|
The Convention’s Opening Ceremonies
By Marc Leepson
A funny thing happened to Wes Guidry, VVA’s national
meetings planner, last December. While attending the Nevada
Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Reno, he ran into
the legendary country music star Lee Greenwood. Guidry, not
the shy and retiring type, walked right up to Greenwood,
said hello, and then asked if he would be amenable to performing
his mega-hit “God Bless the U.S.A.” at the Opening
Ceremonies of VVA’s 13th National Convention in Springfield,
Illinois, in July. Greenwood said he liked the idea but needed
to check his schedule. An official letter went out the next
day from VVA National President John Rowan. Early this spring
came the official reply from Greenwood’s associate,
Jerry Bentley, who happens to be a Vietnam veteran and a
VVA member. Lee Greenwood would happily come to Springfield
to sing his song, as well as the National Anthem, at the
Wednesday morning, July 18, Opening Ceremonies. “It’s
going to be a special treat for the delegates and guests
at the Convention to hear Lee Greenwood,” Rowan said. “His
song is world famous and will fit in extremely well with
our always-spirited Opening Ceremonies.”
Lee Greenwood, who was born on a farm near Sacramento, California,
formed his first band, the Moon-beams, in junior high school.
He turned down a music scholarship at the College of the
Pacific and the prospect of a professional baseball career
to dive head long into the music business when he finished
high school. He knocked around Los Angeles and Las Vegas
for a few years before finding his first success in 1978
when he moved to Nashville to sign a recording contract.
He soon began churning out country hits, including “It
Turns Me Inside Out” and “Ring on Her Finger,
Time on Her Hands.”
Just two years after the release
of his first album, he was named the Country Music Association’s
Male Vocalist of the Year for the first of what would be
three times. He also won a Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal.
In 1985, the CMA awarded him Song of the Year for writing
the words and music that has made its way into the pantheon
of American patriotic tunes: “God Bless the U.S.A.”
Lee
Greenwood will receive the President’s Award for
Excellence in the Arts at the Opening Ceremonies for that
song and for his dedication to America’s veterans and
military personnel. For decades Greenwood has made visits
to military bases around the globe and has put on performances
at functions such as Veterans Day ceremonies at the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Most recently, on July
4, he took part in an official U.S. Citizenship Ceremony
at Walt Disney World, during which more than a thousand immigrants
from over fifty countries were sworn in as American citizens.
That program ended, as one might guess, with Greenwood singing “God
Bless the U.S.A.”
Joining Lee Greenwood at the Opening
Ceremonies will be the big-selling country-rock music stars
Big & Rich, who
will perform their song “8th of November” (see
p. 35), which pays tribute to Vietnam veterans. The Pulitzer-Prize
winning columnist Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune, a
Vietnam-era U.S. Army veteran, will deliver the Keynote Address.
|
©2006-
2011, Vietnam Veterans of America. All Rights Reserved. 8719 Colesville Road, Suite 100, Silver Spring, MD 20910