It's perfect – Lee Greenwood and Sara Evans release new singles with an unlikely songwriter in the credits, the late President Ronald Reagan.
Reagan may have been busy running for president of the United States back in the 1970s and finishing his term as governor of California, but he still found time to write a few patriotic songs with record producer Mike Curb, founder and chairman of Curb. Records.
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 presidential campaign.
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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 back in the '70s, there was a lot of traffic in California that I used to go with them,” Curb told Fox News Digital. “And on several occasions, we wrote songs together. One of them was the theme song for a 1980 convention that was playing. It was called, 'Together, A New Beginning'… several of our recording artists came to the convention. He was in Detroit that year… And then that song was sung at the meeting.”
Ronald Reagan when he was running for president. (Getty Images)
Reagan lost the Republican nomination to Gerald Ford in 1976, but Curb said he channeled his disappointment into writing more music.
“And then, we wrote a song called 'God's Got a Big 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 said to him, 'God has a big plan.' And he said, 'Oh, that's what Nancy said,' and then we wrote the song 'God Like a Bigger Plan'… Then we wrote the third song, 'We Can Start the World Again,' which was all his lyrics.”
Years later, producer Mark Joseph played it for Lee Greenwood, who decided to fix it and changed it to, “Let's Start the World Again.”
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Greenwood recalled that unforgettable 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 he said, 'It's not really – it wasn't finished.' The idea was to do the whole world, and how silly that is, but what a great idea.”
“And I knew Ronald Reagan well, I knew Mike Curb well – I was on his label for a while, and it gave me the opportunity to sing it again,” Greenwood continued. “And I redid the song for them, and they loved it. I recorded a version, and it should be out soon on their marketing album from the movie 'Reagan'.”
Dennis Quaid playing Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office. (Noah “Nanea” Hamilton/Rawhide Pictures)
Greenwood wrote a new song, but said he's keeping some lyrics, including the phrase “beacon of freedom.”
The “Proud to Be an American” singer told The Tennessean that he conflated Reagan's “adventurous” tendencies with Curb's “ideology” and the desire to remake the song as directly related to his awareness of Reagan's legacy and the many conversations they had about “how much he believed in the United States as the world's greatest symbol of freedom.”
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“These songs remind many generations of what (we miss most) about the 'old days' in American society,” Curb said of the song. “In an honest portrayal of what Reagan was at his core as an entertaining and centrist, responsible, fair and just person who was easy to get along with.”
Asked if he was surprised by Reagan's songwriting ability, Curb revealed that before Reagan entered politics, he spent years as a Hollywood star. During his career, Reagan acted or acted in more than 50 films. He was the subject of the 2024 biopic “Reagan,” with Dennis Quaid portraying the 40th president.
Singer and songwriter Lee Greenwood. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“He was an amazing person,” Curb said. “Because, you know, when you were sitting in the back seat 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 look back on Reagan like the good old days.”
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“Start the World Over Again” will be released soon, and country singer Sara Evans is expected to release her record “God Has a Greater Plan.”
Fox News Digital's Hannah Lambert contributed to this report.
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