Lee Greenwood’s song “God Bless the U.S.A.” has been former President Donald J. Trump’s fanfare since he became the leader of the Republican Party, embracing its status as an anthem in Grand Old Party politics dating back 40 years.
To Mr. Greenwood, a Grammy Award-winning country music star, it is a match made in heaven. He sold the rights to the song for $1 in 1984, thrilled that Sig Rogich, responsible for creating ads for former President Ronald Reagan, had said that the campaign wanted to use it. More recently, it has been played to commence scores of Mr. Trump’s rallies, often to cheers and singalongs from the thousands in attendance.
But as Mr. Greenwood took the stage at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday night, minutes before Mr. Trump’s first public appearance since surviving an assassination attempt, the singer-songwriter, like the millions of Americans glued to their TVs, had no idea what to expect.
“All I could do was guess what his emotions could be, what his physical condition would be,” Mr. Greenwood said in an interview. “I was like everybody else in the arena looking at the jumbotron, showing him walking down the hallway.”
Mr. Greenwood, a self-identified conservative, is both Mr. Trump’s personal friend and business partner. He spent time late Wednesday afternoon taking pictures with adoring fans and signing wide-eyed supporters’ “God Bless the USA Bibles,” Trump-promoted bundles that come with lyrics from Mr. Greenwood’s song and foundational American documents. Mr. Greenwood said that he was “naturally emotional” and shocked when he learned that the former president would not be delaying his arrival to the convention after a bullet pierced his upper right ear on Saturday at a rally in Butler, Pa.
That information came in a phone call the day after the shooting. Mr. Greenwood was told to make sure that he was in Milwaukee by Monday morning — enough time to prepare for the live performance accompanying Mr. Trump’s entrance into the convention venue, Fiserv Forum, that evening. When Mr. Greenwood started singing, his voice competing with the cheers of attendees elated to see the former president — his right ear wrapped in a white bandage as he walked to his V.I.P. box, pumping his fist and mouthing “thank you” to his supporters — the two friends made eye contact for just a brief moment.
“We both had that same feeling,” Mr. Greenwood said. “I wanted to pray for him in that moment. I think he felt exhausted from the fact that he had been shot and recovered. But his determination and defiance that he made his appearance at the R.N.C. on Monday night showed what kind of strength he has.”
Mr. Greenwood never intended for the song to be the theme for a major political party. He takes pride in it being a “military anthem.” He knew that it would be immortalized in millions of Americans’ psyches when he performed it at various memorials in the wake of 9/11.
“The fourth game of the World Series, with that red-white-and-blue jacket, that’s the moment I think all of America began to embrace ‘God Bless the U.S.A.’ as something for unification and something very powerful,” he said, referring to his performance in 2001 at Yankee Stadium.
But, in times of entrenched political polarization and divisiveness, there are those who associate the song solely with Mr. Trump and the Republican Party he has remade in his image, not as the unifier that Mr. Greenwood asserts it to be.
Mr. Greenwood is confident, however, that the song will transcend its Trumpist ties and once again be seen as an American anthem instead of a Republican one, and said that he personally would make it so.
How does he plan to do that?
“I’ll keep singing it,” he said.
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