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Tandy Culpepper Talks With Singer-Songwriter John Ondrasik About His STUNNING New Music Video OK

John Ondrasik, known by his stage name Five for Fighting, rose to fame with the 2002 Grammy-nominated single Superman (It’s Not Easy). The song charted at number 14 on the Hot 100 and reached number 1 on Billboard’s Adult Top 40. Music aficionados considered it an anthem following the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11.  

On his third album, The Battle for Everything, the single 100 Years rose to the number 1 spot on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart. It remained there for 12 non-consecutive weeks.

 Partnering with Broadway composer Steven Schwartz, John, along with Steven, developed a TV show called Harmony. Subsequently, John placed a considerable number of songs on TV shows and films.

AllMusic has referred to Ondrasik as “one of contemporary pop music’s enduring balladeers.” But John Ondrasik is much more than that. He is also an activist and philanthropist and has raised money for several causes. 

In the last couple of years, John has turned to writing anthems which express his perspective on geopolitical and domestic events. Can One Man Save The World is a paean to Ukraine and President Zelensky. He followed that with Blood On My Hands referencing The United State’s controversial evacuation of American service personnel from Afghanistan. In recent weeks, John released a music video addressing antisemitism and the ongoing situation in Gaza. 

Tandy Culpepper spoke with John about this latest video and song as well as his reasons for producing it. 

 

Published by Tandy Culpepper

I am a veteran broadcast journalist. I was an Army brat before my father retired and moved us to the deep South. I'm talkin' Lower Alabama and Northwest Florida, I graduated from Tate High School and got botha Bachelor's degree and Master's in Teaching English from the University of West Florida, I taught English at Escambia County High School for two years before getting my m's in Speech Pathology and Audiology from Auburn University. Following graduation, I did a 180 degree turn and moved to Birmingham where I began ny broadcasting career at WBIQ, Channel 10. There I was host of a weekly primetime half-hour TV program called Alabama Lifestyles. A year later, I began a stint as a television weathercaster and public affairs host. A year later, I moved to West Palm Beach, Florida and became bureau chief at WPTV, the CBS affiliate. Two years later, I moved to Greensboro, North Carolina where I became co-host of a morng show called AM Carolina. The next year, I moved cross-country and became co-host and story producer at KTVN-TV in Reno, Nevada. I also became the medical reporter for the news department. Three years later, I moved to Louisville, Kentucky and became host and producer of a morning show called today in WAVE Country at WAVE-TV, Channel 3, the NBC affiliate. Following three years there, I moved to Los Angeles and became senior correspondent at the Turner Entertainment Reportn, an internationally-syndicated entertainment entertainment news service owned by CNN. I went back to school afterwards and got an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore. Oh, yes. I won a hundred thousand dollars on the 100 Thousand Dollar Pyramid, then hosted by Dick Clark.

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