EXCLUSIVE – Lee Greenwood and Sara Evans release new songs with a surprising songwriter on the credits, the late President Ronald Reagan.
Reagan may have been busy running for president of the United States and wrapping up his term as governor of California in the 1970s, but he still made time to work with producer Mike Curb, Curb’s founder and chairman, write some patriotic songs. Recordings.
Curb said he met Reagan in 1974, his last year as governor, at an event for Junior Achievement, a charity that teaches students the concepts of free enterprise. The two hit it off and Reagan asked the songwriter if he wanted to help him in his campaign for president.
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Curb credits California’s brutal traffic for giving him and Reagan plenty of time to write songs together in the ’70s, starting with “Together, a New Beginning.”
“And in the ’70s there was so much traffic in California that I traveled with them,” Curb said. Fox News digital. “And on several occasions we wrote songs together. One of them was the theme for the 1980 convention that was happening. It was called ‘Together, a New Beginning’… several of our artists came to the convention. It was in Detroit that year. ..And then that song was sung at the convention.”
Ronald Reagan during his attempt to become president. (Getty Images)
Reagan lost the Republican nomination in 1976 to Gerald Ford, but Curb said he channeled his disappointment into writing more music.
“And then we wrote a song called ‘God Has a Greater Plan’ after he lost the election in ’76,” Curb said. “He was a little down and didn’t think he was going to run again. And I told him, ‘God has a bigger plan.’ And he said, ‘Oh, that’s what Nancy says,’ and then we wrote a song called ‘God as a Greater Plan’… And then we wrote a third song, ‘We Can Begin the World Over Again,’ which is all about him. lyrics.”
Many years later, producer Mark Joseph played it for Lee Greenwood, who decided to revamp it and change it to “Let’s Start the World Over Again.”
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Greenwood recalled that memorable conversation.
“He said, ‘Ronald Reagan and Mike Curb were trying to write a song,’” Greenwood told Fox News Digital. “And he sent it to me and said, ‘It’s really not that, it was never completed.’ The idea was to create the world, and as naive as that is, but what a beautiful thought that is.”
‘And I knew it Ronald Reagan I knew Mike Curb pretty well. I was on his label for a while and it gave me the opportunity to do the song again,” Greenwood continued. “And I recreated the song for them, they loved it. I recorded the version and it should be released soon on their aftermarket album from the movie ‘Reagan’.
Dennis Quaid in character as Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office. (Noah “Nanea” Hamilton/Rawhide Photos)
Greenwood wrote the new song, but said he kept some specific lyrics, including the phrase “beacon of freedom.”
The ‘Proud to Be an American’ singer said this The Tennessean that he blended Reagan’s “altruism” and Curb’s “visionary” tendencies with a desire to reframe the song as specifically tied to his awareness of Reagan’s legacy and the many conversations they had about “how much he believed in the United States as the greatest symbol in the world for freedom.”
“These songs remind many generations of what we remember (fondly) about the ‘good old days’ in American society,” Curb said of the song. “By honestly portraying what Reagan was at his core as an entertainer and centrist-oriented, responsible, good and honest person who was easy to get along with.”
When asked if he was surprised by Reagan’s songwriting skills, Curb said that before Reagan entered politics, he was a Hollywood star for years. Over the course of his career, Reagan starred or appeared in more than 50 films. He was the subject of the 2024 biopic “Reagan,” in which Dennis Quaid played the 40th president.
Singer and songwriter Lee Greenwood. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“He was a great guy,” Curb said. “Because, you know, if you sat in the backseat with him, it was like sitting with your neighbor. Very down to earth. I think all my friends, whether they’re Republicans or Democrats, they kind of look back on Reagan as the good old days.”
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“Start the World Over Again” will be released soon, while country singer Sara Evans is expected to release her recording of “God Has a Greater Plan.”
Hannah Lambert of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
