This past weekend was filled with touching tributes in honor of the historic 25th anniversary of September 11.
In other words, it also gave country music singer Lee Greenwood another opportunity to whip out his patriotic anthem, adding to the handful of holidays each year when he seemingly pops out of the woodwork for a public appearance. As for his latest 9/11 tribute, however, I think this mini concert was a little more impromptu than usual.
TikTok user @meghanelizabeth717 captured the moment the 83-year-old California native serenaded his Southwest flight home to Nashville with his 1984 nationwide hit, “God Bless the USA”— and I’d like to say, before I get into the performance itself, I gotta give Greenwood credit: he looks pretty good for 83. As for his PA system showstopper, he drew in quite the crowd of mixed reactions from the internet.
The video captures Greenwood with the plane’s intercom system to his mouth, leading into the chorus of his signature track before interjecting the message, “and they can’t take that away, and who are they? They’re anybody who would like to take our freedoms away, and I stand with our president and anyone else who would defend our flag, who would defend our country.” Annnnddd just like that, the former member of the U.S. National Council on the Arts kicked right back into the song’s iconic line, “Because I’m proud to be an American…”
Might I add, with the sound of the plane soaring through the sky as a backing track, Greenwood delivered a pretty sped-up rendition, with many passengers at the front of the plane capturing the moment on their phones. He did get a solid round of applause from his fellow passengers as he held out the song’s final note.
People on the internet, on the other hand, had some varying opinions upon watching the insane experience secondhand. To be fair, how many people can truly say they watched a pretty well-known artist provide a little mid-flight entertainment?
But as you’d expect, the internet is the internet, and people can’t seem to hold back their true feelings about the unexpected situation at hand:
With that being said, there was also a fair fw of patriotic fans who admired the bold, stripped-down show and wouldn’t have minded a free Greenwood concert:
While it’s not clear if this performance even took place on 9/11 or just in the days to follow, I do applaud Greenwood’s courageous and unifying tribute in light of the holiday. Unfortunately, I also have the maturity level of a 12-year-old boy in moments like these and probably would not have been able to keep a straight face had I been sitting on this flight.