April 5, 2024 • 36 mins
The Rock says he regrets endorsing Biden, will keep his politics private. Schools around country have day off for the eclipse. Country music legend Lee Greenwood joins Clay and Buck to discuss the uproar over his collaboration with President Trump on his "God Bless the USA" bibles, his love for America and his storied career. Lara Travis questions for eclipse guy, Producer Greg.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to today's edition of The Clay Travis and Buck
Sexton Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Friday Edition Clay and but Third Hour. I cannot believe
how the time is flying. I actually do feel like
this week went by rather quickly. Already into April, we're
going to be in the absolute peaked of election mania
here in just a matter of a few months. It's
going to get crazy out there where Honored, you're going
to be taking this journey with us as we figure
(00:27):
out what the future of the country is going to be.
We've got some updates on the I think it safe
to say still rather minor earthquake in the New York
City area. Although New Yorkers, it's just like everything else.
When your area is used to something, you are psychologically
prepared for it, right, or rather when it's a regular occurrence,
(00:50):
a little bit right. Meaning the perfect example is everyone
I know in South Florida says when it comes to
like hurricanes, they know, they pp they get it. They
you know, they're ready for it. If the temperature drops
below sixty degrees, they completely freak out. You know, they
have no idea how to handle it. And New York
isn't isn't used to earthquakes at all. I think in California,
(01:13):
clay a four point seven or whatever this is barely
gets a mention or a notice. Two things.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
One, you're right about whatever strange weather condition occurs, people
can flip out.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
In the South.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
It doesn't take very much snow at all, and the
entire region loses its mind. Second part that I think
is also true New York and the media that covers
New York is uniquely obsessed with New York.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So anytime there.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Is a sneeze, it gets treated as if it's pneumonia
in New York. And I'll give you example. You probably
remember this. Remember when the power went out in New
York City and the media covered it like it was
the Titanic going down. I mean, if you were in
any other rest of the country, the fact that the
power was out in New York was the number one
(02:00):
story anywhere. If the power had gone out in Cleveland,
nobody would have even noticed. We had a flood that
took over half of downtown Nashville about twenty years ago.
Nobody even knew the flood happened. If anything happens to
New York, the meat there's so many media members there
everybody is on top of it in a way that
doesn't occur in much of the rest of the nation.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Well, that's also why weather on the East Coast and
particularly in the Ascella Corridor was always a national news
story because it's going to affect how New York Times
writers are able to travel over the weekend. You know,
that's a big deal. So, yes, that is true about
the focus. But back to the election cycle and where
we're heading. Wasn't it expecting to see this getting a
lot of attention today or can see this at all?
(02:44):
Dwayne the Rock Johnson was on Fox this morning. We
all know the Rock. I think is he the highest
paid actor in the world per movie now or he's
something close to that, right.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
I'm going this weekend to see him buck. He's come
back to WWE. I think he was taught to our
friend Will Caine because I saw this clip and I
think you're to what you're referring was from that interview.
He is wrestling. I don't know what percentage of our
audience knows anything about wrestling. He is wrestling Roman Reigns
in what my wife would say is the most attractive
(03:16):
wrestling match in the history of mankind. So for women
out there, the Rock and Roman reigns, i'm told are
incredibly good looking, and they are engaged in a wrestling
match on Saturday that we will be attending. Laura might
not come back with me so that she may stay
in Philadelphia and hang out with those incredibly good looking men.
But that is what he's doing all this prep for.
(03:38):
I don't believe he's been in a WrestleMania like a decade.
That's where he initially got famous. But to your point,
I think he's the highest paid actor in Hollywood basically
now maybe maybe Tom Cruise. Yeah, he's in at like
a thirty to forty million point that's on the back
end of the film, kind of range that people, very
few people ever make it to. But here he is
(04:00):
saying that he regrets endorsing. This was on Will Kane
with Will Kane. Yeah, Will's an old buddy of ours.
Will asked about this the Rocks.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Is he regrets endorsing Joe Biden, And well, let's hear
what he says Play twenty one.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
The endorsement that I made years ago with Biden was
one I thought was the best decision for me at
that time. Am I going to do that again this year.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
That answers No, I'm.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Not going to do that because what I realized, what
that caused back then was something that tears me up
in my guts, which is division. And that got me.
Not that I'm afraid of it at all, but it's
just I realized that this level of influence. I'm gonna
keep my politics to myself and I think it's between
me and the ballot box. But I will tell you this, well,
(04:50):
like a lot of us out there not trusting of
all politicians, I do trust the American people and I
trust that whoever they vote for, that's going to be
my president, and that's who I'm going to support one
hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I don't think that's a bad answer. I think that
is the answer that almost every politician, every major celebrity
in the world of sports and entertainment would have given
in the eighties, the nineties, the two thousands. That's the
Michael Jordan answer, that's the Tiger Woods answer, that's the
Rock answer.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I'll just point this out.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Men are going to vote overwhelmingly for Donald Trump. It
may be nationwide men buck, it may be men plus
twenty five or thirty I mean, we're talking about sixty
forty sixty five. Thirty five is in play for men
who are going to vote for Donald Trump. I think
a lot of athletes got seduced by social media. I
(05:43):
actually saw I give him credit, Kevin Hart.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Did you see this as amazing quote?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
He was talking about how when he got involved in
BLM that people on social media were calling him a
black king and he's a comedian. He's like, nobody he's
five to four or whatever he is. He's like, nobody's
ever called me a king of anything. He's like, I
got kind of all caught up in it. He was like,
I went to the George Floyd funeral and he said
he was dressed like Carlton from The Fresh Prince and
(06:11):
he said, and again this is comedically, but he's talking
about He's like, that's not my lane. There are people
who are social justice warriors and they want to be
focused on politics and they want to bring change. It's like,
I just want to tell jokes and entertain people. And
I thought his revelation that he got seduced by the
response that he got on social media.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I think a lot of guys.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Lebron the Rock, I think a lot of them look
and pay attention to social media, and then they realize
it's not the real world. I don't know what the
math for Lincoln Financial Field would be on WrestleMania Saturday
and Sunday. Like I said, I'm going to be there
with my kids and my wife. I bet it would
be a very pro Trump audience, fucking the same way.
(06:55):
You know, every time Trump walks into an arena in
the UFC, the entire place on its feet, chanting USA, USA.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
And cheering Trump.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Sports fans I think do not respond well to Joe Biden,
and they certainly don't respond to the idea. Do you
see Letitia James up in New York we're talking about
the earthquake. I mean, I still think this is kind
of a political earthquake. They're suing Nasau County to ensure
that men who identify as women can compete in women's athletics.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Did you see that? La?
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I was like, what is going on in the world.
If you're just a random sports fan guy out there,
I don't think you ever anticipated that your daughters would
be competing against men and that you would be getting
called a transphobe if you didn't And this comes back
to me. There are a lot of people who are
legacy Democrat voters. I grew up a voting Democrat. I've
(07:46):
talked about this on the show. A lot of people
stay committed to the team even when the team doesn't
represent what they believe anymore.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
When did you first realize that Democrat was not the
way to be? What was like woul Do you remember
like a first time.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Yeah, like you read had a real life of Jesus moment.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah. Yeah, I've talked about this a little bit.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I don't know that I've done it on the show.
It was actually a sports story. University of Missouri had
a hunger strike that they were doing because they said
there was racism on campus. Do you remember the story
like there was like Amazoo, remember, yeah, at Missoo And
I knew that story well because I was covering college football.
(08:26):
I knew that campus well. I knew a lot of
people there. And you can criticize, you know, the University
of Missouri probably for many different things. Missoo's not a
racist place. It's a very welcoming, its fabulous school, I think.
But everybody suddenly in sports media. I think this was
like twenty fourteen. This was pre Trump. Everybody in sports
(08:48):
media just accepted that Missoo was a horribly racist place
and even was saying, oh, it's so brave. The football
team Bucks said they weren't going to play based on
this alleged racism on campus, and I.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Just said, okay.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
First of all, there were like three instances. Somebody yelled
the N word somewhere allegedly not a student. Somebody drew
a poop swastika, if you remember, nobody knew who did it,
and somebody else had like scroll the racial slur somewhere
in a bathroom, and they were protesting, they were having
campus sit ins, they took over the quad and I
actually did the research and wrote about it and I said,
(09:26):
this is all bs and it was. That's one of
the first times. It's two things that was identity politics
in sports, where it was like, oh, the sport doesn't matter.
Oh these poor black athletes, how dare they have to
go to the University of Missouri on scholarship?
Speaker 2 (09:41):
And I didn't stand. I was like, this is not right.
The other one was.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
When ESPN gave Caitlyn Jenner the SPI and I know
Caitlyn Jenner now I'm not judging Caitlyn Jenner as an
awful person, but the idea that that was a heroic
and courageous thing to decide to change your gender, and
that it was worthy of every athlete standing and cheering.
I those were two moments where I just started to say, Hey,
(10:05):
the world is like discordant and this is a record
scratch moment for me.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
So it was gender and race politics that actually were
the thing that first got you moving in the in
the other direction. And yeah, I've said before when I
was I mean, I was in high school and I
was just sort of thinking about the formation of my politics,
and I think it was a sophomore and there were
just discussions going on about how basically, and you know,
(10:29):
this was that I was considered a very elite school.
You know, if you even had a prayer of getting
into an IVY League school, for example, or something like
an IVY League school from my high school and you
were a white or Asian student, you I mean, it
was like fifteen hundred and up or else you're wasting
your time. Yeah, and then there were black and Latino
(10:51):
students in my class, and they were a couple of
hundred points lower and already the college guidance discussion was
like do you want to go to hert Yale? And
I remember sitting there saying like, they're they're they're like
some of these kids are literally Vietnamese immigrants, like their
parents came here from Vietnam and their parents speak no
English and they have no money, and their kids just
(11:13):
worked incredibly hard and now they get the scholarship to
this high school, but they're being told that they have
to get two hundred points more than some kid who's
you know, who's uh, you know, mom and dad are
both working professionals, but happened to be Puerto Rican or whatever.
And now you know, that was when I was like,
there's something wrong here, and people would tell me, oh no,
there's a history of I'm like no, no, no, no, no,
this is not and you know, I was like fifteen,
(11:34):
but still it was. I could see it then. So yeah,
affirmative action in college admissions was when I first realized,
hold on a second, there's a problem here with what
Because I grew up in New York City, man, everybody
was a Democrat. Everybody was a Democrat.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Yeah, you know, and I wrote right about some of
this in American Playbook, and you you know, see and
other people see so notch. People attack me, you know,
they're like, oh, you voted for this. I'm not trying
to hide anything that I've done in my past. But
it's why I think I'm optimist.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Think because switched parties three times, by the way, as
a as a politician, I think it was three times. Definitely.
That's yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Well, certainly Reagan did, right, I mean, and Trump, you
could argue pretty clearly was for much of his life.
I think he said publicly. I mean again, he's like
you New York City guy. I mean, I think he
kind of just engaged in the political landscape that was
around him. But my point on that is, I'm actually confident,
and maybe I shouldn't be, but I but I am
confident that if you make the right case, the American
(12:30):
people are persuadable. And so for me, I'm always thinking
there are a lot of people like me, guys and
girls out there who may have grown up and just
kind of gravitated towards the Democrat Party for a variety
of reasons. But now they look at it and they
say that the Democrat Party of the of the eighties
and the nineties and even the early two thousands is
not anything at all like what it is today. And
(12:52):
I think Elon Musk has shared that meme, which I
think is so well done. I'm not sure who created
it the first time, but it's the guy who's a
little bit left of center and he's like, hey, this
was me and you know, two thousand and four and
then he hasn't moved at all, and the Democrat Party
has gone so far left wing. And for me, identity,
politics and sports are connected and I don't feel like
(13:13):
I've changed at all. But now I'm like a right
wing zealot. That's how people would describe you in the
world of sports, and I think I'm just a normal
same person.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah, I mean different stuff. But Churchill was initially a
Conservative in Parliament and then became a Liberal and then
became a conservative again. So there you go. Pretty good dude.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
By the way, history if you had to point to
somebody who was right about the biggest issue in the
history of his life, and he's like a transformative impact
on it.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
He's like the Davy Crockett of Britain who that's well said.
That is very well said, Thank you, sir. That's what
I'm here for. L we'll take some of your calls
from your VP emails and also Lee Green would coming
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an appointment with the truth.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Tune in every day to the Clay Travis and buck
Sexton Show. Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show.
Lee Greenwood is going to join us here in just
a couple of minutes at the bottom of the hour
to talk about his incredible music, but also the controversy
surrounding the Bible that Trump has been involved with Lee Greenwood.
(15:45):
That should be fun. Speaking of fun, I can't believe
this is happening. In addition to producer Greg taking off
Monday for the upcoming eclipse. Tons of schools are shut
all over the country for the eclipse. I mean when
I was a kid. First of all, we went outside
and like held paper plate.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
I'm not kidding.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
I'm not saying Tennessee was the apex of scientific knowledge
at the time.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Buck.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
But what I remember is we all got paper plates
in the nineteen eighties and we went outside with them,
with the idea being that somehow the paper plates were
gonna protect us from going blind. I don't remember exactly,
we certainly were in school and we each made like
did you We made paper plates and walked outside with
the paper plates to protect ourselves from going blind but
(16:35):
also be able to watch the I think the idea was,
you're supposed to see the reflection on the plate.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
I don't even remember. I just I don't like looking
at the sun. I don't understand the I don't get it, man,
I just don't get it. I'm a wet blanket on
this issue. I do not understand why it's so exciting
to see this. So I'll look at a photo of
it and say, Okay, that's what it looks like. Thank
you for that. I'm very protective. You know, I don't
(16:59):
you wear headphones you're radio. Some of you again are
VIPs at clean buck dot comutice. I only wear a
single ear earpiece because I do not want over time
my left I feel like if my right ear I
start to go deaf because of all the noise in
it from all the radio from all these decades. I'm
hopefully going to be doing radio. At least my left
(17:19):
ear will be fine. You're already playing the long game there.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
It's not uncommon for people in radio because we wear
red headsets for like three hours. I try to protect
myself by putting it like halfway on. I had no
idea if that has any impact at all. Also, don't
ever change the audio. So I'm hopeful that my hearing
will not get really bad, which is a lot of
radio guys do have major hearing issues, and I think
it's connected to this. By the way, Greg, just so
(17:44):
you know, you're not leaving early today, right, take a
long weekend in addition to the eclipse on Monday. All right,
Laura Travis listening had questions that she wants me to
grill you on about your eclipse day off. So at
the end of the show. We will do that, but
first Lee Greenwood coming up next. And I also want
to tell you maybe you're looking for something fun today.
(18:06):
Maybe you don't have Monday off like producer Greg, and
you're trying to make sure that you have fun during
the course of the weekend. We have got a really
fun movie for you. It's called Civil War. You can
go check it out. It's about a really kind of
fascinating question that feels as if it is right in
the midst of so many questions that are out there
right now. What would happen if suddenly we had a
(18:27):
modern day civil war that was taking place. The movie's
gonna come out on April twelve. Go check it out
on Imax if you can. I went and saw the
New Ghostbusters with the Travis family on the Imax theater.
New Ghostbusters just okay, but the Imax theater experience was fantastic.
I'm gonna go check out Civil War maybe next weekend.
When it comes out April twelfth. It's going to be good.
(18:51):
Kirsten Dunce, Jesse Plemon's great cast What would happen in
a modern day Civil War? Check it out in theaters
April twelfth.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Names I'd work for on my life, Lee Green, what
everybody joins us now country music star and he wants
to talk to us about his God Bless the USA
partnership with Trump. Lee, honored to have you on the program. Sir,
How did you come up with this idea and how
did it get started here where you have these God
(19:20):
Blessed the USA Bibles in partnership with the one and
only Donald J. Trump.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Thanks very much, guys, and nice to talk to you.
We've actually been promoting the God bless the USA Bible
for three years and it sort of just came to
me after I had sang in New York for a
lot of immigrants who had became American citizens. They asked
if they could use my song, which I sang for
ten different presidents in the Immigration film, and so a
(19:50):
new citizen who comes in this country. They're fifteen hundred
of those swearing in ceremonies a year in the United
States to bring legal immigrants into the country. And after
I started talking to some of them about America's history,
and they were very quick to tell me that they
knew a lot about America because they had to study
it for seven years before become a citizen and I said, well,
(20:12):
then are you a Christian? And I said, about seventy
percent of them are. And so what's wrong then with
putting documents of our founded fathers with a Bible? And
we started that three years ago. Now my association with
the president, of course, you know that he comes on
stage and uses my song as his entrance song, and
I've sang for him several times. I am not afraid
(20:33):
to tell you I'm a Christian and a conservative, so
in that regard, his entrance to the market selling the
Bible is actually not in a partnership with me, but
with the company that sells the Bible.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
We're talking to Lee Greenwood. I'm a big fan.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I want to ask you about some of your performances,
but I want to mention this one in particular because
I'm curious if people still bring it up to you.
My dad is a huge University of Tennessee fan, and
I am as well. He was at the Sugar Bowl
nineteen eighty six when Tennessee played Miami, and you came
out and saying I believe at halftime during that game,
(21:11):
and obviously from the Hills of Tennessee is one of
the lines in your song. I'm curious if people still
ask you about that. That's been almost forty years ago now,
and that particular performance. And as the second part of that,
what performance to you and or performances when you look
back on your career do you consider to be the
most iconic, the most impressive, the most from your perspective, enjoyable,
(21:36):
of all the many thousands that you've done.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Wow, that's a great question, and I will tell you,
first of all, we yes, we are fans of ut Gobalds.
My wife actually was in the system at Chattanooga University
of Tennessee there and I've sang more times with the
University of Tennessee Proud of the southlamd fan than anyone else,
like fourteen times. That particular performance at the Sugar Bowl
(22:00):
I remember like yesterday, and we didn't win the national
champion that year, a championship that year, but we did
beat Miami thirty five to seven, and I sang at
the halftime. That was probably the first time I'd ever
sang God Bless the usay in a stadium at a
football game. Now, when we moved forward and talk about
those moving moments, we've done like fourteen USO tours. I
(22:22):
can remember seeing on the US's Knimics touring with Bob
Hope and singing for the military all over the world.
There have been places where I can't even tell you
where we sang for the military, and it was a
very moving moment. But I will say this, right after
the terrorist attack in America and they of course brought
down the trade towers and then the plane went down
in Pennsylvania with some wonderful brave Americans, and then they
(22:46):
also ran a plane into the Pentagon, which a lot
of people don't even know about or remember. I sang
at Yankee Stadium for the Fireman's Memorial. There were three
hundred and thirty firemen that died, and it was Bette Midler,
myself and Mark Anthony who were the performers there at
at Yankee Stadium. That was a moving moment. And then
we sang for the Policeman's Memorial at Carnegie Hall, coordinated
(23:08):
by then Police Chief Bernard Currig, who is still a
friend of mine, and there would over one hundred cops
that were killed as well. Then let's move to the
fourth game of the World Series. Now that was more
important because it had such a wide audience. One of
the things Terris wanted to do was to stop our
way of life. And the first thing we wanted to
do was say, you will not stop us from having
sports events. It's the what we entertain ourselves with. It's good,
(23:31):
healthy entertainment, and the competition between cities and teams is
something we all look forward to. So I wore the red,
white and blue jacket, and you can google that find
it on YouTube. But the only time I ever wore
that jacket for a live performance. It is retired and
will probably go to the Hall of Fame or the
Science Museum. But I wore the colors of America because
(23:52):
I wanted to make sure the world knew that me,
particularly who wrote God Bless the USA, wanted to let
the worst so the world no, we would get up
off our knees and we will sing for American pride.
And that that's why we're that jacket at depthtick for
your time.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
We're speaking of Lee Greenwood country music superstar right now.
And Lee, obviously your song has gotten this this new
act to this new phase, if you will. God Blessed
the USA because Trump uses it and so it is
very much associated in the minds of a lot of us,
uh these days with Trump and the America First movement,
(24:29):
that that he is the center, the center of and
at the forefront of I'm wondering if you just tell us,
how did you come up with this originally? What spurred
you on to write it? What was what was in
your mind? I mean, how did you decide I'm just
going to write a truly patriotic anthem that would stand
the test of time for decades.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
It's yeah, you know, it's a long ride. I was
raised in California on a farm. My father joined the
Navy right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and I
mean right after, like days after. We were living in
Los Angeles at the time, so I was born in
La Hospital. My mother divorced my father because he was
in the Navy for four years and Merchant Marine for
(25:09):
two years. I did not even know Hi until I
was almost twenty and that's not why I wrote the song.
But let me just say my way of life, being
raised on a farm by my grandparents was something very special.
I spent twenty more years before I had the opportunity
to find an audience for my career, and I spent
those twenty years in Nevada alongside many great entertainers, one
(25:33):
of whom was Elvis. Presley worked in the same hotel
as I did. That was the Hilton in those days,
now the Westgate Resort, and I always watched Elvis's show
when I had a moment, and he would sing the Trilogy,
which was the ended with the battle him of the Republic. Now,
Elvis was very reverent. He probably could have been a preacher.
And if you ask TG Shepherd, he will tell you
(25:53):
he's one of the TCB recipients of that necklace taking
care of business that Elvis ged to those people who
were close to him. And when I heard him sing
that song, I said, if I ever get my own career,
I want to close my show with the Trilogy, just
like Elvis did. So fast forward I get my career.
We explode on the scene as a writer, singer, musician
(26:15):
and a touring artist and we did every doghouse, outhouse
and roundhouse for three years, and after the release of
three or four albums that put us on the charts
consistently for five years, I wrote God bless usay just
because I'm in my bus one night leaving a concert
and I'd seen some military people, some Marines who had
presented the flag that night and the nasal anthem, and
(26:38):
I'm like, you know what, maybe it's time instead of
doing someone else's song, I write my own song. And
I went ahead and did it, and I wrote the closer.
I took it home to my producer, Jerry Crutchfield. It
was hard to do any demos because we were on
the road so very much, so I made the demo
win my bus. I had my own recording studio in
the bus, and he looked at me. He said, Lee,
(26:59):
I don't know that this is a good idea, but
if you want to do that, we'll put it on
the album. The album was called You've Got a Good
Love Coming. It was a nineteen eighty five released for summer.
When I took the album to Universal in Los Angeles,
it was Irving Azof, who ran Universal in all of
MCA Records and Movie Division, who actually made the call
(27:21):
to have God Bless the USA released as a single
that year in nineteen eighty five. Had they not done that,
I don't believe anyone would ever have heard it. It
would have been buried in the album You Got a
Good Love Coming would have been a hit, because we
had a video we filmed in the London train station
with a couple of a couple of people who made
cameo appearances. But Lo and Behold made the song on
(27:43):
radio and the only mistake they made was it peaked
before July fourth and nineteen eighty five because they released
it a little too soon. So you know, there's the
story of it.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Lee. How many presidents have you had the good fortune
to meet in your career?
Speaker 2 (27:59):
I bet the answer is a bunch of them.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
And how would you assess Trump, who I think it's
fair to say you want to see back in the
White House in twenty twenty four, compared to the other
presidents that you've had the good fortune to meet over
the years.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Let's wind back when I was sixteen. I was a
drum major from my high school marching band in Sacramento, California,
when at that time Vice President Nixon made a visit
to Sacramento and I'm standing next to the airplane when
he stepped off the aircraft and shook hands with me.
That was the first dignitary I had ever met. I
(28:35):
then helped Ronald Reagan for his gluminatorial campaign in California,
and I was still a struggling musician. After I moved
to Tennessee, I get my career, and then USA begins
to be known as Ronald Reagan's song in his movie.
And then I met Vice President Bush at the time
(28:56):
with a White House performance forty one. Became my very
close friend, and I still admire him and Barbara and
the way that they conducted their lives. Don't forget he
was a Navy flyer. He was a hero in the war,
was rescued by a submarine. He was the head of
the CIA, and he was very smart. And I believe
(29:18):
when those two, Reagan and Bush were together in the
White House, Reagan learned that Bush was smart. Bush learned
that Reagan knew how to entertain an audience. And I
think that's what was this was so unique about it,
all right, So Reagan gets out of office, Bush becomes president,
and we opened the Ronald Reagan Library in Shiney Valley, California.
(29:40):
Johnny Grant, the mayor of Hollywood, knows that I was
a favorite of Ronald Reagan's. He wants me to sing
in front of five presidents, and I will name them
for you. It was Nixon, Carter, Ford, Bush, and Reagan,
all their wives and Lady Birt Johnson, whose husband had
already been deceased. So I sang in front of those five.
Forward another ten years, we have hurricane relief at Texas
(30:03):
A and M and I sing again for five presidents
in this particultar instance, I've emceed the event as well,
and I'm singing for Presidents Obama, Clinton, Carter, and both
Bush presidents all sitting in.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
The front row.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
And I have that picture on my website if you
want to go look at it Lee Gringwood dot com
showing my wife and I standing behind the five presidents
who all post for pictures with the entire cast. But
it's really interesting that when you are around a president
and secret Service gets a handle on you and they
understand who you are a visual contact, then it's not
(30:38):
so strict. But at first, of course, you have to
clear all of the senses, you have to go through
all the identification procedures. Once that's done, you're just kind
of a member of the family backstage. And I've had
so many experiences and we could talk a lot about
that as we go along with all of the presidents.
Of course, you know. I was in the National Downment
of the Arts Council, appointed by President forty three, and
(31:01):
I'm now a trustee of the Kennedy Center appointed by
President Trump.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Lee Greenwood country music superstar of God Bless the USA,
Fame and so many other songs. Lee Greenwood dot com.
Go check out what he's up to there. Lee, thank
you for being with us. Appreciate you.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
You're welcome very much. God Bless the USA. Bible dot Com.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
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Speaker 1 (33:12):
Twenty four a weekly podcast from Clay and Buck covering
all things election.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Episodes drops Sundays at noon Eastern.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Find it on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts. Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
We want to thank.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
All of you for the incredible support you've shown Crockett Coffee.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
We launched it on Tuesday.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
We're going to do over fifty thousand dollars in sales.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
That's you, guys. You haven't done an ad anywhere else.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
That's just asking you guys to go check out Crocketcoffee
dot com general premise here. If you love America as
Lee Greenwood does, and if you love American history, then
you should be drinking Crocket coffee every morning. I'm drinking
it right now. If you're among the OutKick and the
Clay and Buck VIPs who are watching this right now,
we appreciate all of you. And you can see that's
(34:03):
a coffee mug which will be up soon. All right,
Producer Greg. For those of you who don't know taking
off Monday, may call in. I told my wife she
was listening. She had two questions for you. These are
Laura Travis questions for producer Greg. Do you own She
wasn't sure whether she had more or less respect for you,
(34:25):
So question number one, do you own a telescope?
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Yes? I do? Okay. She says that is a.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Sign that you are actually a interested in astronomy and
not just pretending. So that's a plus from her perspective.
Second question she has, what if it's cloudy you are
taking a day off. What if you can't see the
heavens at all and it is a super cloudy day,
don't you feel like you just wasted a vacation day.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
No, well, it depends where we are going.
Speaker 5 (34:57):
Certainly there are there's a chance of clouds cause we're
right on Lake Ontario, but slightly if you drive slightly
north or northeast, we should be clear of the clouds.
So you need to be mobile. That's part of the
that's a key.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
But I mean the clouds would destroy the entire purpose
of eclipse.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Right.
Speaker 5 (35:16):
Rain and the clouds that we've had the last few
days here. If that were happening now, it would be
a washout. Yes, well, let's.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Not get our eclipse watcher friends anxious here, Clay, I
think it's gonna be fine. You know, the sun is
very big, as is the moon, and you'll probably be
able to see it up in the sky with the
silly glasses. So we are hopeful for all of you
out there who are going to watch this. I'm wearing
the silly glasses right now. Are you wearing the silly glasses?
Speaker 4 (35:41):
Now?
Speaker 2 (35:41):
I've got them. I mean, I don't think we're going
to go outside.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Jesse Kelly, who many of you will listen to later
in the day, had a fabulous tweet.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
You can go vote.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
By the way, producer Greg, you are winning fifty two
to forty eight. So this is again we don't know
what the three AM ballots are are going to decide
they're gonna be on. But Jesse Kelly has the best
response on so far. What kind of hippie operation are
you boys running over there? My guys aren't even allowed
to look out the window. So we are incredibly generous bosses,
(36:11):
I guess buck in Matt context there, here we.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Go and you know a great thing is for whether
you're gonna watch the clips or not, you drink yourself
some delicious Crocket coffee from Crocketcoffee dot Com. And that
means that you'll be even more focused, more energetics, more
ready to go about your whole day. I'm gonna have
a nice mellow weekend. Oh wow, he's holding up some
of those sunglasses. Hope you all do the same. We're
(36:35):
excited to be with you on Monday. The word spread
the word about Crockett Coffee. If you would please tell
friends and family. We've got to keep it going, keep
the momentum. And yes, Monday is Eclips Day. We shall see.
Hopefully it is not the last day that we all
have on earth. Who knows. I'm going to WrestleMania. Hope
it's fun.
Welcome to today's edition of The Clay Travis and Buck
Sexton Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Friday Edition Clay and but Third Hour. I cannot believe
how the time is flying. I actually do feel like
this week went by rather quickly. Already into April, we're
going to be in the absolute peaked of election mania
here in just a matter of a few months. It's
going to get crazy out there where Honored, you're going
to be taking this journey with us as we figure
(00:27):
out what the future of the country is going to be.
We've got some updates on the I think it safe
to say still rather minor earthquake in the New York
City area. Although New Yorkers, it's just like everything else.
When your area is used to something, you are psychologically
prepared for it, right, or rather when it's a regular occurrence,
(00:50):
a little bit right. Meaning the perfect example is everyone
I know in South Florida says when it comes to
like hurricanes, they know, they pp they get it. They
you know, they're ready for it. If the temperature drops
below sixty degrees, they completely freak out. You know, they
have no idea how to handle it. And New York
isn't isn't used to earthquakes at all. I think in California,
(01:13):
clay a four point seven or whatever this is barely
gets a mention or a notice. Two things.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
One, you're right about whatever strange weather condition occurs, people
can flip out.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
In the South.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
It doesn't take very much snow at all, and the
entire region loses its mind. Second part that I think
is also true New York and the media that covers
New York is uniquely obsessed with New York.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So anytime there.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Is a sneeze, it gets treated as if it's pneumonia
in New York. And I'll give you example. You probably
remember this. Remember when the power went out in New
York City and the media covered it like it was
the Titanic going down. I mean, if you were in
any other rest of the country, the fact that the
power was out in New York was the number one
(02:00):
story anywhere. If the power had gone out in Cleveland,
nobody would have even noticed. We had a flood that
took over half of downtown Nashville about twenty years ago.
Nobody even knew the flood happened. If anything happens to
New York, the meat there's so many media members there
everybody is on top of it in a way that
doesn't occur in much of the rest of the nation.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Well, that's also why weather on the East Coast and
particularly in the Ascella Corridor was always a national news
story because it's going to affect how New York Times
writers are able to travel over the weekend. You know,
that's a big deal. So, yes, that is true about
the focus. But back to the election cycle and where
we're heading. Wasn't it expecting to see this getting a
lot of attention today or can see this at all?
(02:44):
Dwayne the Rock Johnson was on Fox this morning. We
all know the Rock. I think is he the highest
paid actor in the world per movie now or he's
something close to that, right.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
I'm going this weekend to see him buck. He's come
back to WWE. I think he was taught to our
friend Will Caine because I saw this clip and I
think you're to what you're referring was from that interview.
He is wrestling. I don't know what percentage of our
audience knows anything about wrestling. He is wrestling Roman Reigns
in what my wife would say is the most attractive
(03:16):
wrestling match in the history of mankind. So for women
out there, the Rock and Roman reigns, i'm told are
incredibly good looking, and they are engaged in a wrestling
match on Saturday that we will be attending. Laura might
not come back with me so that she may stay
in Philadelphia and hang out with those incredibly good looking men.
But that is what he's doing all this prep for.
(03:38):
I don't believe he's been in a WrestleMania like a decade.
That's where he initially got famous. But to your point,
I think he's the highest paid actor in Hollywood basically
now maybe maybe Tom Cruise. Yeah, he's in at like
a thirty to forty million point that's on the back
end of the film, kind of range that people, very
few people ever make it to. But here he is
(04:00):
saying that he regrets endorsing. This was on Will Kane
with Will Kane. Yeah, Will's an old buddy of ours.
Will asked about this the Rocks.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Is he regrets endorsing Joe Biden, And well, let's hear
what he says Play twenty one.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
The endorsement that I made years ago with Biden was
one I thought was the best decision for me at
that time. Am I going to do that again this year.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
That answers No, I'm.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Not going to do that because what I realized, what
that caused back then was something that tears me up
in my guts, which is division. And that got me.
Not that I'm afraid of it at all, but it's
just I realized that this level of influence. I'm gonna
keep my politics to myself and I think it's between
me and the ballot box. But I will tell you this, well,
(04:50):
like a lot of us out there not trusting of
all politicians, I do trust the American people and I
trust that whoever they vote for, that's going to be
my president, and that's who I'm going to support one
hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I don't think that's a bad answer. I think that
is the answer that almost every politician, every major celebrity
in the world of sports and entertainment would have given
in the eighties, the nineties, the two thousands. That's the
Michael Jordan answer, that's the Tiger Woods answer, that's the
Rock answer.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I'll just point this out.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Men are going to vote overwhelmingly for Donald Trump. It
may be nationwide men buck, it may be men plus
twenty five or thirty I mean, we're talking about sixty
forty sixty five. Thirty five is in play for men
who are going to vote for Donald Trump. I think
a lot of athletes got seduced by social media. I
(05:43):
actually saw I give him credit, Kevin Hart.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Did you see this as amazing quote?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
He was talking about how when he got involved in
BLM that people on social media were calling him a
black king and he's a comedian. He's like, nobody he's
five to four or whatever he is. He's like, nobody's
ever called me a king of anything. He's like, I
got kind of all caught up in it. He was like,
I went to the George Floyd funeral and he said
he was dressed like Carlton from The Fresh Prince and
(06:11):
he said, and again this is comedically, but he's talking
about He's like, that's not my lane. There are people
who are social justice warriors and they want to be
focused on politics and they want to bring change. It's like,
I just want to tell jokes and entertain people. And
I thought his revelation that he got seduced by the
response that he got on social media.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I think a lot of guys.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Lebron the Rock, I think a lot of them look
and pay attention to social media, and then they realize
it's not the real world. I don't know what the
math for Lincoln Financial Field would be on WrestleMania Saturday
and Sunday. Like I said, I'm going to be there
with my kids and my wife. I bet it would
be a very pro Trump audience, fucking the same way.
(06:55):
You know, every time Trump walks into an arena in
the UFC, the entire place on its feet, chanting USA, USA.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
And cheering Trump.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Sports fans I think do not respond well to Joe Biden,
and they certainly don't respond to the idea. Do you
see Letitia James up in New York we're talking about
the earthquake. I mean, I still think this is kind
of a political earthquake. They're suing Nasau County to ensure
that men who identify as women can compete in women's athletics.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Did you see that? La?
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I was like, what is going on in the world.
If you're just a random sports fan guy out there,
I don't think you ever anticipated that your daughters would
be competing against men and that you would be getting
called a transphobe if you didn't And this comes back
to me. There are a lot of people who are
legacy Democrat voters. I grew up a voting Democrat. I've
(07:46):
talked about this on the show. A lot of people
stay committed to the team even when the team doesn't
represent what they believe anymore.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
When did you first realize that Democrat was not the
way to be? What was like woul Do you remember
like a first time.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Yeah, like you read had a real life of Jesus moment.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah. Yeah, I've talked about this a little bit.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I don't know that I've done it on the show.
It was actually a sports story. University of Missouri had
a hunger strike that they were doing because they said
there was racism on campus. Do you remember the story
like there was like Amazoo, remember, yeah, at Missoo And
I knew that story well because I was covering college football.
(08:26):
I knew that campus well. I knew a lot of
people there. And you can criticize, you know, the University
of Missouri probably for many different things. Missoo's not a
racist place. It's a very welcoming, its fabulous school, I think.
But everybody suddenly in sports media. I think this was
like twenty fourteen. This was pre Trump. Everybody in sports
(08:48):
media just accepted that Missoo was a horribly racist place
and even was saying, oh, it's so brave. The football
team Bucks said they weren't going to play based on
this alleged racism on campus, and I.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Just said, okay.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
First of all, there were like three instances. Somebody yelled
the N word somewhere allegedly not a student. Somebody drew
a poop swastika, if you remember, nobody knew who did it,
and somebody else had like scroll the racial slur somewhere
in a bathroom, and they were protesting, they were having
campus sit ins, they took over the quad and I
actually did the research and wrote about it and I said,
(09:26):
this is all bs and it was. That's one of
the first times. It's two things that was identity politics
in sports, where it was like, oh, the sport doesn't matter.
Oh these poor black athletes, how dare they have to
go to the University of Missouri on scholarship?
Speaker 2 (09:41):
And I didn't stand. I was like, this is not right.
The other one was.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
When ESPN gave Caitlyn Jenner the SPI and I know
Caitlyn Jenner now I'm not judging Caitlyn Jenner as an
awful person, but the idea that that was a heroic
and courageous thing to decide to change your gender, and
that it was worthy of every athlete standing and cheering.
I those were two moments where I just started to say, Hey,
(10:05):
the world is like discordant and this is a record
scratch moment for me.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
So it was gender and race politics that actually were
the thing that first got you moving in the in
the other direction. And yeah, I've said before when I
was I mean, I was in high school and I
was just sort of thinking about the formation of my politics,
and I think it was a sophomore and there were
just discussions going on about how basically, and you know,
(10:29):
this was that I was considered a very elite school.
You know, if you even had a prayer of getting
into an IVY League school, for example, or something like
an IVY League school from my high school and you
were a white or Asian student, you I mean, it
was like fifteen hundred and up or else you're wasting
your time. Yeah, and then there were black and Latino
(10:51):
students in my class, and they were a couple of
hundred points lower and already the college guidance discussion was
like do you want to go to hert Yale? And
I remember sitting there saying like, they're they're they're like
some of these kids are literally Vietnamese immigrants, like their
parents came here from Vietnam and their parents speak no
English and they have no money, and their kids just
(11:13):
worked incredibly hard and now they get the scholarship to
this high school, but they're being told that they have
to get two hundred points more than some kid who's
you know, who's uh, you know, mom and dad are
both working professionals, but happened to be Puerto Rican or whatever.
And now you know, that was when I was like,
there's something wrong here, and people would tell me, oh no,
there's a history of I'm like no, no, no, no, no,
this is not and you know, I was like fifteen,
(11:34):
but still it was. I could see it then. So yeah,
affirmative action in college admissions was when I first realized,
hold on a second, there's a problem here with what
Because I grew up in New York City, man, everybody
was a Democrat. Everybody was a Democrat.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Yeah, you know, and I wrote right about some of
this in American Playbook, and you you know, see and
other people see so notch. People attack me, you know,
they're like, oh, you voted for this. I'm not trying
to hide anything that I've done in my past. But
it's why I think I'm optimist.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Think because switched parties three times, by the way, as
a as a politician, I think it was three times. Definitely.
That's yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Well, certainly Reagan did, right, I mean, and Trump, you
could argue pretty clearly was for much of his life.
I think he said publicly. I mean again, he's like
you New York City guy. I mean, I think he
kind of just engaged in the political landscape that was
around him. But my point on that is, I'm actually confident,
and maybe I shouldn't be, but I but I am
confident that if you make the right case, the American
(12:30):
people are persuadable. And so for me, I'm always thinking
there are a lot of people like me, guys and
girls out there who may have grown up and just
kind of gravitated towards the Democrat Party for a variety
of reasons. But now they look at it and they
say that the Democrat Party of the of the eighties
and the nineties and even the early two thousands is
not anything at all like what it is today. And
(12:52):
I think Elon Musk has shared that meme, which I
think is so well done. I'm not sure who created
it the first time, but it's the guy who's a
little bit left of center and he's like, hey, this
was me and you know, two thousand and four and
then he hasn't moved at all, and the Democrat Party
has gone so far left wing. And for me, identity,
politics and sports are connected and I don't feel like
(13:13):
I've changed at all. But now I'm like a right
wing zealot. That's how people would describe you in the
world of sports, and I think I'm just a normal
same person.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah, I mean different stuff. But Churchill was initially a
Conservative in Parliament and then became a Liberal and then
became a conservative again. So there you go. Pretty good dude.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
By the way, history if you had to point to
somebody who was right about the biggest issue in the
history of his life, and he's like a transformative impact
on it.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
He's like the Davy Crockett of Britain who that's well said.
That is very well said, Thank you, sir. That's what
I'm here for. L we'll take some of your calls
from your VP emails and also Lee Green would coming
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an appointment with the truth.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Tune in every day to the Clay Travis and buck
Sexton Show. Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show.
Lee Greenwood is going to join us here in just
a couple of minutes at the bottom of the hour
to talk about his incredible music, but also the controversy
surrounding the Bible that Trump has been involved with Lee Greenwood.
(15:45):
That should be fun. Speaking of fun, I can't believe
this is happening. In addition to producer Greg taking off
Monday for the upcoming eclipse. Tons of schools are shut
all over the country for the eclipse. I mean when
I was a kid. First of all, we went outside
and like held paper plate.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
I'm not kidding.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
I'm not saying Tennessee was the apex of scientific knowledge
at the time.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Buck.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
But what I remember is we all got paper plates
in the nineteen eighties and we went outside with them,
with the idea being that somehow the paper plates were
gonna protect us from going blind. I don't remember exactly,
we certainly were in school and we each made like
did you We made paper plates and walked outside with
the paper plates to protect ourselves from going blind but
(16:35):
also be able to watch the I think the idea was,
you're supposed to see the reflection on the plate.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
I don't even remember. I just I don't like looking
at the sun. I don't understand the I don't get it, man,
I just don't get it. I'm a wet blanket on
this issue. I do not understand why it's so exciting
to see this. So I'll look at a photo of
it and say, Okay, that's what it looks like. Thank
you for that. I'm very protective. You know, I don't
(16:59):
you wear headphones you're radio. Some of you again are
VIPs at clean buck dot comutice. I only wear a
single ear earpiece because I do not want over time
my left I feel like if my right ear I
start to go deaf because of all the noise in
it from all the radio from all these decades. I'm
hopefully going to be doing radio. At least my left
(17:19):
ear will be fine. You're already playing the long game there.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
It's not uncommon for people in radio because we wear
red headsets for like three hours. I try to protect
myself by putting it like halfway on. I had no
idea if that has any impact at all. Also, don't
ever change the audio. So I'm hopeful that my hearing
will not get really bad, which is a lot of
radio guys do have major hearing issues, and I think
it's connected to this. By the way, Greg, just so
(17:44):
you know, you're not leaving early today, right, take a
long weekend in addition to the eclipse on Monday. All right,
Laura Travis listening had questions that she wants me to
grill you on about your eclipse day off. So at
the end of the show. We will do that, but
first Lee Greenwood coming up next. And I also want
to tell you maybe you're looking for something fun today.
(18:06):
Maybe you don't have Monday off like producer Greg, and
you're trying to make sure that you have fun during
the course of the weekend. We have got a really
fun movie for you. It's called Civil War. You can
go check it out. It's about a really kind of
fascinating question that feels as if it is right in
the midst of so many questions that are out there
right now. What would happen if suddenly we had a
(18:27):
modern day civil war that was taking place. The movie's
gonna come out on April twelve. Go check it out
on Imax if you can. I went and saw the
New Ghostbusters with the Travis family on the Imax theater.
New Ghostbusters just okay, but the Imax theater experience was fantastic.
I'm gonna go check out Civil War maybe next weekend.
When it comes out April twelfth. It's going to be good.
(18:51):
Kirsten Dunce, Jesse Plemon's great cast What would happen in
a modern day Civil War? Check it out in theaters
April twelfth.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Names I'd work for on my life, Lee Green, what
everybody joins us now country music star and he wants
to talk to us about his God Bless the USA
partnership with Trump. Lee, honored to have you on the program. Sir,
How did you come up with this idea and how
did it get started here where you have these God
(19:20):
Blessed the USA Bibles in partnership with the one and
only Donald J. Trump.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Thanks very much, guys, and nice to talk to you.
We've actually been promoting the God bless the USA Bible
for three years and it sort of just came to
me after I had sang in New York for a
lot of immigrants who had became American citizens. They asked
if they could use my song, which I sang for
ten different presidents in the Immigration film, and so a
(19:50):
new citizen who comes in this country. They're fifteen hundred
of those swearing in ceremonies a year in the United
States to bring legal immigrants into the country. And after
I started talking to some of them about America's history,
and they were very quick to tell me that they
knew a lot about America because they had to study
it for seven years before become a citizen and I said, well,
(20:12):
then are you a Christian? And I said, about seventy
percent of them are. And so what's wrong then with
putting documents of our founded fathers with a Bible? And
we started that three years ago. Now my association with
the president, of course, you know that he comes on
stage and uses my song as his entrance song, and
I've sang for him several times. I am not afraid
(20:33):
to tell you I'm a Christian and a conservative, so
in that regard, his entrance to the market selling the
Bible is actually not in a partnership with me, but
with the company that sells the Bible.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
We're talking to Lee Greenwood. I'm a big fan.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I want to ask you about some of your performances,
but I want to mention this one in particular because
I'm curious if people still bring it up to you.
My dad is a huge University of Tennessee fan, and
I am as well. He was at the Sugar Bowl
nineteen eighty six when Tennessee played Miami, and you came
out and saying I believe at halftime during that game,
(21:11):
and obviously from the Hills of Tennessee is one of
the lines in your song. I'm curious if people still
ask you about that. That's been almost forty years ago now,
and that particular performance. And as the second part of that,
what performance to you and or performances when you look
back on your career do you consider to be the
most iconic, the most impressive, the most from your perspective, enjoyable,
(21:36):
of all the many thousands that you've done.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Wow, that's a great question, and I will tell you,
first of all, we yes, we are fans of ut Gobalds.
My wife actually was in the system at Chattanooga University
of Tennessee there and I've sang more times with the
University of Tennessee Proud of the southlamd fan than anyone else,
like fourteen times. That particular performance at the Sugar Bowl
(22:00):
I remember like yesterday, and we didn't win the national
champion that year, a championship that year, but we did
beat Miami thirty five to seven, and I sang at
the halftime. That was probably the first time I'd ever
sang God Bless the usay in a stadium at a
football game. Now, when we moved forward and talk about
those moving moments, we've done like fourteen USO tours. I
(22:22):
can remember seeing on the US's Knimics touring with Bob
Hope and singing for the military all over the world.
There have been places where I can't even tell you
where we sang for the military, and it was a
very moving moment. But I will say this, right after
the terrorist attack in America and they of course brought
down the trade towers and then the plane went down
in Pennsylvania with some wonderful brave Americans, and then they
(22:46):
also ran a plane into the Pentagon, which a lot
of people don't even know about or remember. I sang
at Yankee Stadium for the Fireman's Memorial. There were three
hundred and thirty firemen that died, and it was Bette Midler,
myself and Mark Anthony who were the performers there at
at Yankee Stadium. That was a moving moment. And then
we sang for the Policeman's Memorial at Carnegie Hall, coordinated
(23:08):
by then Police Chief Bernard Currig, who is still a
friend of mine, and there would over one hundred cops
that were killed as well. Then let's move to the
fourth game of the World Series. Now that was more
important because it had such a wide audience. One of
the things Terris wanted to do was to stop our
way of life. And the first thing we wanted to
do was say, you will not stop us from having
sports events. It's the what we entertain ourselves with. It's good,
(23:31):
healthy entertainment, and the competition between cities and teams is
something we all look forward to. So I wore the red,
white and blue jacket, and you can google that find
it on YouTube. But the only time I ever wore
that jacket for a live performance. It is retired and
will probably go to the Hall of Fame or the
Science Museum. But I wore the colors of America because
(23:52):
I wanted to make sure the world knew that me,
particularly who wrote God Bless the USA, wanted to let
the worst so the world no, we would get up
off our knees and we will sing for American pride.
And that that's why we're that jacket at depthtick for
your time.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
We're speaking of Lee Greenwood country music superstar right now.
And Lee, obviously your song has gotten this this new
act to this new phase, if you will. God Blessed
the USA because Trump uses it and so it is
very much associated in the minds of a lot of us,
uh these days with Trump and the America First movement,
(24:29):
that that he is the center, the center of and
at the forefront of I'm wondering if you just tell us,
how did you come up with this originally? What spurred
you on to write it? What was what was in
your mind? I mean, how did you decide I'm just
going to write a truly patriotic anthem that would stand
the test of time for decades.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
It's yeah, you know, it's a long ride. I was
raised in California on a farm. My father joined the
Navy right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and I
mean right after, like days after. We were living in
Los Angeles at the time, so I was born in
La Hospital. My mother divorced my father because he was
in the Navy for four years and Merchant Marine for
(25:09):
two years. I did not even know Hi until I
was almost twenty and that's not why I wrote the song.
But let me just say my way of life, being
raised on a farm by my grandparents was something very special.
I spent twenty more years before I had the opportunity
to find an audience for my career, and I spent
those twenty years in Nevada alongside many great entertainers, one
(25:33):
of whom was Elvis. Presley worked in the same hotel
as I did. That was the Hilton in those days,
now the Westgate Resort, and I always watched Elvis's show
when I had a moment, and he would sing the Trilogy,
which was the ended with the battle him of the Republic. Now,
Elvis was very reverent. He probably could have been a preacher.
And if you ask TG Shepherd, he will tell you
(25:53):
he's one of the TCB recipients of that necklace taking
care of business that Elvis ged to those people who
were close to him. And when I heard him sing
that song, I said, if I ever get my own career,
I want to close my show with the Trilogy, just
like Elvis did. So fast forward I get my career.
We explode on the scene as a writer, singer, musician
(26:15):
and a touring artist and we did every doghouse, outhouse
and roundhouse for three years, and after the release of
three or four albums that put us on the charts
consistently for five years, I wrote God bless usay just
because I'm in my bus one night leaving a concert
and I'd seen some military people, some Marines who had
presented the flag that night and the nasal anthem, and
(26:38):
I'm like, you know what, maybe it's time instead of
doing someone else's song, I write my own song. And
I went ahead and did it, and I wrote the closer.
I took it home to my producer, Jerry Crutchfield. It
was hard to do any demos because we were on
the road so very much, so I made the demo
win my bus. I had my own recording studio in
the bus, and he looked at me. He said, Lee,
(26:59):
I don't know that this is a good idea, but
if you want to do that, we'll put it on
the album. The album was called You've Got a Good
Love Coming. It was a nineteen eighty five released for summer.
When I took the album to Universal in Los Angeles,
it was Irving Azof, who ran Universal in all of
MCA Records and Movie Division, who actually made the call
(27:21):
to have God Bless the USA released as a single
that year in nineteen eighty five. Had they not done that,
I don't believe anyone would ever have heard it. It
would have been buried in the album You Got a
Good Love Coming would have been a hit, because we
had a video we filmed in the London train station
with a couple of a couple of people who made
cameo appearances. But Lo and Behold made the song on
(27:43):
radio and the only mistake they made was it peaked
before July fourth and nineteen eighty five because they released
it a little too soon. So you know, there's the
story of it.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Lee. How many presidents have you had the good fortune
to meet in your career?
Speaker 2 (27:59):
I bet the answer is a bunch of them.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
And how would you assess Trump, who I think it's
fair to say you want to see back in the
White House in twenty twenty four, compared to the other
presidents that you've had the good fortune to meet over
the years.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Let's wind back when I was sixteen. I was a
drum major from my high school marching band in Sacramento, California,
when at that time Vice President Nixon made a visit
to Sacramento and I'm standing next to the airplane when
he stepped off the aircraft and shook hands with me.
That was the first dignitary I had ever met. I
(28:35):
then helped Ronald Reagan for his gluminatorial campaign in California,
and I was still a struggling musician. After I moved
to Tennessee, I get my career, and then USA begins
to be known as Ronald Reagan's song in his movie.
And then I met Vice President Bush at the time
(28:56):
with a White House performance forty one. Became my very
close friend, and I still admire him and Barbara and
the way that they conducted their lives. Don't forget he
was a Navy flyer. He was a hero in the war,
was rescued by a submarine. He was the head of
the CIA, and he was very smart. And I believe
(29:18):
when those two, Reagan and Bush were together in the
White House, Reagan learned that Bush was smart. Bush learned
that Reagan knew how to entertain an audience. And I
think that's what was this was so unique about it,
all right, So Reagan gets out of office, Bush becomes president,
and we opened the Ronald Reagan Library in Shiney Valley, California.
(29:40):
Johnny Grant, the mayor of Hollywood, knows that I was
a favorite of Ronald Reagan's. He wants me to sing
in front of five presidents, and I will name them
for you. It was Nixon, Carter, Ford, Bush, and Reagan,
all their wives and Lady Birt Johnson, whose husband had
already been deceased. So I sang in front of those five.
Forward another ten years, we have hurricane relief at Texas
(30:03):
A and M and I sing again for five presidents
in this particultar instance, I've emceed the event as well,
and I'm singing for Presidents Obama, Clinton, Carter, and both
Bush presidents all sitting in.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
The front row.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
And I have that picture on my website if you
want to go look at it Lee Gringwood dot com
showing my wife and I standing behind the five presidents
who all post for pictures with the entire cast. But
it's really interesting that when you are around a president
and secret Service gets a handle on you and they
understand who you are a visual contact, then it's not
(30:38):
so strict. But at first, of course, you have to
clear all of the senses, you have to go through
all the identification procedures. Once that's done, you're just kind
of a member of the family backstage. And I've had
so many experiences and we could talk a lot about
that as we go along with all of the presidents.
Of course, you know. I was in the National Downment
of the Arts Council, appointed by President forty three, and
(31:01):
I'm now a trustee of the Kennedy Center appointed by
President Trump.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Lee Greenwood country music superstar of God Bless the USA,
Fame and so many other songs. Lee Greenwood dot com.
Go check out what he's up to there. Lee, thank
you for being with us. Appreciate you.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
You're welcome very much. God Bless the USA. Bible dot Com.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
There you go. You know, the newest sponsor in our program,
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(31:41):
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Speaker 1 (33:12):
Twenty four a weekly podcast from Clay and Buck covering
all things election.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Episodes drops Sundays at noon Eastern.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Find it on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts. Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
We want to thank.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
All of you for the incredible support you've shown Crockett Coffee.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
We launched it on Tuesday.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
We're going to do over fifty thousand dollars in sales.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
That's you, guys. You haven't done an ad anywhere else.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
That's just asking you guys to go check out Crocketcoffee
dot com general premise here. If you love America as
Lee Greenwood does, and if you love American history, then
you should be drinking Crocket coffee every morning. I'm drinking
it right now. If you're among the OutKick and the
Clay and Buck VIPs who are watching this right now,
we appreciate all of you. And you can see that's
(34:03):
a coffee mug which will be up soon. All right,
Producer Greg. For those of you who don't know taking
off Monday, may call in. I told my wife she
was listening. She had two questions for you. These are
Laura Travis questions for producer Greg. Do you own She
wasn't sure whether she had more or less respect for you,
(34:25):
So question number one, do you own a telescope?
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Yes? I do? Okay. She says that is a.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Sign that you are actually a interested in astronomy and
not just pretending. So that's a plus from her perspective.
Second question she has, what if it's cloudy you are
taking a day off. What if you can't see the
heavens at all and it is a super cloudy day,
don't you feel like you just wasted a vacation day.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
No, well, it depends where we are going.
Speaker 5 (34:57):
Certainly there are there's a chance of clouds cause we're
right on Lake Ontario, but slightly if you drive slightly
north or northeast, we should be clear of the clouds.
So you need to be mobile. That's part of the
that's a key.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
But I mean the clouds would destroy the entire purpose
of eclipse.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Right.
Speaker 5 (35:16):
Rain and the clouds that we've had the last few
days here. If that were happening now, it would be
a washout. Yes, well, let's.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Not get our eclipse watcher friends anxious here, Clay, I
think it's gonna be fine. You know, the sun is
very big, as is the moon, and you'll probably be
able to see it up in the sky with the
silly glasses. So we are hopeful for all of you
out there who are going to watch this. I'm wearing
the silly glasses right now. Are you wearing the silly glasses?
Speaker 4 (35:41):
Now?
Speaker 2 (35:41):
I've got them. I mean, I don't think we're going
to go outside.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Jesse Kelly, who many of you will listen to later
in the day, had a fabulous tweet.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
You can go vote.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
By the way, producer Greg, you are winning fifty two
to forty eight. So this is again we don't know
what the three AM ballots are are going to decide
they're gonna be on. But Jesse Kelly has the best
response on so far. What kind of hippie operation are
you boys running over there? My guys aren't even allowed
to look out the window. So we are incredibly generous bosses,
(36:11):
I guess buck in Matt context there, here we.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Go and you know a great thing is for whether
you're gonna watch the clips or not, you drink yourself
some delicious Crocket coffee from Crocketcoffee dot Com. And that
means that you'll be even more focused, more energetics, more
ready to go about your whole day. I'm gonna have
a nice mellow weekend. Oh wow, he's holding up some
of those sunglasses. Hope you all do the same. We're
(36:35):
excited to be with you on Monday. The word spread
the word about Crockett Coffee. If you would please tell
friends and family. We've got to keep it going, keep
the momentum. And yes, Monday is Eclips Day. We shall see.
Hopefully it is not the last day that we all
have on earth. Who knows. I'm going to WrestleMania. Hope
it's fun.
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