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The Tudor Dixon Podcast: God Bless the USA with Lee Greenwood
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- [00:00]
Unknown Host
You're listening to an iHeart podcast.
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Christina Quinn
You don't know me yet, but I bet we have something in common. We all wish we were better functioning humans. Maybe figure out how to sleep better, have more meaningful relationships, cook more that search for practical knowledge. It's my job at the Washington Post. I host a podcast called Try this. Every episode is like an audio class and we learn together. I'm Christina Quinn. Now you know me. Check out Try this wherever you're listening.
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- [01:41]
Tutor Dixon
Edu I want to tell you about my partners at Preborn When a woman experiences an unplanned pregnancy, she often feels alone and afraid, and so many times her first response is to seek out an abortion. But because of the generosity of listeners like you, that search may lead her to a Preborn Network clinic where she will choose life not only for her baby, but for herself. Preborn offers God's love and compassion to hurting women and then provides a free ultrasound to introduce them to the life growing inside of them. This combination brings the ultimate miracle of life to life, which is why Preborn sees on average, 200 babies saved every day. When Paige found out she was pregnant, she didn't feel she could afford the child, and the father actually threatened her to have an abortion. But when her mom found out, she introduced her to a Preborn Network clinic. At the clinic, Paige was given the support and resources she needed to help her choose life, and the dad even started attending parenting classes with her. Now today, they are raising a beautiful son together. Your tax deductible donation of $28 sponsors one ultrasound. So how many babies can you save? Please donate your gift today. Just dial £250 and say the keyword baby. That's £250, baby. Or go to preborn.comdixon that's preborn.comdixon sponsored by Preborn.
- [03:05]
Rodney Williams
I'm Rodney Williams.
- [03:07]
Travis Holloway
And I'm Travis Holloway. Welcome to the Wealth Break podcast, a real conversation about financing.
- [03:13]
Rodney Williams
Let's be honest, building wealth doesn't look the same for everyone.
- [03:17]
Tutor Dixon
I feel like sometimes being broke is a cycle and that we might have.
- [03:21]
Travis Holloway
To revisit that and we're not stopping at success stories.
- [03:24]
Unknown Advertiser
What happens when it doesn't go right?
- [03:26]
Christina Quinn
How do you cope with it?
- [03:28]
Rodney Williams
Because wealth isn't just about money. It's about creating a life where you thrive and help others do the same.
- [03:34]
Travis Holloway
Listen to the Wealth Break podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
- [03:40]
Tutor Dixon
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon podcast. We are here in Georgia at the.
- [03:44]
Lee Greenwood
Job Creators Network Freedom Fighters Summit, and we found Lee Greenwood out here just.
- [03:50]
Unknown Host
Wandering around in the hall.
- [03:52]
Lee Greenwood
We just grabbed him and brought him over. But I mean, this is really exciting for me because we've. Your song has inspired an entire generation of people to get involved in politics and follow this president. And I really do. I mean that from the standpoint of that starts playing and no matter where I am, everybody's singing it. What does that mean to you?
- [04:12]
Unknown Host
Let me just go back to the beginning of me writing God bless the USA was in 1983. So before politics, I mean, it was the song that I wrote for America because of the love of my love of the country. And I'm a farmer from California. You know, I was a drum major from a high school marching band. And there was a lot of things that added up in my head to wanting to do that. But when my career started in Nashville, Tennessee, as a country artist, my background, which is rhythm and blues and jazz and rock, I was raised in the Beatle area during the Vietnam War. There was a lot of things in my head that kind of said, I really love being in a country that's free and we can vote freely for who we want to be president and our officials who tell us what's best for us as a people. And I guess when I got to Nashville, there was a moment or two where I just didn't have any time but to just tour. And I did that for 300 days a year for the first three years.
- [05:05]
Lee Greenwood
Wow.
- [05:05]
Unknown Host
And after five and six albums, I had an inspiration one night to just write the song Which I've been wanting to write for my entire life.
- [05:13]
Lee Greenwood
So once usa, after seeing the entire country, then from a tour bus.
- [05:17]
Unknown Host
Yeah, because being born in California, 20 years in Nevada. I mean, I was in the casinos in Nevada for 20 years, performing there, and all kinds of shows, main room, lounges. I even dealt cards into casinos for a while, just kind of, you know, keep the bills being paid. But I never really toured the entire country. So from my point of view, when I say Washington, that means I'm from the west coast, the East Coast. Say Washington. Took me a while, because now I live in the south, and I say y' all. So. So, yes, things changed when I started touring the whole country, and. And I got a better perspective of if. If I may put it this way, from Seattle to Miami or New York to Los Angeles to Virginia to Frisco, and. And you kind of see things differently. And yet, when I. When I was perceiving, moving from the west coast to the South, I didn't really envision that the people would be similar, but they are. And. And a different culture in New York and Houston. Sure. But when you talk about patriotism, there's nowhere more patriot than the people in New York City or in Dallas, Texas, or San Jose, California, or Virginia. I mean, I found it to be very true no matter where you go. And so as my song began to resonate with everyone, saying unity is what's important, then it started resonating, of course, with the politics, politicians.
- [06:46]
Lee Greenwood
What year was that then?
- [06:49]
Unknown Host
It would have been during the Reagan era, because I wrote the song in 1983. I was at the RNC only by choice for Ronald Reagan, and I did a. And the reason I ended up there is because I did a command performance at the White House for the Reagan and Bush administration. And that's when I met 41, who became a very close friend until the time of his passing. And. And then, of course, it just kind of rolled over, you know, to the next conservative. I found out who I was at that point, because then I realized I am a conservative. I wasn't probably as a youngster. I mean, I have to admit, I was, like, you know, wild in life and having a great time with life, but I became more of a conservative as I moved along. And so now my wife Kim and I, who have been married 33 years, and she's a Southerner from Tennessee and was a former Miss Tennessee, usa, and I married into a very beautiful Christian family. And so we've come even more entrenched, I think, in the Conservative values of what makes this country move along. That's awesome. With this guy.
- [07:51]
Lee Greenwood
So how did that happen? I mean, when did he come to you? Because this is like, people see this as his song now, and this is his walkout song. Right.
- [08:01]
Unknown Host
If you look at it from my perspective, when I worked with the Bush campaign, both Bush presidents father and son. And then I recorded an album in 1992 after I married my wife, Kim, who was a Miss Tennessee USA and worked with Donald Trump for 21 years as a director for three states in the South, Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia. Naturally, it would be rubbing elbows with Donald Trump as the owner of Miss Universe for a long time. So we knew him long before. But. But there was none of the, Are you going to run for president? Could you use my song? There was none of that. That would come much later. But during that period of time in between presidents, I recorded American Patriot, which is all of American songs, which. America, the beautiful, God bless America, this land is your land, even the Battle Hymn of the Republic, which at one time I was working the Hilton Hotel in Vegas. Elvis was in the main room, and I used to go watch him sing the trilogy. And I went, that's Southern Americanism. And I thought, if I ever get my career, I'm going to actually sing the trilogy to close my show. I knew it very well, but it was just not to be, because Tim and I were married in 92, the same year that I released the album. And then four, five, six years, you know, prior to that, I'd already realized that I have to have my own anthem. And when I wrote it, it wasn't for politics. Of course, you know that.
- [09:27]
Lee Greenwood
Right?
- [09:28]
Unknown Host
And it still is. And of course, after our great president, President Trump, leaves office, it'll once again be the focus of what we do, and that's building homes from wounded warriors. And over 15 years, we built 220 homes throughout the South. And we're going to spread to the rest of the country thanks to people like Johnny Morris from Bass Pro and Lennar Holmes and a few others. Charity called Helping a Hero. We also worked for tunnels to towers in New York, St. Jude's in Memphis, and things that we cherish and we support.
- [09:59]
Lee Greenwood
But so, and. And does that come from your time watching everyone coming back from Vietnam? Like, what inspired that? Because I saw you at one of your events, I went to one of your events where you bring up the wounded warriors on stage and. And you present them with a home.
- [10:15]
Unknown Host
Yeah. That's a very special time.
- [10:16]
Lee Greenwood
Yeah.
- [10:17]
Unknown Host
No, to answer your question, I. I just love the pageantry, I guess, of marching the military and its discipline. We recently sang for the opening of the Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington, Texas, which is supported by 43. And the land given by Jerry Jones that owns the Dallas Cowboys is right next to Cowboy Stadium. So if you ever want to go see something that represents American patriotism at its root, and that's those who are awarded the Medal of Honor for, for valor and for doing things above and beyond what they possibly would have expect of a soldier. So when we were there, of course, recognizing a lot of those people are my friends who I've known for a long time. And, and that's the reason, I guess, from the very beginning, when I was drum major from my high school marching band and I saw, you know, the military marching right alongside of me, and we played USO shows for like 15 or 20 years as well. Just, it's just, I think from my, from my point as a role model in music, I think I have some kind of a responsibility to make sure people know what the basic of patriotism is. You can't imagine a 6 year old who will send me a video. Their parents will probably send me the video of them standing, waving the flag and singing God bless you with her tiny little sweet voice. That's where patriotism starts. But you can never forget that it's the military that pays the price. We all enjoy this here, right? There's some soldier somewhere who is in danger and may get wounded or may get killed because of his dedication to his sacrifice.
- [11:54]
Lee Greenwood
We were in Washington last week and we were taking the eighth grade class. And my daughter, I took a picture of her in front of the Korean War Memorial where it says, freedom is not free. And I said to her, do you know what that means? And she didn't know what it meant.
- [12:06]
Unknown Host
Well, of course not.
- [12:06]
Lee Greenwood
And that. And I was like, this is the biggest beauty of how we've honored people and, and that you have those open conversations and what you do, it allows us to talk to our kids about what that starting that patriotism early and what that actually means. You told me your son is about to graduate from college. So what do your kids think about this?
- [12:25]
Unknown Host
Well, Dalton's 30 and now married. He was valedictorian of his high school in Franklin, Tennessee, and we let him go to the college of his choice. He went to an Ivy League W and L in Virginia. And I got a biochemistry degree with undergrad, which is. I didn't know what undergrad meant. I thought when you graduated, you Graduated. It's like less of a graduation. And then. So then he went on to Vanderbilt and got a PhD in cancer research and immunology. So he's a biotech analyst. And. And he's been working in Chicago recently and with his wife. And our younger boy is 26. He was, like, very smart. He had a perfect science score in high school, but wasn't valedictorian. But he was a Chancellor Scholar for TCU in Fort Worth, Texas, for four years, changed from theater major to music major, and now he's finishing his master's in music production and engineering at the University of Miami, and he graduates next week. So he will be coming back to Nashville and starting his career parallel to mine. I hate it when people say, oh, he's walking in your shoes. He's doing what you do. No, hardly. Parker will be very different. He's great singer and piano player and all, but he. And he wants to produce, he wants to be artistic and. And so if anybody wants to look at his YouTube, it's Parker Greenwood. And he's got five songs for his thesis in college, which is. Would be his final project that he wrote, produced, sang, and did all the songs. So that's kind of fun.
- [13:50]
Lee Greenwood
That is. So do they do any of these political events with you, or do they stay out of that?
- [13:56]
Unknown Host
They've had the opportunity, yes, to be at many of the events. And I don't expect a lot from them in that regard. I don't know what. I don't even ask them what politics that they are in. I mean, we, you know, we've never.
- [14:12]
Lee Greenwood
That's not even an issue.
- [14:14]
Unknown Host
No, we've never influenced our children to. To do it. Because I was liberal when I was beginning, I. I would imagine they probably are. They both went to college, and Dalton's wife went to college. So I think that they probably have more of a liberal look at the. At their. Their world, because they don't really have a lot to protect yet. And I think that's the key, is once we become mature enough to know that we have something to protect, you suddenly realize what freedom means and how much you have to devote to it and then what you want to get from it. And I think that what's. That's what makes it conservative.
- [14:43]
Lee Greenwood
And that's. That is a really good point. If you have something to protect, it changes your mind. Even when we're in there today talking about debt and all of this, and why does this affect. And why not just keep taxation? It's interesting because you do have a different perspective when you have your children.
- [14:58]
Unknown Host
Absolutely.
- [14:59]
Lee Greenwood
And you, and you go, well, I don't want them to end up with this. And it is funny because that is a universal feeling. I don't want to leave something bad for my kids.
- [15:08]
Unknown Host
And I will say this, both, both of our sons, Alton and Parker, and my wife and I, we're all very tight. Kim and I have been married 33 years and we understand what our commitment to them is. But now as adults, we let them start making more decisions on their own. And, and we love the fact that they will do that and not necessarily mirror who we are or what we are. But I'm very confident that as they watch what I do, they don't, even if they didn't think like I did, they certainly don't go against what I believe in. I mean, they don't, we don't have arguments about that. And, and, and, but they endorse, you know, my lifestyle. They, they endorse what I do for the country, if not even for the president or for the Congress, because that's a fluctuating thing and that's a lot of work.
- [15:52]
Lee Greenwood
I mean, you were talking to me about your travel schedule. It's a massive amount. I'll just end on this. Do you think that continues? Do you see the, in the, in the foreseeable future, do you think you just continue traveling for the Wounded warriors for the president office?
- [16:05]
Unknown Host
Well, absolutely. I will say this too, that because of my reappointment by President Trump to the, as a trustee to the Kennedy Center, I keep trying to being pushed away. I keep pushing away from Washington D.C. and it keeps dragging me back. You know, President Bush, 43 nominated, elected me to be part of the NEA. So I was the National Endowment of the Arts council for like 12 years. It's a six year appointment. But the further administration is Democratic or Republican. Didn't replace me. I think maybe it's hard to replace America's patriot, but. Yeah, but finally when it got to the Biden administration, he was like, he just kind of waved his hand and we all went away. But, but thanks to President Trump, I'm back in Washington D.C. now at the Kennedy center and, and proudly to serve at one of the premier places in the United States for performance. I'm so excited to be there.
- [16:55]
Lee Greenwood
Well, we are honored that you were here today. We're honored that you do what you do. And I just want to say thank you. I think on behalf of almost all Americans, we appreciate you.
- [17:04]
Unknown Host
Well, we love what you do and I'll enjoy performing tonight for this, this group who embraces freedom like we should.
- [17:12]
Lee Greenwood
That's right. And that I think that is the key. We're here at the Job Creators Network Summit. It has been an amazing day. Great people. Lee Greenwood, thank you so much for being on the podcast and you're so welcome.
- [17:23]
Tutor Dixon
And thank you all for listening to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. For this episode and others. Go to tutordixonpodcast.com, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we'll see you next time.
- [17:40]
Colby Ekowitz
We've all done it. You see a headline but don't have time to read the whole story or there's so much news you're not sure what is worth your time. I'm Colby Ekowitz, co host of Post Reports, the weekday afternoon podcast from the Washington Post. Post Reports brings you what's relevant and revealing. Breaking stories, politics, wellness, culture. Each episode goes beyond a headline for the context you need. Find Post Reports now wherever you're listening.
- [18:10]
Unknown Advertiser
Online education is convenient, but sometimes it can be lonely. Sometimes the extra help you need can only come from some someone else at American Public University. They make online education personalized, affordable and memorable. With 24. 7 mental health support available in multiple languages, access to career coaches who are industry professionals and lifelong career services, you'll never feel alone on your path to success. Apu Digital by nature, human by design. Learn more at apu Apus.
- [18:42]
Rodney Williams
Edu Travis I'm Rodney Williams.
- [18:44]
Travis Holloway
And I'm Travis Holloway. Welcome to the Wealth Break podcast, a real conversation about finance.
- [18:51]
Rodney Williams
Let's be honest, building wealth doesn't look the same for everyone.
- [18:55]
Tutor Dixon
I feel like sometimes being broke is a cycle and that we might have.
- [18:58]
Travis Holloway
To revisit that and we're not stopping at success stories.
- [19:02]
Unknown Advertiser
What happens when it doesn't go right?
- [19:04]
Christina Quinn
How do you cope with it?
- [19:05]
Rodney Williams
Because wealth isn't just about money. It's about creating a life where you thrive and help others do the same.
- [19:12]
Travis Holloway
Listen to the Wealth Break podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
- [19:17]
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