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:41,120
Speaker 1: had failed to make the US Olympic figure skating team.

558
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:44,160
Speaker 1: She was passed over as editor in chief at Vogue,

559
00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:47,720
Speaker 1: so she went to work for Ralph Lauren creating accessories.

560
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:51,479
Speaker 1: And during that time she was engaged to be married

561
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:54,840
Speaker 1: and started searching for an appropriate dress to wear for

562
00:26:54,880 --> 00:26:58,320
Speaker 1: the occasion. She didn't like what she saw. She wanted

563
00:26:58,359 --> 00:27:03,560
Speaker 1: something more modern and stylish, so Vera began toying with

564
00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:09,000
Speaker 1: designing wedding dresses. By nineteen ninety she opened her own boutique,

565
00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:12,879
Speaker 1: Bridle Salon at the Carlisle Hotel in New York. She

566
00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:16,720
Speaker 1: would go on to design wedding dresses for Kim Kardashian,

567
00:27:17,119 --> 00:27:21,880
Speaker 1: j Lo, Mariah Carey, Victoria Beckham, and many many others.

568
00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:27,800
Speaker 1: Via Wang transformed not only bridle gowns, but created a

569
00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:31,320
Speaker 1: fashion empire. Oh And in nineteen ninety two and nineteen

570
00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:35,240
Speaker 1: ninety four, she finally made it to the Olympic ice,

571
00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:42,399
Speaker 1: designing costumes worn by US skater Nancy Carrigan. When you

572
00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:46,040
Speaker 1: pay attention to the turns of fate, even failure, and

573
00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:52,159
Speaker 1: accept change, you can glide to a huge success. Just

574
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:56,600
Speaker 1: ask Vera Wang. And that's how it ends. Back to

575
00:27:56,640 --> 00:28:01,439
Speaker 1: Lee Greenwood. You said at a point you were going

576
00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:04,720
Speaker 1: to stop touring, and this is recently twenty twenty four.

577
00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:06,880
Speaker 1: That's the end of it. What happened.

578
00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:12,720
Speaker 2: I did an interview with a young columnist. He's very

579
00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:17,560
Speaker 2: young and very popular, and I was getting ready to

580
00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:19,920
Speaker 2: go do my show and we're sitting in a casual

581
00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:25,160
Speaker 2: setting like this, and he come about retirement and I went, yeah,

582
00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:29,240
Speaker 2: you know, probably next year, and it blew up. I mean,

583
00:28:29,320 --> 00:28:32,200
Speaker 2: everybody suddenly jumped on that, Oh you're quitting. You're quitting,

584
00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:35,360
Speaker 2: You're quitting Greenwood. And they confirmed that, you know, by

585
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:39,440
Speaker 2: any special announcement. That's where they came from. Now have

586
00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:42,239
Speaker 2: I thought about it? Every year? I think about it,

587
00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:45,800
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, consider when somebody gets in their eighties,

588
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:48,480
Speaker 2: you don't know what's coming next year. Every year, I'm

589
00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:52,120
Speaker 2: going to revisit this until I figure it's truthful.

590
00:28:52,520 --> 00:28:53,920
Speaker 1: But you have a band, I mean we were talking

591
00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:56,360
Speaker 1: about you have a band that travels with you. What

592
00:28:56,440 --> 00:28:57,920
Speaker 1: did they think when they saw that.

593
00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:00,600
Speaker 2: Like, does that mean we got to go to the

594
00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:04,760
Speaker 2: unemployment line? I said, well, not just yet. But they're

595
00:29:04,840 --> 00:29:07,600
Speaker 2: they're very loyal and we have a great, great touring show.

596
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:11,360
Speaker 1: Well you traveled. I love that you traveled with Bob Hope.

597
00:29:12,040 --> 00:29:14,120
Speaker 1: Bob Hope said, at one point he went out to

598
00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:18,480
Speaker 1: the troops to remind them of the normalcy that they

599
00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:21,880
Speaker 1: didn't have at the moment in war and what they

600
00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:23,080
Speaker 1: were fighting for.

601
00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:29,680
Speaker 2: That's why we that's why after fourteen USO tours and

602
00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:32,200
Speaker 2: touring with Bob Hope, and that was interesting because we

603
00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:36,520
Speaker 2: run around the world. We had two victim oone got

604
00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:38,719
Speaker 2: sick and they put out the call for a singer

605
00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:40,680
Speaker 2: and I joined them in Los Angeles. We picked up

606
00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:43,880
Speaker 2: the Hawaii Orchestra and went onto the Philippines and we

607
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:47,760
Speaker 2: did eight stops, eight days, twenty five thousand miles around

608
00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:51,880
Speaker 2: the world. And the caveat is that our last stop

609
00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:55,880
Speaker 2: would have been the Azor Islands, and traditionally the wind

610
00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:58,760
Speaker 2: that the Azer Islands blows very hard across the runway.

611
00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:01,720
Speaker 2: When we came in of our two airplanes, they said,

612
00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:04,480
Speaker 2: you can't land, and so we turned back. We weren't

613
00:30:04,520 --> 00:30:07,480
Speaker 2: going to end our tour not doing a show. There's

614
00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:10,120
Speaker 2: a huge air base on the coast of Spain called

615
00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:13,640
Speaker 2: Rota Rota. Been there or nowhere it is, you know.

616
00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:17,520
Speaker 2: So we put on our show unannounced for the military there.

617
00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:20,040
Speaker 2: So they got a kind of cool show. Bet It

618
00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:25,080
Speaker 2: was Barbara Eden, Connie Stevens, Miss America, myself, Bob Hope,

619
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:27,920
Speaker 2: one other person in the comedian and so I was

620
00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:29,440
Speaker 2: kind of like the straight man for Bob Hope on

621
00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:32,760
Speaker 2: the time. So we're flying over the Asar Islands. We're

622
00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:34,480
Speaker 2: in the cockpit and we're talking to them and saying

623
00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:39,200
Speaker 2: we sir, sorry that we missed you. Unbeknowings to us.

624
00:30:39,760 --> 00:30:41,880
Speaker 2: There was a quartet on the ground, two girls and

625
00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:44,800
Speaker 2: two boys who had been touring Europe with Randy Travis

626
00:30:45,200 --> 00:30:47,720
Speaker 2: and the last show was the Azor Islands and we

627
00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:50,560
Speaker 2: were the ride home as the opening act for us

628
00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:54,239
Speaker 2: at Christmas. It is Christmas Eve when we left. One

629
00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:56,240
Speaker 2: of those girls is now my wife.

630
00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:59,520
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Now that's a story. Is that how

631
00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:01,680
Speaker 1: you met on the PRIP back.

632
00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:04,200
Speaker 2: We wouldn't meet for another year and a half on

633
00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:06,320
Speaker 2: a USO tour that I invited her.

634
00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:11,280
Speaker 1: Wow and tell me she was she was the conduit

635
00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:13,920
Speaker 1: for you meeting Trump the first time too, right, Yes,

636
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:14,760
Speaker 1: tell me about that.

637
00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:18,959
Speaker 2: Well, she was Miss Tennessee, USA, and then when we

638
00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:24,200
Speaker 2: first got married, was in nineteen ninety two, she decided

639
00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:27,320
Speaker 2: to become an executive director of the pageants. And I said,

640
00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:29,280
Speaker 2: you can do whatever you want. You're a double major

641
00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:32,720
Speaker 2: communications in English out of college. If you want to

642
00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:35,120
Speaker 2: do this for a business, fine, I support you. So

643
00:31:35,240 --> 00:31:38,240
Speaker 2: we directed Tennessee first, and in Georgia now Mississippi, so

644
00:31:38,280 --> 00:31:40,920
Speaker 2: she had three states, and so for twenty one years.

645
00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:43,479
Speaker 2: Of course, Donald Trump owned Miss Universe. Right, So there

646
00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:45,960
Speaker 2: were plenty times when we did the national contest or

647
00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:48,360
Speaker 2: the Miss Universe, which would be out of the country,

648
00:31:49,320 --> 00:31:51,320
Speaker 2: and we would run into each other, you know, not

649
00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:54,280
Speaker 2: necessarily hello, Doald Trump. It was just we're in the

650
00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:57,000
Speaker 2: same room together. He would see me, he would talk

651
00:31:57,040 --> 00:32:01,040
Speaker 2: to her say, oh I DELI whatever, you know. But yeah, so.

652
00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:04,200
Speaker 1: That's how did he Did he ever tell you why

653
00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:06,760
Speaker 1: he chose your song? And I don't care what he says,

654
00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:11,720
Speaker 1: it's clearly the theme song of the Trump presidency every

655
00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:14,640
Speaker 1: time the man appears at a rally, a talk show.

656
00:32:14,920 --> 00:32:17,440
Speaker 1: Did he ever tell you why he chose you?

657
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:18,880
Speaker 2: Know, and I think the next time I see him,

658
00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:21,600
Speaker 2: I'll ask him that. But he never said that. Really,

659
00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:24,560
Speaker 2: a lot of people, by the way, for his inauguration

660
00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:28,120
Speaker 2: in twenty sixteen, people were scared away. There a lot

661
00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:29,520
Speaker 2: of entertainers and I'm not going to be there. They

662
00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:31,720
Speaker 2: couldn't scare me away. I said, I'm loyal to the

663
00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:34,479
Speaker 2: people that I believe in, and so I sang there

664
00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:37,600
Speaker 2: from But I never I never I never asked him

665
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:40,400
Speaker 2: why you're singing it. He never asked me or my

666
00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:43,320
Speaker 2: team for permission to sing it, and we never said

667
00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:45,920
Speaker 2: yes or no. We just said, let it happen because

668
00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:49,760
Speaker 2: I'm proud to have this happen, and so we just

669
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:51,280
Speaker 2: you know, it's kind of like a handshake.

670
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:53,400
Speaker 1: Tell me what it was like when you sang at

671
00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:57,920
Speaker 1: the Republican convention after the assassination attempt. That was his

672
00:32:58,120 --> 00:33:00,920
Speaker 1: first time out. I was there. I remember that moment

673
00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:03,680
Speaker 1: and I could see you. I was close enough to

674
00:33:03,720 --> 00:33:05,000
Speaker 1: watch you singing it.

675
00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:09,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, very different, it was. It's the first time I

676
00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:13,240
Speaker 2: would have seen him since the shooting since Butler. And

677
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:16,120
Speaker 2: interesting enough, the band behind me, which is called six Wire,

678
00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:18,160
Speaker 2: worked for me for ten years. They were on my

679
00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:21,680
Speaker 2: show my USO tour when I met my wife Kim,

680
00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:25,320
Speaker 2: so I knew them for thirty four years. That's an

681
00:33:25,320 --> 00:33:28,560
Speaker 2: important factor because when they told me that morning, you're

682
00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:31,160
Speaker 2: going to introduce the president tonight, that hadn't this decision

683
00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:33,520
Speaker 2: hadn't been made yet. I knew I was in there

684
00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:36,640
Speaker 2: in Milwaukee early, but it wasn't the official you're going

685
00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:40,480
Speaker 2: to do this. Had I not had the band playing

686
00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:43,560
Speaker 2: my music, my track only runs three minutes and twenty

687
00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:46,440
Speaker 2: something seconds, the music would have been done before he

688
00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:47,000
Speaker 2: even got.

689
00:33:46,840 --> 00:33:48,880
Speaker 1: To the box, right, because he did that long walk.

690
00:33:48,800 --> 00:33:53,120
Speaker 2: That's a timing thing. So after seeing him walk in

691
00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:54,920
Speaker 2: and then I noticed he had the Vice president with

692
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:58,040
Speaker 2: him too, walk up to the finally get into the box,

693
00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:01,280
Speaker 2: the music is I've already sang the verse for his entrance,

694
00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:03,480
Speaker 2: and the band is just vamping. We call that vamping

695
00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:05,800
Speaker 2: when you continue to play music, but there's no no verse.

696
00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:08,279
Speaker 2: And I waited until he got in the box. He

697
00:34:08,360 --> 00:34:11,320
Speaker 2: got settled, and I got eye contact with Don Junior,

698
00:34:11,719 --> 00:34:15,719
Speaker 2: you know, and then that's the moment, and so I

699
00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:19,759
Speaker 2: just spoke from my heart. You know. It's like I've

700
00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:21,920
Speaker 2: never been shot while I was shot at in Panama.

701
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:24,200
Speaker 2: But I mean, not try to kill because of who

702
00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:27,400
Speaker 2: I am, just what I represented. I was in the

703
00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:29,959
Speaker 2: military with the military and Panama and I got shot

704
00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:33,600
Speaker 2: at but but he got shot because of who he was.

705
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:36,920
Speaker 2: And I was concerned for him as a person, not

706
00:34:37,120 --> 00:34:42,520
Speaker 2: just in America, not just as the president. But you know,

707
00:34:42,600 --> 00:34:44,600
Speaker 2: somebody wanted to want to kill him for no reason

708
00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:47,640
Speaker 2: at all, and I'm like, what, this isn't right, you know?

709
00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:49,880
Speaker 2: So I spoke from my heart and I let America

710
00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:52,719
Speaker 2: know that millions were watching billions maybe yeah, you know,

711
00:34:52,920 --> 00:34:55,040
Speaker 2: but I don't. I'm not concerned about that. I'm concerned

712
00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:58,480
Speaker 2: about right here and right now. And it was the

713
00:34:58,520 --> 00:34:59,920
Speaker 2: right thing to do. And then I sang the rest

714
00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:02,399
Speaker 2: it and he proudly stood there and listened to it all.

715
00:35:02,719 --> 00:35:05,440
Speaker 1: Tell me before I wrap this up, and I have

716
00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:09,279
Speaker 1: a questionnaire I ask everybody I interview. One of the

717
00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:11,080
Speaker 1: things I saw is I read your story as I

718
00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:13,120
Speaker 1: read deeply into your story, and I've watched you for

719
00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:18,000
Speaker 1: so many years, your nimbleness, your ability to adapt to

720
00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:20,719
Speaker 1: the situation and the moment. What advice would you give

721
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:27,560
Speaker 1: young people anybody watching about being receptive to what's happening

722
00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:30,759
Speaker 1: in front of you and meeting the moment, because it

723
00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:33,120
Speaker 1: seems to me that's what you've done throughout this career.

724
00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:36,440
Speaker 2: You know, it is what I've done my whole career.

725
00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:41,040
Speaker 2: I've adapted to the situation. I've played dance halls, you know,

726
00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:43,640
Speaker 2: where a fight broke out in the front row. I've

727
00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:47,800
Speaker 2: played at Carnegie Hall. There are different and changing circumstances,

728
00:35:47,960 --> 00:35:49,279
Speaker 2: and a lot of it for me, has to do

729
00:35:49,320 --> 00:35:51,879
Speaker 2: with sound. Sound is my world. So if I don't

730
00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:55,040
Speaker 2: have the proper sound, I'm affected by that. I get

731
00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:58,319
Speaker 2: perfect sound. I have control of my environment, and then

732
00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:01,040
Speaker 2: I have control of my personality. I get emotional, as

733
00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:03,560
Speaker 2: you see, I got just talking about stuff. I get emotional.

734
00:36:04,560 --> 00:36:06,520
Speaker 1: So this is why your music is so lively, and

735
00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:08,080
Speaker 1: I mean, this is why you move millions of people

736
00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:11,200
Speaker 1: and they hear your song because it's connected. I know

737
00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:12,720
Speaker 1: that from watching you for years.

738
00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:14,920
Speaker 2: I think I could sum up what you asked me

739
00:36:14,920 --> 00:36:21,840
Speaker 2: in one word. Okay, survival. I think it's survival because

740
00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:24,080
Speaker 2: I always would no matter what job I was, and

741
00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:26,319
Speaker 2: I have a variety of jobs, not just dealing cars

742
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:28,680
Speaker 2: in Vegas, not just music. I worked as a farmer

743
00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:31,400
Speaker 2: with a ranch hand. You know, I sold Hams, I

744
00:36:31,560 --> 00:36:34,200
Speaker 2: sold Dixie Checking. No matter what it is, I wanted

745
00:36:34,239 --> 00:36:36,520
Speaker 2: to make sure that whoever I worked for wanted me

746
00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:40,799
Speaker 2: to stay. So I always worked hard at whatever job

747
00:36:40,840 --> 00:36:43,160
Speaker 2: it was. I learned it well, and I learned it

748
00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:46,239
Speaker 2: well enough they wouldn't want to let me go. And

749
00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:48,319
Speaker 2: so when I found a better opportunity. It was not

750
00:36:48,360 --> 00:36:50,600
Speaker 2: that I burned a bridge. It's not that I left

751
00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:53,640
Speaker 2: that in the dust. They would constantly remember I was

752
00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:54,560
Speaker 2: a good employee.

753
00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:59,319
Speaker 1: Tell me twenty two albums, thirty five singles that hit

754
00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:03,560
Speaker 1: the Billboard charts. Yeah, looking at all of that, the history,

755
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:07,480
Speaker 1: the American history you've been a part of because of

756
00:37:07,520 --> 00:37:11,920
Speaker 1: your music. What do you think is Lee Greenwood's purpose

757
00:37:13,640 --> 00:37:15,799
Speaker 1: if you had to define it now?

758
00:37:16,600 --> 00:37:18,120
Speaker 2: I have to look at that in a couple of ways.

759
00:37:18,719 --> 00:37:21,879
Speaker 2: As a Christian, I think my purpose is to please God,

760
00:37:22,400 --> 00:37:25,560
Speaker 2: and I hope I pleased him with the later part

761
00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:26,560
Speaker 2: of my life.

762
00:37:27,840 --> 00:37:30,279
Speaker 1: I like that qualifier. Then hold on, I get it

763
00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:30,799
Speaker 1: right back now.

764
00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:36,759
Speaker 2: I'm not so proud of how I was a wild hair,

765
00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:40,839
Speaker 2: and I guess a lot of young people are. That's

766
00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:43,760
Speaker 2: the first thing. The second thing is that to represent

767
00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:47,320
Speaker 2: what America stands for because this land is very special.

768
00:37:47,880 --> 00:37:51,160
Speaker 2: I mean North America. You know, I love Canada as well.

769
00:37:51,520 --> 00:37:53,480
Speaker 2: I even love the people in Mexico. I lived in

770
00:37:53,560 --> 00:37:57,640
Speaker 2: California long enough that I remember. My daughter Laura is

771
00:37:57,680 --> 00:38:00,360
Speaker 2: married to a Gataris and there they live in the

772
00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:04,520
Speaker 2: High Desert. Her husband's a brick mason. And my son Ted,

773
00:38:04,520 --> 00:38:07,520
Speaker 2: who lives in Chicago, he's a he's a dancer, singer,

774
00:38:07,560 --> 00:38:11,640
Speaker 2: and his mother was Castilian Spanish. So I have I

775
00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:13,520
Speaker 2: have reason to believe that all of North America is

776
00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:16,400
Speaker 2: very special. I've been in Europe many times. We've been

777
00:38:16,440 --> 00:38:18,920
Speaker 2: in South America, We've been you know, the Caribbean and

778
00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:24,000
Speaker 2: everywhere in Europe that I've been different countries for different reasons.

779
00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:25,680
Speaker 2: I want to be an ambassador for my country. I

780
00:38:25,719 --> 00:38:27,480
Speaker 2: want to I want to be a great example of

781
00:38:27,520 --> 00:38:31,000
Speaker 2: what Americans are and uh and and I think that's important.

782
00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:31,960
Speaker 2: We all need to do that.

783
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:35,080
Speaker 1: Well. You are that. You are that I mean, and

784
00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:40,120
Speaker 1: it's and your music touches generations. My children, you know,

785
00:38:40,480 --> 00:38:42,759
Speaker 1: I remember we saw you one time and it was

786
00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:46,440
Speaker 1: my parents. I'm standing now, I'm gonna cry. My parents,

787
00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:51,640
Speaker 1: myself are children. Everybody knew your music. Everybody was singing along,

788
00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:54,280
Speaker 1: and my father, who's a marine you know, was drenched

789
00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:59,400
Speaker 1: in tears. Those moments you've given us are very special

790
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:00,879
Speaker 1: and I hope you know that.

791
00:39:01,239 --> 00:39:05,600
Speaker 2: Well, thank you. I will leave you this. Somebody asked

792
00:39:05,600 --> 00:39:07,080
Speaker 2: me in her NewView one time, and I get a

793
00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:09,480
Speaker 2: lot of interesting questions, and your interview has been great.

794
00:39:10,440 --> 00:39:12,680
Speaker 2: Do you have any regrets for writing God bless Usa?

795
00:39:13,840 --> 00:39:18,640
Speaker 2: I said only one, and they curiously said, what is that?

796
00:39:18,880 --> 00:39:22,320
Speaker 2: I said, I didn't write White Christmas.

797
00:39:22,520 --> 00:39:28,200
Speaker 1: Oh that's everybody's regrets. That's my great regret too. But

798
00:39:28,239 --> 00:39:30,359
Speaker 1: the story of that is like yours. It came from

799
00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:31,280
Speaker 1: something very personal.

800
00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:31,680
Speaker 2: It did.

801
00:39:31,920 --> 00:39:34,839
Speaker 1: He was writing about the loss of his child, which

802
00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:37,959
Speaker 1: I didn't know about, Burging Berlin lobsters child and every

803
00:39:38,040 --> 00:39:40,880
Speaker 1: Christmas he was Jewish, he didn't celebrate Christmas. Every Christmas

804
00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:43,080
Speaker 1: they would go visit the grave of that sun. So

805
00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:45,480
Speaker 1: if you listened to the song, that melancholic line, and

806
00:39:45,520 --> 00:39:48,319
Speaker 1: you'res a songwriter of anybody will know that there's that

807
00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:50,919
Speaker 1: melancholic line where it kind of turns at the end,

808
00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:54,799
Speaker 1: if only in our dream. Yep, Oh, it always hits me.

809
00:39:54,840 --> 00:39:56,560
Speaker 1: I can't I almost can't listen to it. Anymore. It

810
00:39:56,600 --> 00:39:58,840
Speaker 1: makes me so sad. Tell me before I get to

811
00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:02,239
Speaker 1: my royal Grande, question here which quick questions. I love

812
00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:06,239
Speaker 1: that this is sitting between us, your God, bless the

813
00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:09,520
Speaker 1: USA Bible, which is probably called the Holy Bible and

814
00:40:09,719 --> 00:40:13,399
Speaker 1: qualified with God, bless the USA. Why is the Word

815
00:40:13,400 --> 00:40:15,480
Speaker 1: of God so important to you? How has it shaped

816
00:40:15,520 --> 00:40:15,960
Speaker 1: your life?

817
00:40:16,719 --> 00:40:18,719
Speaker 2: My wife, Kim brought me back to the faith that

818
00:40:18,800 --> 00:40:23,400
Speaker 2: I knew I had to have. Being raised in the

819
00:40:23,520 --> 00:40:28,520
Speaker 2: church is not necessarily embedded faith. And I don't lack

820
00:40:28,760 --> 00:40:31,799
Speaker 2: people and doctrinate a child about faith if they don't

821
00:40:31,800 --> 00:40:34,799
Speaker 2: need it. In our church we do baptism still, and

822
00:40:34,840 --> 00:40:36,719
Speaker 2: it's wonderful to see a young child who's made the

823
00:40:36,760 --> 00:40:40,000
Speaker 2: decision either. I think it has to be after twelve,

824
00:40:40,040 --> 00:40:43,240
Speaker 2: I mean ten eleven, twelve thirteen, before the age of reason,

825
00:40:43,520 --> 00:40:46,200
Speaker 2: and they start saying, what is this about? What is

826
00:40:46,239 --> 00:40:49,880
Speaker 2: religion about? What is Christ? Who is Christ? And understand

827
00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:51,719
Speaker 2: the story of Jesus Christ and how he is the

828
00:40:51,760 --> 00:40:53,600
Speaker 2: savior not just to save with the light of the

829
00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:55,640
Speaker 2: world at the time, because it was a very dark

830
00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:58,759
Speaker 2: world before Jesus Christ came. And so faith to me

831
00:40:58,880 --> 00:41:02,240
Speaker 2: is important enough that I decided to not only produce

832
00:41:02,320 --> 00:41:06,280
Speaker 2: this Bible, but tell people the reason I did it

833
00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:09,600
Speaker 2: was because it's different than any other. It has in

834
00:41:09,600 --> 00:41:12,600
Speaker 2: the rear of the Bible the documents that founded our country,

835
00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:15,560
Speaker 2: and that's the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill

836
00:41:15,560 --> 00:41:18,200
Speaker 2: of Rights. Now there's also the Pledge of Allegiance and

837
00:41:18,200 --> 00:41:21,879
Speaker 2: my handwritten version of God Bless the USA. Core hole nice,

838
00:41:21,960 --> 00:41:25,520
Speaker 2: Proud to be an American. That's that's just a sidebar.

839
00:41:26,160 --> 00:41:30,600
Speaker 2: But it's beautiful to hold, and its acceptance has been overwhelming,

840
00:41:31,120 --> 00:41:33,920
Speaker 2: not just because the President has his own version. Actually,

841
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:37,279
Speaker 2: his his Bible is the same color. It actually says

842
00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:37,840
Speaker 2: his name on it.

843
00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:39,040
Speaker 1: Oh, it's the Trump It's.

844
00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:42,080
Speaker 2: A Trump Bible. This is the God I hope.

845
00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:45,080
Speaker 1: No, No, okay, no, rewright a holy word.

846
00:41:45,600 --> 00:41:47,040
Speaker 2: No, we don't, we don't go there.

847
00:41:47,160 --> 00:41:49,680
Speaker 1: Okay. I got to give you the Royal Grande questionnaire,

848
00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:52,520
Speaker 1: which I ask everybody I talked to. Okay, first of all,

849
00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:58,160
Speaker 1: who is the person you most admire? Maybe Dwright the

850
00:41:58,200 --> 00:42:04,799
Speaker 1: Eisenhower Why I remember he was a five star. He

851
00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:06,960
Speaker 1: was a man that had to make decisions that no

852
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:10,160
Speaker 1: one else would want to make. In a snap after.

853
00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:12,800
Speaker 2: The first wave in Normandy. He asked his chief of staff,

854
00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:17,319
Speaker 2: what are the losses? And he said ninety said send

855
00:42:17,320 --> 00:42:24,440
Speaker 2: the second wave. That takes courage, It takes foresight to

856
00:42:24,520 --> 00:42:27,200
Speaker 2: know that he would end the war by stopping the

857
00:42:27,200 --> 00:42:29,879
Speaker 2: Germans in France. If he didn't do that, many would

858
00:42:30,239 --> 00:42:32,719
Speaker 2: many more would have died later on. And then he

859
00:42:32,760 --> 00:42:35,560
Speaker 2: became President of the United States and a man of

860
00:42:35,600 --> 00:42:39,560
Speaker 2: great value. He knew faith, and if he didn't know faith,

861
00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:41,279
Speaker 2: he would be able to send those men to their death.

862
00:42:41,400 --> 00:42:45,480
Speaker 1: No, even Roosevelt called it the Great Crusade. He called

863
00:42:45,480 --> 00:42:49,160
Speaker 1: that that particular invasion the Great Crusade? Interesting, who is

864
00:42:49,200 --> 00:42:51,839
Speaker 1: the person you most despise? This is a tough one. Oh,

865
00:42:52,120 --> 00:42:56,440
Speaker 1: that's harder than the first lead. Yeah, going, don't look

866
00:42:56,480 --> 00:42:58,520
Speaker 1: at that camera, Lee, look at me, keep your eyes here.

867
00:42:58,560 --> 00:43:03,160
Speaker 2: I'm on. I don't think I can. I can. I

868
00:43:03,200 --> 00:43:05,560
Speaker 2: can say that. Okay, you know the very few people

869
00:43:06,239 --> 00:43:09,439
Speaker 2: that there's a psalm in the Bible. It's Psalm thirty two.

870
00:43:09,480 --> 00:43:12,200
Speaker 2: It's about forgiveness. And I've had some people do me

871
00:43:12,239 --> 00:43:14,520
Speaker 2: wrong and I forgive them, and I don't want to

872
00:43:14,520 --> 00:43:15,200
Speaker 2: mention their names.

873
00:43:15,239 --> 00:43:18,240
Speaker 1: That'd be great answer. No one's ever given me that answer.

874
00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:19,440
Speaker 1: It's my favorite answer.

875
00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:19,640
Speaker 2: To that.

876
00:43:19,880 --> 00:43:22,200
Speaker 1: Okay, what is your best feature?

877
00:43:22,640 --> 00:43:26,400
Speaker 2: I think my distinctive voice. We all have distinctive voices,

878
00:43:26,440 --> 00:43:30,120
Speaker 2: the voice print and I was telling my tech that

879
00:43:30,280 --> 00:43:31,719
Speaker 2: I was in a story the other day and just

880
00:43:31,760 --> 00:43:34,560
Speaker 2: talking to the clear and somebody to yearly agreement. Don't

881
00:43:34,600 --> 00:43:37,480
Speaker 2: you so my voice? You know? I think that's my

882
00:43:37,560 --> 00:43:38,320
Speaker 2: distinctive feature.

883
00:43:38,360 --> 00:43:39,360
Speaker 1: What's your worst feature?

884
00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:41,040
Speaker 2: Too short?

885
00:43:42,640 --> 00:43:45,240
Speaker 1: That could be cuge. I would voice you can't replace.

886
00:43:45,880 --> 00:43:48,920
Speaker 2: I would give anything to be five to ten. I

887
00:43:48,960 --> 00:43:50,280
Speaker 2: could be a basketball player.

888
00:43:51,200 --> 00:43:54,279
Speaker 1: No, yeah, they're just perfect the way you are. Your

889
00:43:54,320 --> 00:43:59,279
Speaker 1: favorite meal, oh, fried chicken, fried chicken, even after cooking it,

890
00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:01,200
Speaker 1: you still will have a fried chicken.

891
00:44:01,320 --> 00:44:04,640
Speaker 2: And my wife's lasagna. Wow, she makes great lasagna and

892
00:44:04,680 --> 00:44:07,840
Speaker 2: pumpkin pie. What do you fear losing my voice?

893
00:44:09,080 --> 00:44:10,040
Speaker 1: Have you ever lost it?

894
00:44:11,360 --> 00:44:16,359
Speaker 2: Yes? I have working too hard for four or five

895
00:44:16,440 --> 00:44:19,440
Speaker 2: years doubling gigs in Vegas and actually lost my voice

896
00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:21,120
Speaker 2: and I had to stop for about three months and

897
00:44:21,200 --> 00:44:21,879
Speaker 2: finally came back.

898
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:24,279
Speaker 1: People don't realize how tender I sing a little bit

899
00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:26,480
Speaker 1: on the side, Lee, And that's why I worship what

900
00:44:26,520 --> 00:44:28,000
Speaker 1: you do. And I don't know how you do it

901
00:44:28,600 --> 00:44:31,480
Speaker 1: because people don't realize you use it every moment, and

902
00:44:31,520 --> 00:44:34,520
Speaker 1: it reflects every part of how you're feeling that day,

903
00:44:34,680 --> 00:44:37,160
Speaker 1: your emotional state, it's all there.

904
00:44:37,400 --> 00:44:41,520
Speaker 2: I can normally be ninety percent. A few times I'm

905
00:44:41,520 --> 00:44:44,040
Speaker 2: one hundred percent, but mostly ninety percent. In the early

906
00:44:44,120 --> 00:44:46,040
Speaker 2: days of my recording career, I was probably one hundred

907
00:44:46,040 --> 00:44:46,879
Speaker 2: percent most of the time.

908
00:44:46,960 --> 00:44:52,240
Speaker 1: Wow. The greatest virtue is what in your estimation?

909
00:44:53,040 --> 00:44:53,520
Speaker 2: Honesty?

910
00:44:54,080 --> 00:44:56,879
Speaker 1: Honesty? Why?

911
00:44:56,960 --> 00:44:59,800
Speaker 2: Because you can't ever live a lie.

912
00:45:00,560 --> 00:45:04,520
Speaker 1: Hmmm, the word you could not live without Lee Greenwood.

913
00:45:04,920 --> 00:45:05,920
Speaker 2: God m.

914
00:45:07,640 --> 00:45:11,440
Speaker 1: It's a good answer too. If you could live anywhere

915
00:45:13,360 --> 00:45:15,600
Speaker 1: but Nashville, where would it be and why?

916
00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:24,200
Speaker 2: I think the West Coast of Florida because it's far

917
00:45:24,320 --> 00:45:27,759
Speaker 2: enough below Tampa where we have a place in Anna,

918
00:45:27,760 --> 00:45:28,320
Speaker 2: Mary Island.

919
00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:29,840
Speaker 1: Oh, you're out there already.

920
00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:32,759
Speaker 2: Yeah. And and and it's the beautiful beaches that could

921
00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:35,520
Speaker 2: be anywhere in the world. There's nothing more beautiful than

922
00:45:35,520 --> 00:45:36,120
Speaker 2: the West Coast.

923
00:45:36,239 --> 00:45:39,399
Speaker 1: Beautiful beaches. And it's a more in the golf leet.

924
00:45:39,600 --> 00:45:41,520
Speaker 2: Yeah. We had a couple recently and we were fine.

925
00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:44,920
Speaker 2: But but it just I I need the sunshine on

926
00:45:44,920 --> 00:45:47,120
Speaker 2: my face as I get older. I'm very white. I'm

927
00:45:47,160 --> 00:45:51,400
Speaker 2: a real Caucasian, you know, I'm Irish English, Scottish, and

928
00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:54,239
Speaker 2: I got to have a little bit of a tan.

929
00:45:54,760 --> 00:45:56,560
Speaker 1: What is your biggest regret? Lee?

930
00:45:57,520 --> 00:46:06,160
Speaker 2: Not writing God bless USA sooner during Vietnam. Wow, that's

931
00:46:06,200 --> 00:46:07,040
Speaker 2: when they needed it.

932
00:46:08,480 --> 00:46:13,200
Speaker 1: The best piece of advice you ever received was what finished?

933
00:46:13,200 --> 00:46:13,480
Speaker 2: Big?

934
00:46:14,600 --> 00:46:15,400
Speaker 1: Who gave it to you?

935
00:46:15,719 --> 00:46:19,840
Speaker 2: My mother? Wow, I don't care what you do in

936
00:46:19,880 --> 00:46:23,239
Speaker 2: the beginning or in the middle, finished big Wow.

937
00:46:23,840 --> 00:46:29,560
Speaker 1: Great advice. Yeah, and you're still doing it. Finale the finale.

938
00:46:30,080 --> 00:46:32,680
Speaker 1: If you could not do what you're doing, if you

939
00:46:32,719 --> 00:46:35,480
Speaker 1: couldn't sing, what else would you like to have done

940
00:46:37,120 --> 00:46:38,560
Speaker 1: or think you would have been really good at?

941
00:46:41,000 --> 00:46:43,120
Speaker 2: I would like to have been a soldier. I think

942
00:46:43,120 --> 00:46:44,680
Speaker 2: it would have been good in the military. I was three,

943
00:46:44,719 --> 00:46:46,759
Speaker 2: a in the draft, so the draft goes back to

944
00:46:46,760 --> 00:46:50,560
Speaker 2: the Vietnam ears and I'm not old. But otherwise maybe

945
00:46:50,560 --> 00:46:54,160
Speaker 2: a builder, I mean my stepfather, Louis d'antonoli, taught me

946
00:46:54,200 --> 00:46:56,120
Speaker 2: a lot about building. My mother married him when I

947
00:46:56,200 --> 00:46:59,239
Speaker 2: was fourteen, and it was a wonderful man. I married it.

948
00:46:59,480 --> 00:47:03,280
Speaker 2: I knew him to his death, and we built motels

949
00:47:03,280 --> 00:47:06,520
Speaker 2: around Disneyland. That's when I was living in California at

950
00:47:06,560 --> 00:47:10,720
Speaker 2: the time, and I learned carpentry. And there's a certain

951
00:47:10,719 --> 00:47:13,319
Speaker 2: thing when you finish something, you get it done, you know,

952
00:47:13,600 --> 00:47:15,680
Speaker 2: and it's something there, it's a structure. A man has

953
00:47:15,760 --> 00:47:19,800
Speaker 2: built something like that. Sisfaction of that, Yeah, the satisfaction when.

954
00:47:19,640 --> 00:47:20,360
Speaker 1: This is over.

955
00:47:21,239 --> 00:47:23,919
Speaker 2: What happens when what is over?

956
00:47:24,520 --> 00:47:27,280
Speaker 1: Life is over? Oh, life is over, not this interview.

957
00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:29,440
Speaker 1: I know what happens after this interview. You can go

958
00:47:29,520 --> 00:47:31,640
Speaker 1: have a drink and eat and be done with these

959
00:47:31,640 --> 00:47:34,600
Speaker 1: bothersome questions. I know what happens after that. But what

960
00:47:34,719 --> 00:47:36,680
Speaker 1: happens when this life is over?

961
00:47:38,080 --> 00:47:43,799
Speaker 2: Well, hopefully I will see Jesus Christ. I you know,

962
00:47:44,239 --> 00:47:48,520
Speaker 2: that's a dream of every Christian. Atheists might not say that,

963
00:47:49,160 --> 00:47:51,680
Speaker 2: but I do believe there's life that I can I

964
00:47:51,719 --> 00:47:54,640
Speaker 2: can face later. I'll have to face my sins, and

965
00:47:55,320 --> 00:47:58,399
Speaker 2: I'm standing before God and opens the book and said

966
00:47:58,400 --> 00:48:00,000
Speaker 2: this is what you did right and what you did wrong.

967
00:48:00,560 --> 00:48:05,560
Speaker 2: I hope that I've the life that's fair and inequitable

968
00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:08,080
Speaker 2: for the people that have treated me so well.

969
00:48:08,600 --> 00:48:11,000
Speaker 1: Lee Greenwood, what an honor. Thank you, my friend, Thank

970
00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:11,600
Speaker 1: you the joy.

971
00:48:11,520 --> 00:48:12,799
Speaker 2: Being with you, Thank you very much.

972
00:48:13,320 --> 00:48:16,520
Speaker 1: He is something else. Here's the hole. When events start

973
00:48:16,600 --> 00:48:20,400
Speaker 1: to move, you roll with them. You change. If necessary,

974
00:48:20,440 --> 00:48:24,520
Speaker 1: you make adjustments. Lee Greenwood went from a pop singer

975
00:48:24,560 --> 00:48:28,000
Speaker 1: to a country artist, and he created a patriotic anthem

976
00:48:28,080 --> 00:48:31,200
Speaker 1: that has really been transcendent over the last decade or so.

977
00:48:31,520 --> 00:48:34,200
Speaker 1: But had he been unwilling to change course and to

978
00:48:34,280 --> 00:48:37,759
Speaker 1: act on the suggestion of others, imagine what would have

979
00:48:37,800 --> 00:48:40,800
Speaker 1: been lost. President Trump would have had the hum every

980
00:48:40,800 --> 00:48:42,920
Speaker 1: time he walked on stage. That would have been terrible.

981
00:48:43,760 --> 00:48:46,040
Speaker 1: I hope you'll come back to a Royo Grande soon.

982
00:48:46,280 --> 00:48:49,239
Speaker 1: Why live a dry, narrow, constricted life when if you

983
00:48:49,320 --> 00:48:52,360
Speaker 1: fill it with good things, it can flow into a

984
00:48:52,520 --> 00:48:57,160
Speaker 1: broad driving a royo grande. I'm raiming a royo. Make

985
00:48:57,200 --> 00:49:00,520
Speaker 1: sure you subscribe like this episode, Thanks for diving in,

986
00:49:00,560 --> 00:49:04,680
Speaker 1: and we'll see you next time. Arroyo Grande is produced

987
00:49:04,680 --> 00:49:08,520
Speaker 1: in partnership with iHeart Podcasts and is available on YouTube

988
00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:17,000
Speaker 1: or on the iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get your podcasts.