How Lee Greenwood Wrote His Patriotic Anthem "God Bless the USA"
"'USA' is the song I always felt the need to write," Lee Greenwood said.
Lee Greenwood is a country music veteran. With seven number-one songs and 25 charted singles that span decades, his legacy as one of the genre's most successful acts is solidified. You've no doubt heard many of his songs; from "Somebody's Gonna Love You" to "Going, Going, Gone" and "Dixie Road," Greenwood has a track history of finding and recording music that resonates.
The crown jewel of Greenwood's discography is no doubt "God Bless the USA," which he wrote himself and released back in 1984. It's perhaps one of the most ubiquitous tracks in American culture — arguably on par with the national anthem. The song's lyrics are well-known; in fact, they're probably ingrained in your head despite the fact you never consciously retained them.
"God Bless the USA" is the only song to reach the top five on the country singles charts three times: once in 1991, again in 2001, and a third time in 2003. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the song also hit number-one on the pop charts.
“'USA' is the song I always felt the need to write," Greenwood said, according to his website. "I wanted to have something that would unite Americans from coast to coast and to instill pride back in the United States. The song represents my family, my community, and those men and women who have paid the price for the freedoms we all love and enjoy.”
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Greenwood is slated to perform at President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20. Ahead of his appearance, learn a little more about how he wrote "God Bless the USA."
How Lee Greenwood wrote "God Bless the USA"
Greenwood wrote "God Bless the USA" on the back of his tour bus in 1983. "When I toured with so many different acts, I got inspired again to write the song that would eventually become America’s most recognized anthem," Greenwood told The Tennessean.
He continued, "I did it on my bus one night in ’83. I already had four albums I think, two albums a year at the time. …That particular year, we already had an album song chosen, 'You’ve Got a Good Love Comin,'' the title of the album that year for release for 1984. When Universal made the call after they heard 'U.S.A.' on that album to release it as a single, I was just surprised. I think that if that had not happened, no one would have ever heard the song, and it probably would have just been one of those things in my discography that I was proud of, but it was more than that."
Greenwood said "God Bless the USA's" status as an American classic was cultivated over many years and historic events. "When it got on the radio, the audience heard it, it became the song for the National Guard of Tennessee, and then the military, and then with President Reagan and his ‘84 campaign, which I was part of, and then moved forward to Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf War – not in that order – and the [September 11] attack on America," he said. "Each time, more Americans found 'God Bless the U.S.A' to be a song of spirit and unity. It didn’t happen overnight."
To watch Greenwood perform at Trump's inauguration on Monday, January 20, simply tune into your local NBC News station before 12 p.m. ET. NBC News NOW — NBC’s live 24/7 streaming news channel — will also broadcast Trump’s inauguration on YouTube. (NBC News NOW is also accessible on Peacock.)
