EXCLUSIVE - Lee Greenwood and Sara Evans are releasing new songs with a surprise 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 out his tenure as California governor, but he still made time to co-write a few patriotic songs with record producer Mike Curb, the founder and chairman of Curb Records.
Curb said that 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 campaign for president.
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Curb credits brutal California traffic for giving him and Reagan plenty of time to write songs together in the ‘70s, starting with "Together, a New Beginning."
"And so back in the '70s, there's so much traffic in California that I used to travel with them," Curb told Fox News Digital. "And on several occasions, we wrote songs together. One of them was the theme for the convention in 1980 that played. It was called, ‘Together, a New Beginning’... several of our recording artists came to the convention. It was in Detroit that year... And then that song was sung at the convention."
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 Has a Greater Plan" after he lost the election in '76," Curb shared. "He was a little down and didn't think he would run again. And I said to him, 'God has a greater plan.' And he said, 'Oh, that's what Nancy says,' and then we wrote a song called ‘God as a Greater Plan'… And then we wrote a third song, 'We Can Begin the World Over Again," which was all his lyrics."
Many years later, producer Mark Joseph played it for Lee Greenwood, who decided to fix it up and change it to, "Let's Start the World Over Again."
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Greenwood recalled that memorable 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 really isn’t – it was never completed.’ The idea was to make the world over, and how naive that is, but what a beautiful thought that is."
"And I knew Ronald Reagan quite well, I knew Mike Curb pretty well – I was on his label for a while, and it gave me a chance to redo the song," Greenwood continued. "And I redid the song for them, they loved it. I recorded the version, and it should be released shortly on their aftermarket album from the ‘Reagan’ film."
Greenwood wrote the new song, but said he kept some specific lyrics, including the phrase "beacon of freedom."
The "Proud to Be an American" singer told The Tennessean that he blended Reagan's "altruism" and Curb's "visionary" tendencies alongside a desire to reframe the song as being specifically tied to his awareness of Reagan's legacy and the many conversations they had about "how much he believed in the United States as the greatest symbol in the world for freedom."
"These songs remind many generations of what (we fondly) recall of the 'good old days' in American society," Curb said of the song. "In honestly reflecting what Reagan was at his core as an entertainer and centrist-focused, responsible, good and fair human being who was easy to get along with."
Asked if he was surprised by Reagan's songwriting skills, Curb pointed out that before Reagan went into politics, he spent years as a Hollywood star. In the course of his career, Reagan acted or starred in over 50 movies. He was the subject of the 2024 biopic "Reagan," with Dennis Quaid portraying the 40th president.
"He was an amazing guy," Curb said. "Because, you know, when you're sitting in the back seat with him, it was like you were sitting with your next-door neighbor. Very down to Earth. I think all my friends, whether they're Republicans or Democrats, they kind of look back at Reagan as the good old days."
"Start the World Over Again" will be released soon, while country singer Sara Evans is expected to release her recording of "God Has a Greater Plan."
Fox News Digital's Hannah Lambert contributed to this report.
