“God Bless The USA” 30th Anniversary

Can Country Music star Lee Greenwood ever do a concert without singing "God Bless The USA"?

In a word, no. And I'm sure he likes it that way.

"God Bless The USA" is one of those extremely rare songs that goes beyond being a hit record and almost gets a life of it's own. It's one of those songs that reaches out beyond Country Music and is played and song everywhere, festivals and dedications, parades and holidays, cemeteries and churches.

How Did Lee Greenwood come to write the song? Well, according to the Associated Press, it was because of a very specific event.

(AP) - This year is a special one for Lee Greenwood. He's marking the 30th anniversary of "God Bless The U.S.A."

Greenwood wrote the song in 1983 in response to Russian authorities mistaking a Korean jet on its way from New York to Seoul for a spy plane and shooting it down with 269 passengers on board.

Since then, it's become an anthem during the Gulf War, after 9/11, during the Iraq War and after Hurricane Katrina. Greenwood says the song came so easily, it nearly wrote itself.