November 6, 2024
Country music singer Lee Greenwood confirmed in an interview published Monday that the Grammy-winning artist's 2024 tour will be his last. "There's rumors of you potentially retiring at the end of 2024. Are those rumors true?" 17-year-old podcast host Brilyn Hollyhand asked Greenwood prior to his Nov. 9 concert in...

Country music singer Lee Greenwood confirmed in an interview published Monday that the Grammy-winning artist’s 2024 tour will be his last.

“There’s rumors of you potentially retiring at the end of 2024. Are those rumors true?” 17-year-old podcast host Brilyn Hollyhand asked Greenwood prior to his Nov. 9 concert in Montgomery, Alabama, Fox News reported.

“It’s not just a rumor. It will be my last year to tour,” Greenwood responded, though he doesn’t know yet where his final performance will be.

The “God Bless the U.S.A.” singer told Hollyhand, who is a co-chair of the Republican National Committee’s youth advisory council, it won’t be “one of those farewell and then come back next year, ‘Hey I’m back,’” types of tours either.

“I just turned 81. This is a factor. I’ve had some surgeries. I have titanium knees. I have a titanium cage in my back with 10 screws. I don’t think I can do this much longer with the two boys in college,” Greenwood  further explained.

Trending:

Disaster as Under-Construction Road Tunnel Collapses, Clock Is Now Ticking for 30 Workers Trapped

Greenwood also wants to spend more time with his wife of 31 years, former Miss Tennessee Kimberly Payne.

“It’s only fair, I think, that I back away at this point and have no distractions but her and I and give these last few years that I will live to her and my two sons,” he added. “So that’s a big decision, and I know it is.”

Have you listened to Greenwood’s music?

Yes: 100% (3 Votes)

No: 0% (0 Votes)

Asked what message he has for his fans, Greenwood answered, “I’m so grateful for the years that they’ve come to my shows continually.”

“Here I am at the end of my career, and they still come, and they still hear me sing the same 40 songs that I’ve sang for 40 years — and some different ones,” Greenwood recounted with a smile.

The artist’s signature song is the 1984 hit “God Bless the U.S.A.,” though ironically that’s not the one for which he received a Grammy. That was his duet with Suzy Bogguss in 1991, titled “Hopelessly Yours.”

“God Bless the U.S.A.” was nominated for best country song of 1984, and Greenwood for best male vocal performance, but he did not take home the prize for either.

However, the song has stood the test of time.

Related:

Wynonna Judd Speaks Out After Her ‘Seriously Bizarre’ CMA Awards Performance Worries Fans

It first charted in the top 10 (reaching No. 7 on Billboard’s country singles char) in 1984.

That same year, it was used in a tribute film about then-President Ronald Reagan at the Republican National Convention in Houston.

At the 1988 RNC convention, Greenwood actually sang “God Bless the U.S.A.” with Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan at his side.

[embedded content]

Thirteen years later, the singer offered an emotional rendition of the song at Yankee Stadium during the World Series just weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The ballad rode a wave of patriotic sentiment at the time reaching No. 16 on the Billboard Hot Country 100 chart.

[embedded content]

Then 15 years later, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump adopted “God Bless the U.S.A.” as his walk on song during his 2016 campaign and still uses it at his rallies.

Greenwood performed the song at Trump’s inauguration in January 2017.

The song hit No. 22 in digital download sales in July of that year.

[embedded content]

Finally, in July 2020 the song rocketed to the top of the Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart, over 35 years after first being released.

In a 2016 interview, Greenwood talked about the motivation behind the song.

“I wanted to write it my whole life,” he told The Boot. “When I got to that point, we were doing 300 days a year on the road, and we were on our fourth or fifth album on MCA. I called my producer, and I said, ‘I have a need to do this.’ I’ve always wanted to write a song about America, and I said, ‘We just need to be more united.’”

“When I put it onstage … I think it was the fall of ’83,” Greenwood recalled. “I put it in the middle of the show, just as a brand-new song. Wow, it was like the audience jumped up, and they were applauding … I did it for about two weeks like that, and then I had to put it at the end of the show as an encore; I couldn’t follow it.”


An Urgent Note from Our Staff:

The Western Journal has been labeled “dangerous” simply because we have a biblical worldview and speak the truth about what is happening in America.

We refuse to let Big Tech and woke advertisers dictate the content we share with our community. We stand for truth. We stand for freedom. We stand with our readers.

We’re asking you to help us in this fight. We can’t do this without you.

Your donation directly helps fund our editorial team of writers and editors. If you would rather become a WJ member outright, you can do that today as well. Your support means we can continue to expose false narratives and defend traditional American values.

Please stand with us by donating today.

Thank you for your support!

Randy DeSoto has written more than 2,000 articles for The Western Journal since he joined the company in 2015. He is a graduate of West Point and Regent University School of Law. He is the author of the book “We Hold These Truths” and screenwriter of the political documentary “I Want Your Money.”

Birthplace

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Nationality

American

Honors/Awards

Graduated dean’s list from West Point

Education

United States Military Academy at West Point, Regent University School of Law

Books Written

We Hold These Truths

Professional Memberships

Virginia and Pennsylvania state bars

Location

Phoenix, Arizona

Languages Spoken

English

Topics of Expertise

Politics, Entertainment, Faith