Exclusive – Lee Greenwood Sarah Evans releases new songs with a surprise songwriter in the credits, the late President Ronald Reagan.
Reagan may have been busy running for President of the United States in the 1970s and finishing his term as Governor of California, but he still made time to co-write some patriotic songs with record producer Mike Curb, founder and chairman of Curb. Records.
Korb said he met Reagan in 1974, his last year as governor, at an event conducted by Junior Achievement, a charity that teaches students concepts of free enterprise. The two hit it off and Reagan asked the songwriter if he wanted to help him with his campaign for president.
Korb credits California’s harsh traffic with giving him and Reagan ample time to write songs together in the 1970s, starting with “Together, a New Beginning.”
“And back in the 1970s, there was so much traffic in California that I used to travel with them,” Korb said. Fox News Digital. “And on several occasions, we wrote songs together. One of them was the theme of the 1980 convention that was played. It was called ‘Together, a New Beginning’… Several of our recording artists came to the convention. “It was in Detroit that year… And then that song was sung at the conference.”
Ronald Reagan while running for president. (Getty Images)
Reagan lost the Republican nomination to Gerald Ford in 1976, but Korb 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 1976,” Korb said. “He was a little down and didn’t think he’d run again. And I said to him, ‘God has a greater plan.’ And he said, ‘Oh, that’s what Nancy says.’ And then we wrote a song called ‘God as a Greater Plan’… Then we wrote a song. A third, “We can start the world over,” was all his words.”
Several years later, producer Mark Joseph played it for Lee Greenwood, who decided to fix it and change it to “Let’s Start the World Over”.
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Greenwood recalled that memorable conversation.
“He said Ronald Reagan and Mike Curb tried to write a song,” Greenwood told Fox News Digital. “And he sent it to me, and said, ‘It’s not really like that, it’s never finished.’ The idea was to make the world around him, and how naive that is, but what a beautiful idea.”
“And I knew Ronald Reagan “Very well, I knew Mike Curb well – I had been on his label for a while, and it gave me the opportunity to redo the song,” Greenwood continued. “And I played the song back for them, and they loved it. I recorded the version, and it’s due to be released soon on their post-Reagan album.”
Dennis Quaid as Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office. (Noah “Nanya” Hamilton / Rawhide Images)
Greenwood wrote the new song, but said he kept some specific lyrics, including the phrase “beacon of freedom.”
“Proud to be an American,” the singer said. tn that he blended Reagan’s “altruism” and Korb’s “visionary” tendencies along with a desire to reframe the song as specifically connected to his awareness of Reagan’s legacy and the many conversations he had about “how much he believed in the United States as the greatest icon.” In the world for freedom.
“These songs remind many generations of what we (fondly) remember about the ‘good old days’ in American society,” Korb said of the song. “In faithfully reflecting who Reagan was at his core as an artist, a centrist, an administrator, and a good, fair human being who was easy to get along with.”
Asked if he was surprised by Reagan’s songwriting skills, Korb noted that before Reagan entered politics, he spent years as a star in Hollywood. During his career, Reagan acted in or starred in more than 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 a great guy,” Korb said. “Because, you know, when you sat in the back seat with him, it was like you were sitting with your next-door neighbor. Very humble. I think all my friends, whether they’re Republicans or Democrats, they look at Reagan as the good old days.”
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“Start the World Over Again” will be released soon, while country singer Sarah Evans is expected to release her recording of “God Has a Greater Plan.”
Fox News Digital’s Hannah Lambert contributed to this report.
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