The iconic five-man all-vocal group, Home Free, just released a collaboration with Lee Greenwood, on Greenwoods classic hit, “God Bless the U.S.A.,” featuring the Singing Sergeants, which is the official chorus of The United States Air F’orce Band. For Greenwood, who has seen and heard his patriotic song reimagined over and over again in the past 37 years since it was first released, this latest version will always be one of his all-time favorites.

“I’ve watched and admired Home Free with their covers of so many different songs, so many songs that I love, and still do. I admire their vocal talent, that’s first,” Greenwood told Everything Nash. “And then I knew that they were using ‘God Bless the U.S.A.’ in their shows, and that’s not uncommon. Many of the acts since I wrote it in 1983 have requested it, and have done it so eloquently.”

Greenwood praised both Home Free and the Singing Sergeants for taking “God Bless the U.S.A.,” and creating something new and inspiring from Greenwood’s original song.

“It was just very cool to be able to stand back and listen and then add, and then go into the booth and say, ‘Wow, we, we just created that,'” he remarked. “‘Cause I’ve lived with this song for 30 years and I’ve never heard it like that before.”

Home Free has included “God Bless the U.S.A.” in their setlist for years, never imagining that they would get to sing it with one of their musical heroes.

“This is a song that Home Free has been doing since Home Free started,” Austin Brown told Everything Nash. “Literally we closed every show with this for I think 15 years. It’s only been the last couple of years where we’ve stopped performing it as often, but we always have it in our back pocket. And depending on where we are, what kind of functions we’re doing, how many veterans there may be in the audience, sometimes we’ll pull it out. It’s very close to our heart; that’s why we’ve been singing for so long.

“It’s one of those songs that it stands on its own,” he added. “It’s almost like another National Anthem. Everyone knows that. Literally, every single time we sing the song, no matter where we are, everyone stands up in the audience. The song stands on its own.”

Singing the patriotic song with Greenwood was inspiring enough, but adding The United States Air Force Band, took the experience to an entirely new level for Home Free.

“To be able to have an opportunity to sing with the original artist, with the songwriter, with the country music legend, Lee Greenwood, and then The United States Air Force Band on top of that at this time in 2020, with so much craziness going on in the world, it’s a pinnacle,” Brown acknowledged. “It’s a highlight of our career up to this point. This is something that people dream about. We need to bring this song and some love and joy into the world right now, whenever that seems like a rare commodity.

“It’s a blessing,” he added. “It fills my heart, and it feels like maybe what we’re doing has a greater purpose than just sort of making music that people buy. There’s something powerful in that.”

The video for the collaborative “God Bless the U.S.A.” was shot in four different locations across the country, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Although different in the way both Greenwood and Home Free have shot videos in the past, the end result turned into something more powerful than they could have imagined.

“It really was kind of poignant to show that, no matter where we are, and even if we can’t be in the same room, with technology and the internet these days, and recording technology, we’re able to still come together to create a product, and to create an artistic experience that is really something special,” Brown noted. “And it shows us that, even though we’re so far apart, socially distancing, we can still be together and we can still sow love and hopes together.”

Download “God Bless the U.S.A.” here.