exclusive – Lee Greenwood and Sara Evans release new song with surprise songwriter late President Ronald Reagan in the credits.
Although Reagan was busy running for president of the United States in the 1970s and completing a term as governor of California, he still found time to co-write several patriotic songs with record producer Mike Curb, founder and chairman of Curb. record.
Curb said he met Reagan in 1974, his final year as governor, at an event for Junior Achievement, a charity that teaches students the concept of free enterprise. The two hit it off, and Reagan asked the composer if he wanted to help with his presidential campaign.
LEE GREENWOOD senses a resurgence of conservatism in America, saying ‘the pendulum has swung’.
Curb credits California’s brutal traffic jams for giving him and Reagan enough time to write songs together in the ’70s, starting with “Together, a New Beginning.”
“Back in the ‘70s, there was so much traffic in California that I would travel with them,” Curb told Fox News Digital. “And on several occasions we wrote songs together. One of them was the theme for a convention in 1980. It was called ‘Together, a New Beginning’… Several of our recording artists came to the convention in Detroit that year. It was in… And that song was sung at the competition.”
Ronald Reagan during his presidential run. (Getty Images)
Reagan lost the Republican nomination to Gerald Ford in 1976, but Curb said he used his disappointment to write more music.
“And after we lost the election in ’76, we wrote a song called “God Has a Bigger Plan,” Curb said. “He was a little depressed and thought he would never be able to run again, so I said to him, ‘God has bigger plans.’ And he said, ‘Oh, Nancy said that,’ and we said, ‘God has a bigger plan.’ We wrote the song ‘as a Greater Plan’ and the lyrics to the third song, ‘We Can Begin the World Over Again.’
A few years later, producer Mark Joseph played the song for Lee Greenwood, who decided to revise it and change it to “Let’s Start the World Over Again.”
‘Trump is a warrior’: Lee Greenwood reflects on RNC’s ‘GOD BLESS THE USA’ performance in Milwaukee
Greenwood recalled that memorable conversation.
“He said, ‘Ronald Reagan and Mike Curve were going to write a song,’” Greenwood told Fox News Digital. “And he sent it to me and said, ‘It’s not really. It was never finished.’ The idea was to rock the world, and I don’t know how naive that is, but it’s such a beautiful idea.”
“And I knew Ronald Reagan pretty well, and I knew Mike Curb pretty well. I was on his label for a while, and that gave me a chance to work on the song again.” Greenwood continued. “And I re-did the song for them and they loved it. I recorded a version and it will be released soon as an aftermarket album for the ‘Reagan’ movie.”
Dennis Quaid plays Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office. (Noah “Nanea” Hamilton/Rawheed Pictures)
Greenwood said he wrote new songs but kept some of the specific lyrics, including the phrase “Beacon of Freedom.”
“I’m Proud to Be an American,” the singer told The Tennessean, along with his desire to reframe Reagan’s “altruism” into a song that connects specifically to the many conversations about Reagan’s legacy. and Curve’s “visionary” tendencies, he said. “How much did he believe that America was the world’s greatest symbol of freedom?”
Dennis Quaid inspires locals in Dixon, Illinois, with ‘Reagan’ premiere Says Hollywood movies ‘forgot’ about small towns
Curb said of the song, “For many generations, these songs remind us of (what we love) the ‘good old days’ of American society.” “It is an honest reflection of what Reagan was at his core as an entertainer and a human being who was focused on centrism, responsible, good and fair, and easy to get along with.”
When asked if he was surprised by Reagan’s songwriting ability, Curve pointed out that Reagan spent many years as a Hollywood star before entering politics. During his career, Reagan appeared or starred in over 50 films. He was the subject of the 2024 biopic “Reagan,” in which Dennis Quaid played the 40th president.
Singer-songwriter Lee Greenwood. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“He was an absolutely amazing person,” Curb said. “Because when you sit in the backseat with him, it’s like you’re sitting with your next-door neighbor. It’s very sobering. All my friends, Republican or Democrat, they all look back on Reagan as the good old days.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
‘Start the World Over Again’ is scheduled for release soon, and country singer Sara Evans is set to release a recording of ‘God Has a Greater Plan.’
Fox News Digital’s Hannah Lambert contributed to this report.
