Show Notes
America will officially celebrate its 250th anniversary this July 4, and the On Background podcast welcomes singer-songwriter John Ondrasik, better known as “Five For Fighting.” who will be performing a special version of one of his biggest hits from aboard an aircraft carrier in New York Harbor.
“We’re going to take a little break this week from investigative journalism to deal with one of my other passions, which is patriotism, love for my country,” says host Susan Crabtree in introducing this special episode.
John Ondrasik made it big under his stage name of “Five For Fighting,” including with his post-9/11 hit “Superman.” He has revamped the song’s lyrics to honor Alon Ohel, 24, an avid pianist who was snatched from the Nova music festival in Israel at the start of the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023. Ohel will personally join Ondrasik aboard the USS Nimitz in New York to perform the song as part of Fleet Week during America’s Sesquicentennial celebrations. And Ondrasik is excited.
“It’ll be going on for five days,” Ondrasik tells co-host Eric Eggers of the Government Accountability Institute. “I think fifty countries are participating in Fleet Week.”
How did he become part of the show?
“Our ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, knows my passion for our troops and our sailors,” Ondrasik tells the hosts. “He was aware of my song Superman (It’s Not Easy) that recognized the heroes of 9/11. So, they reached out to me, and I said, ‘Of course! It’d be the honor of a lifetime to do it.’”
He tells the hosts the performance was originally going to be on a smaller US Navy ship, the USS Kearsarge, but “we decided to do it on the Nimitz because it allows me to bring up New York firefighters, 9/11 heroes, and Gold Star families.”
“I’m bringing along Ohel, who was a hostage in Gaza for over seven hundred days. He’s an incredible piano player, and I think this recognizes him and his fortitude. He would not be alive were it not for the United States, and this president,” Ondrasik says.
“This will also be a powerful statement that will make our Jewish friends pretty happy,” he adds. “So, we’re very excited about it. I’m going to sing ‘God Bless America’ at the end. There’ll be flyovers, and pageantry. I’m incredibly honored to do it.”
Susan Crabtree has been a fan for many years. “John has been one of my musical heroes because his career has spanned many of the touchstones of my life,” she says, mentioning not just “Superman” after 9/11 but Ondrasik’s song about the US abandoning Afghanistan, called “Blood On Our Hands.”
“He was not afraid to confront that issue with this song,” Crabtree says.
“After October 7th, I wrote a song called “Okay,” which basically said, ‘We’re not okay with the collapse of so many moral institutions around the world — our media, our college campuses, raging anti-Semitism,” Ondrasik says. “And that song became very significant to Jewish people and Israeli folks around the world.” While Alon Ohel was still in captivity, Ondrasik performed the song in Israel at a shrine called “Hostage Square,” honoring the victims of Hamas’s savage attack.
“I’m not Jewish myself,” Ondrasik says. “But you don’t have to be Jewish to condemn Hamas. You just have to be sane.”
He will be joining the crew of the Nimitz in New York Harbor and will spend the night onboard after playing a small concert for the ship’s crew. Worried about possible rain and weather the following morning, he and his band decided to stay on the ship the night before. “I may be regretting it, because it’s going to be a hundred degrees and I’ll be sleeping on a cot,” he jokes.
Ondrasik is simply a patriot. And his love for the US troops who sent him emails saying how much his songs meant to them inspired him to express it even more. “So, I started going out with the USO. Gary Sinise and I have been buddies for twenty years. So, working with Gary and his foundation and then starting to write songs about our troops and their experience,” Ondrasik says.
He knows many pop artists won’t do this, even though he hears from other musicians who thank him for doing it.
“The only way to get to our kids that have been indoctrinated by this dogma is through the arts,” he tells the hosts. “That’s how you get to TikTok. That’s how you get to Instagram. So, the arts has to be a part of this culture war.”
