June 17, 2024 • 20 mins
In this conversation, Karol interviews John Ondrasik, from the band Five for Fighting. They discuss John's outspoken support for Israel and his motivation to use his platform to address moral issues. They also talk about John's experiences performing in Israel during a missile attack and his career as a singer-songwriter. They touch on the cultural problems of tribalism, media bias, and apathy, and the importance of speaking up and taking action. The Karol Markowicz Show is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Monday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
Hello from London, where I'm traveling with my daughter. No
monologue today, but I'm so excited for you to listen
to my interview with John and Rasik from Five for
Fighting coming up next. Welcome back to the Carol Markowitz
Show on iHeartRadio. My guest today is John Andrasick, also
(00:26):
known as five for Fighting.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hi, John, thanks so much for coming on.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Hey, Carol, nice to be with you. Big fan of.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Yours, Oh, I'm a big fan of yours. I've actually
always been a big fan of your music one hundred
years has made me cry many times in my car.
But I've gotten to know you since you've been outspoken
on Israel, and so I have to ask. You're not Jewish,
why why would you.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Take such a chance with your career? Why would you
open yourself up to such a tax?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
You can easily take the other side and get praise
and acclaim and you know, wealth beyond your wildest imagination.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Why why did you do this?
Speaker 5 (01:07):
You know, I understand why you asked that question, because
very few were doing that. But it makes me in
a sense angry because I would assume everybody would be
doing this. You know, people say thanks for doing this
and wow, and I'm like, I'm just doing what any
person I believe of conscious would be doing.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
And it's really frustrating that there are so few.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
Like I wrote a song about Afghanistan because we abandoned
our allies and twenty million women.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Were thrown into the dark ages.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
I wrote a song about Ukraine and you know the
evil that is putin and so October seventh. If that's
not evil, I don't know what is. So to me,
these are moral messages. It's not about Jewish, it's not
about politics. It's just kind of what we're facing in
this world, these kind of evil actors that in my
(02:02):
mind are all connected.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
So I feel I have a platform. I have some songs.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
I wrote a song about October seventh, and I'm just
kind of in my mind doing what what, What's.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
The right thing to do?
Speaker 5 (02:15):
And whatever backlash comes to me, I'm on the backside
of my career.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Would you doing this thirty years ago?
Speaker 5 (02:22):
So not?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
You're so not, That's the whole thing. You're so not
on the backside.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
If you were, if you were like eighty five years old,
I'd be like, well, he's done so whatever, but you're not.
And so that's really the thing. You're actually you actually
are taking a risk. And like I mean, obviously I
love it, and I think that you're amazing and I'm
so proud to know you. But it's just it's not
something that everybody will do, and it's not something that
(02:48):
you know a lot of people are doing.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Actually, very very very few people are doing that, you know.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
I think after Superman became a song for the heroes
of nine to eleven and I started working with our
troops and I see heroic people doing heroic things. Perhaps
my kind of feeling about backlash is different than others,
you know, when you meet with hostage families in Israel,
(03:17):
when you work with als patients.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Right.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
I wrote a song once called can One Man Say
Not Sorry? A song called the Last Great American, and
it was really about John McCain and his kind of
decision when he was a prisoner of war when they
came to get him and said, no, take somebody else,
because they were here first. And I've always thought about
people like that, you know, doing the right thing under
(03:43):
severe consequences, you know, so somebody doesn't buy a ticket,
or I don't get invited to a party, or somebody
doesn't want to, you know, play my song at the
end of the day, that just seems so trivial to
these other people. So you know, again, I think, you know,
whatever backlash is coming my way is just is so
(04:05):
meaningless in the big scheme of things. And i'd also
see how it matters. You know, I got thousands of
emails from Israel. We still are trying to evacuate fifteen
girls from Pakistan, Afghan girls. You know, I talked to
my Ukraine pals all the time, So you know, my
life has been so blessed by meeting these amazing people.
(04:27):
So whenever backlash comes in music, I was never invited
to those parties anyways, Carol.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
I've always going to miss bitjoy.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
I've never really fit in that world, and maybe that's
because I have a different worldview than most artists you know,
who typically are on the left.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Well, you're invited to all of my parties. You can
come anytime we want, South Florida. We really do it
up over here, and you would be very welcome.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Be careful what you wish for.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Good.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
So you were actually in Israel and you performed in
Tel Aviv the night of the Iran attack.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
What was that like? Were you scared?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yes, I don't know how you wouldn't be.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
I went over initially to meet with some troops, which
I did, and meet with some of the hostage families
and just kind of show some support. And the Friday
night before the Hostage Square rally, as you know, every Saturday,
there's a rally at Hostage Square, the hostage family speak,
thousands of people come, it's broadcast to the whole state
(05:33):
of visual They asked me to come sing Okay and Superman,
which I was honored to do.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
But it was so surreal. I mean, here's a good example.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
I've never had a show where the announcement before I
walk on stages an event of a missile attack, please
shelter and take cover and Carol. The thing that kind
of just blew my mind was nobody left. Not one
person was ready to like run to my hotel and
hide under my bed, and nobody left.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Understandably, Yeah, I think I would feel the same way, right.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
Well, and then it gets even more crazy, so I
perform incredibly meaningful surreal kind of reminded me of the
consert of New York, literally hostage families with their loved
ones picture ten feet in front of me, just and
I walked off and was hugging the hostage families and
the leader of the hostage forum said, hey, John, by
the way, you need to be in your hotel by eleven.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
They're closing the airspace. And it was like eight thirty.
And my first question was why not? Now, why don't
we just go?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Why don't we just call it a day?
Speaker 3 (06:40):
We run it, you know.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
And then I talked to some of my entourage there
who brought me there. Guys, we've got to go to
a hotel. I not, this is not hyperbole, they said,
but we have a dinner reservation.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
I'm like, what are you talking about. They're like weeks,
then three weeks to get this dinner reservation. And I go,
you guys are crazy.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
And then as you know, you know, two and a
half hours I ran launched the drones. So yeah, I
was scared. I had my son with me. My wife
did not want me to bring my son, so she
was crying. And Sun he's twenty four, so he was,
you know, he was he made his decision, but my
wife didn't want me to bring him, so of course,
you know, especially well, yeah, yeah when they when I
(07:23):
ran launched the ballistic missiles, everybody was on edge. But
you know, thank goodness for the iron dome. I mean, look,
I've been in Ukraine and I frankly felt much more
nervous than Ukraine because there's no iron dome.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
But yeah, I was scared, I think, you.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
Know, but the next day you wake up and you
would never known that there was a tech. Everybody's going
to work, everybody's on the beach. Israeli's are just a
different breed totally.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Yeah, absolutely, And you know that whole restaurant reservation thing,
like I want to be the kind of person who's like,
I have a restaurant reservation.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I cannot miss this, Like I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
I ran your your missiles are inconvenient.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
You know, I have to.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Go to the latest a yel Shawnee spot.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
And that's it. But I'm not.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
I'm not in Israeli and I feel like they have
some really good, tough toughness about them that I really appreciate.
Did you always want to be a singer songwriter? I did?
Speaker 5 (08:21):
I did. My mom started me at the piano at
two years old and I kind of grew up doing
musicals and at thirteen she let me quit taking piano
lessons and I started writing songs. And of course I
loved the singer songwriters from the seventies, but I also
loved the classic rock and Zeppelin and the Who, and
(08:41):
it was my childhood dream and it you know, I'm
one of those fifteen year overnight success stories.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
I didn't have success very late in my career, so,
you know, and it was all at once.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
Well, you know, you grind, you grind, you get a
record deal, the record company closes.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Everybody has these stories.
Speaker 5 (08:59):
But I was, you know, I was in my late
twenties when Superman came out, which is very rare, you know,
for music artists to kind of have a hit song
at that age. I know, it sounds very young to us.
To me, it sounds like maybe yeah, but in the industry,
it's very rare for someone in their late twenties early
thirties to start at least have a popular career.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
You know.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
As I said, I've been writing and working for since
I was a teenager. But and I also think that
gave me a little different perspective on success, you know,
because so many people had to go to the wall
for me.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
But but yeah, I've always wanted to do it.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
I still pinch myself when I hear my song at home,
depot or whatever.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
And yeah, that seems to be so exciting.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
It is, you know, even now, it's you know, you
don't take it for granted. And the fact that you know,
here we are twenty years after Superman, one hundred years
and now there's kids coming to my shows that weren't
even born when the songs.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Came out, So that's also very humbling.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
We're going to take a quick break and be right
back on the Carol Marcowitch Show.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
What would you be doing if it wasn't this? What
would be a Plan B for you?
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Well, I'm doing it. Actually.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
The other side of my life is a million miles
away from the music business. We have a family business
that's been in our family since the forties. It's called
Precision Wire Products, and our claim to fame as we
make the best shopping cart in the world and if
you shop at Costco, you use our cart.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
I like the Costco cart.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
Yes, that's that's our cart. And my dad's eighty five
and he still runs the business. My son works there,
and throughout my whole career I've worked at some capacity,
and of course at his age, I have a little
more involvement, and through COVID, I ran it. So I
have this weird kind of life where I may go
to a town. I may go to Florida and meet
(10:53):
with publics and talk about shopping carts and then be
playing you know, the plaza that night.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
So this is amazing.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
This is like the coolest story I've ever heard.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I really love that. Wow.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
You know, I'm going to suggest of publics that they
get your shopping cart because the Costco shopping.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Cart is legitimately a very good one.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
It's like a sturdy, sturdy cart.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
Well, my dad was an astrophysicist at JPL, and when
my grandfather passed away and he took over the business,
he kind of re engineered the shopping cart and also the.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Machines that make it.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
And the great thing about Precision Wire, especially when I
was having like you know, kind of a lot of success,
is you go in you see people working hard, starting
at minimum wage, growing with the company, becoming middle class,
putting their kids through Ivy Lee's schools, and you see
the American dream every day and people are sweating and
(11:48):
making things.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
You have to meet a payroll.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
So I think that also has really kind of, you know,
maybe provided me a different view than most songwriters. And
maybe that's why I have this kind of more centrist
kind of you know, to the kind of leaning right,
you know, worldview and some of my songs and some
of my kind of you know views.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Yeah, it really just comes across in your music that
you love the country and you you know, I feel
like that you're a happy person, and just it really
does resonate.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
And so do you feel like you've made it?
Speaker 4 (12:24):
You have this amazing career, you have this you know,
plan b job that's amazing. Clearly you have a really
nice family, Like do you feel like you've made it?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
I don't know, do you?
Speaker 4 (12:34):
I mean, I think we're always My answer changes all
the time.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
So, you know, look, as a songwriter, you always hope
that your your best work is ahead of you. As
an artist, you don't want to just kind of dwell
in the past. And it's been actually very kind of
rewarding the last few years to write these songs that
have had a significant impact without one spin on the radio, which.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Is very rare.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
So right. You know, I don't want to say I've
made it because that implies that I'm done. But I
also think I'm proud of what the songs have done
and the work we're doing.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
But it just gives us more momentum to do some
bigger things.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
You know, we have some bigger things planned to kind
of fight back artistically what's going on in Ukraine and Israel.
But yeah, I mean, if you'd have told me, you know,
when I was twenty four, that we'd be talking and
there's I have a couple of songs everybody knows that
would have been making it.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
So I guess in some ways I've made it. Yeah,
I love it.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
So a question that I ask all of my guests
is do you what do you consider our largest cultural problem?
Speaker 3 (13:47):
I'm interested in what your answer is.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Also changes all the time, you know, it depends when
you catch me.
Speaker 5 (13:55):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I think if you would have
asked me a year ago, I probably would have said,
like tribalism and kind of the bias in the media.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
You know.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
Uh, my old buddy Andrew Breitbart used to kind of
fight that and we talk about that all the time.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I loved Andrew. I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Oh yeah he was.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
He was not my best friend one of them, and
certainly I wish he was here. It'd be a different
world if you was. But I think that the bias
in the media has been so kind of, I think,
dysfunctional for democracy. But I think now kind of, especially
seeing what's happened in the last five six months or
(14:37):
since October seventh, and what's going on in the country,
I think kind of the apathy or maybe cowardice may
be a better word for the middle for the centrists
in America. You know, you see that I'm at MIT
and I'm playing tonight, right, so they'll be there'll be
some crazy kids who've been indoctrinated, and then on the
right you have some crazy people. But for people in
(14:58):
the middle who haven't stood up and haven't said this
is not the America we want, that kind of apathy
really scares me. You know, in the music business, nobody's
talking about is your October seventh And you're like, well,
they're all lefties. Well what about country music? You know
where all the country.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Music artists point, so really like point.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Yeah, So to me, I think I'm scared about you know,
they talk about the silent majority. But I always believe,
you know, if the silent majority is silent for too long,
they become the silent minority. And I'm worried we're trending
that way.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
You're absolutely right, So it's funny you ask, like what
mine is, and you know, I asked this question to everybody, so.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Mind changes from time to time.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
But recently, for the last maybe month or two, I've
been talking about how my my biggest cultural concern is bystanderism.
How people will see something bad happen and they'll film
it and they won't do anything about it, and it's
just it's gotten so bad. And the response to that
off and is, well, if you step in, you end
up like Daniel Penny, the guy, you know, the marine
(16:04):
in New York who.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Stopped this belligerent homeless guy. It accidentally killed him and
you know, look he's being prosecuted. And that's what happens
when you step in. But I think if we live
in a culture where nobody steps in, and you're absolutely right,
and it's it's really similar to what you're saying, which
is the silent people, the majority in the silent majority, after
a while, they get kind of pushed out if they
(16:26):
don't step in, if they don't speak up, and the
fringes win because they're louder, and they end up scaring
everybody into submission. We saw it during COVID and that
was the what what ended up happening throughout the country
in the.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Last four years.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
So I end up having the same position as you
on our cultural issues that if nobody speaks up and
nobody steps in, we're in real trouble.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
I could agree with you more.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
I think, you know, they like to talk about, you know,
courage is contagious, and you try, we're trying to do that,
but you know what else, Cowardice is contagious. Yeah, and
I think we're seeing a lot of that, not just
in the arts, but certainly in our politics. And you know,
you have many Jewish senators and congressmen who who frankly
(17:12):
won't stand up and and go against some of this
crazy stuff that's coming out of the White House. And
similarly with the artists, there's iconic Jewish artists, Jewish artists
grandparents who were Holocaust survivors.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Steven Spielberg.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Yeah, you know, you know, look Spielberg Schreis and you know,
Springsteen go down the.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
List and those Jewish No, he's not Jewish.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
No, but he should have written my song, you know
he he stands up for people, right, they're way better.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Well, again, this shouldn't be a Jewish issue.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
Look, Bono come came out and said something early on,
but since then he's been quiet.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Right.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
And if you know, if a couple of these iconic
people kind of came out and they don't have to
say I love Israel, they can say.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Of course, they could say free the hostages Hamas is bad?
Speaker 5 (18:03):
Is that is that something that you're you're you're gonna
worry about your career for? And so, yeah, I agree
with you, And there's there's little leadership. I think if
we had more leadership, certainly in our in our administration,
in the arts, we may we maybe wouldn't be here.
But yeah, but at the same time, you know, we
can whine and cry about it all day, and.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
We really can.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
Yeah, you're doing a great job kind of.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
And you're doing a great job, so you know, we
have to just keep going. We might not always get
the acclaim and the praise that you absolutely deserve, but
you just keep going and hope that it helps right, that's.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
All we can do. We push back in our ways,
and sometimes miracles happen. We work with people that we
that we kind of share the same view of and
and uh, and then look I saw with Superman, you know,
that little song that became something nobody could imagine. That
miracles can happen, and the arts can be a powerful
forth and changing the world. And we're on the right side.
(19:03):
So that also makes it like there's a certain joy.
We're not wearing masks, all right, we don't have to
hide who we are, so it's kind of like, Okay,
we're fighting the good fight, and maybe we're in the
fox hole.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I think that gives us energy.
Speaker 5 (19:17):
And I think tonight too, you know when I played
Mit and You're gonna have a thousand kids not wearing masks,
you know, celebrating being together, knowing we're on the right side.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
I think that provides a lot of energy too.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Absolutely, I have loved this conversation. John, You are so
the best, And here with your best tip for my
listeners on how they can be happy like you and
improve their lives.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
Well, many of my songs are posted notes to myself
one hundred years appreciate the moment, you know, And here's
what I'm not very good at, but I do think,
I do think it's something we can all think about.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
I think the key to happiness is being grateful for
what we have.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
It may not be perfect, our lives may not be
exactly what we want, and we may have serious hardships
and struggles. But you know, when you go to Ukraine
and you meet them, and when you talk to hostage
families and you meet work with als patients, you know,
most of us have no problems. We have problems, but
(20:21):
we have very problems. So if we're grateful, you know,
if we're grateful for what we do have and just
recognize that, then I think we'll all kind of have
a little better perspective and really be able to see,
you know, the joy that does exist in our lives.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
As a great thought to end this on, I love
that he is John and Rossik. He is fight for fighting.
Check out his work, go see his shows. He's just
a fantastic guy. Thank you so much for coming on, John.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Thank you, Carol, thank you so much for joining us
on the Carol Market which show.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
Hello from London, where I'm traveling with my daughter. No
monologue today, but I'm so excited for you to listen
to my interview with John and Rasik from Five for
Fighting coming up next. Welcome back to the Carol Markowitz
Show on iHeartRadio. My guest today is John Andrasick, also
(00:26):
known as five for Fighting.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hi, John, thanks so much for coming on.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Hey, Carol, nice to be with you. Big fan of.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Yours, Oh, I'm a big fan of yours. I've actually
always been a big fan of your music one hundred
years has made me cry many times in my car.
But I've gotten to know you since you've been outspoken
on Israel, and so I have to ask. You're not Jewish,
why why would you.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Take such a chance with your career? Why would you
open yourself up to such a tax?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
You can easily take the other side and get praise
and acclaim and you know, wealth beyond your wildest imagination.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Why why did you do this?
Speaker 5 (01:07):
You know, I understand why you asked that question, because
very few were doing that. But it makes me in
a sense angry because I would assume everybody would be
doing this. You know, people say thanks for doing this
and wow, and I'm like, I'm just doing what any
person I believe of conscious would be doing.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
And it's really frustrating that there are so few.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
Like I wrote a song about Afghanistan because we abandoned
our allies and twenty million women.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Were thrown into the dark ages.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
I wrote a song about Ukraine and you know the
evil that is putin and so October seventh. If that's
not evil, I don't know what is. So to me,
these are moral messages. It's not about Jewish, it's not
about politics. It's just kind of what we're facing in
this world, these kind of evil actors that in my
(02:02):
mind are all connected.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
So I feel I have a platform. I have some songs.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
I wrote a song about October seventh, and I'm just
kind of in my mind doing what what, What's.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
The right thing to do?
Speaker 5 (02:15):
And whatever backlash comes to me, I'm on the backside
of my career.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Would you doing this thirty years ago?
Speaker 5 (02:22):
So not?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
You're so not, That's the whole thing. You're so not
on the backside.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
If you were, if you were like eighty five years old,
I'd be like, well, he's done so whatever, but you're not.
And so that's really the thing. You're actually you actually
are taking a risk. And like I mean, obviously I
love it, and I think that you're amazing and I'm
so proud to know you. But it's just it's not
something that everybody will do, and it's not something that
(02:48):
you know a lot of people are doing.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Actually, very very very few people are doing that, you know.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
I think after Superman became a song for the heroes
of nine to eleven and I started working with our
troops and I see heroic people doing heroic things. Perhaps
my kind of feeling about backlash is different than others,
you know, when you meet with hostage families in Israel,
(03:17):
when you work with als patients.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Right.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
I wrote a song once called can One Man Say
Not Sorry? A song called the Last Great American, and
it was really about John McCain and his kind of
decision when he was a prisoner of war when they
came to get him and said, no, take somebody else,
because they were here first. And I've always thought about
people like that, you know, doing the right thing under
(03:43):
severe consequences, you know, so somebody doesn't buy a ticket,
or I don't get invited to a party, or somebody
doesn't want to, you know, play my song at the
end of the day, that just seems so trivial to
these other people. So you know, again, I think, you know,
whatever backlash is coming my way is just is so
(04:05):
meaningless in the big scheme of things. And i'd also
see how it matters. You know, I got thousands of
emails from Israel. We still are trying to evacuate fifteen
girls from Pakistan, Afghan girls. You know, I talked to
my Ukraine pals all the time, So you know, my
life has been so blessed by meeting these amazing people.
(04:27):
So whenever backlash comes in music, I was never invited
to those parties anyways, Carol.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
I've always going to miss bitjoy.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
I've never really fit in that world, and maybe that's
because I have a different worldview than most artists you know,
who typically are on the left.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Well, you're invited to all of my parties. You can
come anytime we want, South Florida. We really do it
up over here, and you would be very welcome.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Be careful what you wish for.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Good.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
So you were actually in Israel and you performed in
Tel Aviv the night of the Iran attack.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
What was that like? Were you scared?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yes, I don't know how you wouldn't be.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
I went over initially to meet with some troops, which
I did, and meet with some of the hostage families
and just kind of show some support. And the Friday
night before the Hostage Square rally, as you know, every Saturday,
there's a rally at Hostage Square, the hostage family speak,
thousands of people come, it's broadcast to the whole state
(05:33):
of visual They asked me to come sing Okay and Superman,
which I was honored to do.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
But it was so surreal. I mean, here's a good example.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
I've never had a show where the announcement before I
walk on stages an event of a missile attack, please
shelter and take cover and Carol. The thing that kind
of just blew my mind was nobody left. Not one
person was ready to like run to my hotel and
hide under my bed, and nobody left.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Understandably, Yeah, I think I would feel the same way, right.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
Well, and then it gets even more crazy, so I
perform incredibly meaningful surreal kind of reminded me of the
consert of New York, literally hostage families with their loved
ones picture ten feet in front of me, just and
I walked off and was hugging the hostage families and
the leader of the hostage forum said, hey, John, by
the way, you need to be in your hotel by eleven.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
They're closing the airspace. And it was like eight thirty.
And my first question was why not? Now, why don't
we just go?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Why don't we just call it a day?
Speaker 3 (06:40):
We run it, you know.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
And then I talked to some of my entourage there
who brought me there. Guys, we've got to go to
a hotel. I not, this is not hyperbole, they said,
but we have a dinner reservation.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
I'm like, what are you talking about. They're like weeks,
then three weeks to get this dinner reservation. And I go,
you guys are crazy.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
And then as you know, you know, two and a
half hours I ran launched the drones. So yeah, I
was scared. I had my son with me. My wife
did not want me to bring my son, so she
was crying. And Sun he's twenty four, so he was,
you know, he was he made his decision, but my
wife didn't want me to bring him, so of course,
you know, especially well, yeah, yeah when they when I
(07:23):
ran launched the ballistic missiles, everybody was on edge. But
you know, thank goodness for the iron dome. I mean, look,
I've been in Ukraine and I frankly felt much more
nervous than Ukraine because there's no iron dome.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
But yeah, I was scared, I think, you.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
Know, but the next day you wake up and you
would never known that there was a tech. Everybody's going
to work, everybody's on the beach. Israeli's are just a
different breed totally.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Yeah, absolutely, And you know that whole restaurant reservation thing,
like I want to be the kind of person who's like,
I have a restaurant reservation.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I cannot miss this, Like I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
I ran your your missiles are inconvenient.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
You know, I have to.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Go to the latest a yel Shawnee spot.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
And that's it. But I'm not.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
I'm not in Israeli and I feel like they have
some really good, tough toughness about them that I really appreciate.
Did you always want to be a singer songwriter? I did?
Speaker 5 (08:21):
I did. My mom started me at the piano at
two years old and I kind of grew up doing
musicals and at thirteen she let me quit taking piano
lessons and I started writing songs. And of course I
loved the singer songwriters from the seventies, but I also
loved the classic rock and Zeppelin and the Who, and
(08:41):
it was my childhood dream and it you know, I'm
one of those fifteen year overnight success stories.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
I didn't have success very late in my career, so,
you know, and it was all at once.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
Well, you know, you grind, you grind, you get a
record deal, the record company closes.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Everybody has these stories.
Speaker 5 (08:59):
But I was, you know, I was in my late
twenties when Superman came out, which is very rare, you know,
for music artists to kind of have a hit song
at that age. I know, it sounds very young to us.
To me, it sounds like maybe yeah, but in the industry,
it's very rare for someone in their late twenties early
thirties to start at least have a popular career.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
You know.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
As I said, I've been writing and working for since
I was a teenager. But and I also think that
gave me a little different perspective on success, you know,
because so many people had to go to the wall
for me.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
But but yeah, I've always wanted to do it.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
I still pinch myself when I hear my song at home,
depot or whatever.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
And yeah, that seems to be so exciting.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
It is, you know, even now, it's you know, you
don't take it for granted. And the fact that you know,
here we are twenty years after Superman, one hundred years
and now there's kids coming to my shows that weren't
even born when the songs.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Came out, So that's also very humbling.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
We're going to take a quick break and be right
back on the Carol Marcowitch Show.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
What would you be doing if it wasn't this? What
would be a Plan B for you?
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Well, I'm doing it. Actually.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
The other side of my life is a million miles
away from the music business. We have a family business
that's been in our family since the forties. It's called
Precision Wire Products, and our claim to fame as we
make the best shopping cart in the world and if
you shop at Costco, you use our cart.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
I like the Costco cart.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
Yes, that's that's our cart. And my dad's eighty five
and he still runs the business. My son works there,
and throughout my whole career I've worked at some capacity,
and of course at his age, I have a little
more involvement, and through COVID, I ran it. So I
have this weird kind of life where I may go
to a town. I may go to Florida and meet
(10:53):
with publics and talk about shopping carts and then be
playing you know, the plaza that night.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
So this is amazing.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
This is like the coolest story I've ever heard.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I really love that. Wow.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
You know, I'm going to suggest of publics that they
get your shopping cart because the Costco shopping.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Cart is legitimately a very good one.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
It's like a sturdy, sturdy cart.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
Well, my dad was an astrophysicist at JPL, and when
my grandfather passed away and he took over the business,
he kind of re engineered the shopping cart and also the.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Machines that make it.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
And the great thing about Precision Wire, especially when I
was having like you know, kind of a lot of success,
is you go in you see people working hard, starting
at minimum wage, growing with the company, becoming middle class,
putting their kids through Ivy Lee's schools, and you see
the American dream every day and people are sweating and
(11:48):
making things.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
You have to meet a payroll.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
So I think that also has really kind of, you know,
maybe provided me a different view than most songwriters. And
maybe that's why I have this kind of more centrist
kind of you know, to the kind of leaning right,
you know, worldview and some of my songs and some
of my kind of you know views.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Yeah, it really just comes across in your music that
you love the country and you you know, I feel
like that you're a happy person, and just it really
does resonate.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
And so do you feel like you've made it?
Speaker 4 (12:24):
You have this amazing career, you have this you know,
plan b job that's amazing. Clearly you have a really
nice family, Like do you feel like you've made it?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
I don't know, do you?
Speaker 4 (12:34):
I mean, I think we're always My answer changes all
the time.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
So, you know, look, as a songwriter, you always hope
that your your best work is ahead of you. As
an artist, you don't want to just kind of dwell
in the past. And it's been actually very kind of
rewarding the last few years to write these songs that
have had a significant impact without one spin on the radio, which.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Is very rare.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
So right. You know, I don't want to say I've
made it because that implies that I'm done. But I
also think I'm proud of what the songs have done
and the work we're doing.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
But it just gives us more momentum to do some
bigger things.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
You know, we have some bigger things planned to kind
of fight back artistically what's going on in Ukraine and Israel.
But yeah, I mean, if you'd have told me, you know,
when I was twenty four, that we'd be talking and
there's I have a couple of songs everybody knows that
would have been making it.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
So I guess in some ways I've made it. Yeah,
I love it.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
So a question that I ask all of my guests
is do you what do you consider our largest cultural problem?
Speaker 3 (13:47):
I'm interested in what your answer is.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Also changes all the time, you know, it depends when
you catch me.
Speaker 5 (13:55):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I think if you would have
asked me a year ago, I probably would have said,
like tribalism and kind of the bias in the media.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
You know.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
Uh, my old buddy Andrew Breitbart used to kind of
fight that and we talk about that all the time.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I loved Andrew. I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Oh yeah he was.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
He was not my best friend one of them, and
certainly I wish he was here. It'd be a different
world if you was. But I think that the bias
in the media has been so kind of, I think,
dysfunctional for democracy. But I think now kind of, especially
seeing what's happened in the last five six months or
(14:37):
since October seventh, and what's going on in the country,
I think kind of the apathy or maybe cowardice may
be a better word for the middle for the centrists
in America. You know, you see that I'm at MIT
and I'm playing tonight, right, so they'll be there'll be
some crazy kids who've been indoctrinated, and then on the
right you have some crazy people. But for people in
(14:58):
the middle who haven't stood up and haven't said this
is not the America we want, that kind of apathy
really scares me. You know, in the music business, nobody's
talking about is your October seventh And you're like, well,
they're all lefties. Well what about country music? You know
where all the country.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Music artists point, so really like point.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Yeah, So to me, I think I'm scared about you know,
they talk about the silent majority. But I always believe,
you know, if the silent majority is silent for too long,
they become the silent minority. And I'm worried we're trending
that way.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
You're absolutely right, So it's funny you ask, like what
mine is, and you know, I asked this question to everybody, so.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Mind changes from time to time.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
But recently, for the last maybe month or two, I've
been talking about how my my biggest cultural concern is bystanderism.
How people will see something bad happen and they'll film
it and they won't do anything about it, and it's
just it's gotten so bad. And the response to that
off and is, well, if you step in, you end
up like Daniel Penny, the guy, you know, the marine
(16:04):
in New York who.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Stopped this belligerent homeless guy. It accidentally killed him and
you know, look he's being prosecuted. And that's what happens
when you step in. But I think if we live
in a culture where nobody steps in, and you're absolutely right,
and it's it's really similar to what you're saying, which
is the silent people, the majority in the silent majority, after
a while, they get kind of pushed out if they
(16:26):
don't step in, if they don't speak up, and the
fringes win because they're louder, and they end up scaring
everybody into submission. We saw it during COVID and that
was the what what ended up happening throughout the country
in the.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Last four years.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
So I end up having the same position as you
on our cultural issues that if nobody speaks up and
nobody steps in, we're in real trouble.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
I could agree with you more.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
I think, you know, they like to talk about, you know,
courage is contagious, and you try, we're trying to do that,
but you know what else, Cowardice is contagious. Yeah, and
I think we're seeing a lot of that, not just
in the arts, but certainly in our politics. And you know,
you have many Jewish senators and congressmen who who frankly
(17:12):
won't stand up and and go against some of this
crazy stuff that's coming out of the White House. And
similarly with the artists, there's iconic Jewish artists, Jewish artists
grandparents who were Holocaust survivors.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Steven Spielberg.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Yeah, you know, you know, look Spielberg Schreis and you know,
Springsteen go down the.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
List and those Jewish No, he's not Jewish.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
No, but he should have written my song, you know
he he stands up for people, right, they're way better.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Well, again, this shouldn't be a Jewish issue.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
Look, Bono come came out and said something early on,
but since then he's been quiet.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Right.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
And if you know, if a couple of these iconic
people kind of came out and they don't have to
say I love Israel, they can say.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Of course, they could say free the hostages Hamas is bad?
Speaker 5 (18:03):
Is that is that something that you're you're you're gonna
worry about your career for? And so, yeah, I agree
with you, And there's there's little leadership. I think if
we had more leadership, certainly in our in our administration,
in the arts, we may we maybe wouldn't be here.
But yeah, but at the same time, you know, we
can whine and cry about it all day, and.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
We really can.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
Yeah, you're doing a great job kind of.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
And you're doing a great job, so you know, we
have to just keep going. We might not always get
the acclaim and the praise that you absolutely deserve, but
you just keep going and hope that it helps right, that's.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
All we can do. We push back in our ways,
and sometimes miracles happen. We work with people that we
that we kind of share the same view of and
and uh, and then look I saw with Superman, you know,
that little song that became something nobody could imagine. That
miracles can happen, and the arts can be a powerful
forth and changing the world. And we're on the right side.
(19:03):
So that also makes it like there's a certain joy.
We're not wearing masks, all right, we don't have to
hide who we are, so it's kind of like, Okay,
we're fighting the good fight, and maybe we're in the
fox hole.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I think that gives us energy.
Speaker 5 (19:17):
And I think tonight too, you know when I played
Mit and You're gonna have a thousand kids not wearing masks,
you know, celebrating being together, knowing we're on the right side.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
I think that provides a lot of energy too.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Absolutely, I have loved this conversation. John, You are so
the best, And here with your best tip for my
listeners on how they can be happy like you and
improve their lives.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
Well, many of my songs are posted notes to myself
one hundred years appreciate the moment, you know, And here's
what I'm not very good at, but I do think,
I do think it's something we can all think about.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
I think the key to happiness is being grateful for
what we have.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
It may not be perfect, our lives may not be
exactly what we want, and we may have serious hardships
and struggles. But you know, when you go to Ukraine
and you meet them, and when you talk to hostage
families and you meet work with als patients, you know,
most of us have no problems. We have problems, but
(20:21):
we have very problems. So if we're grateful, you know,
if we're grateful for what we do have and just
recognize that, then I think we'll all kind of have
a little better perspective and really be able to see,
you know, the joy that does exist in our lives.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
As a great thought to end this on, I love
that he is John and Rossik. He is fight for fighting.
Check out his work, go see his shows. He's just
a fantastic guy. Thank you so much for coming on, John.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Thank you, Carol, thank you so much for joining us
on the Carol Market which show.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Karol Markowicz
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