Grammy-nominated, platinum-selling artist, Five For Fighting (aka John Ondrasik) will be joining Barenaked Ladies on their Last Summer on Earth tour June 28 – July 22. Ondrasik will bring along his band, drummer Randy Cooke (Mick Jagger, Ringo Starr, Dave Stewart), bassist Sean Hurley (John Mayer, Ringo Starr, Alanis Morissette), and guitarist Peter Thorn (Chris Cornell, Melissa Etheridge, Don Henley). The band will also be playing some headline shows including July 2 in Charleston, SC at Music Farm and July 23 in Interlochen, MI at Interlochen Center For The Arts / Corson Auditorium.
Beginning with his first hit single, “Superman (It’s Not Easy),” Ondrasik has evolved as both an artist and humanitarian. To date, Five For Fighting, has released six studio albums, including the platinum certified America Town and The Battle for Everything; and the top-10 charting Two Lights, along with an EP and live albums. Ondrasik has penned major hits, including the chart-topping “100 Years,” “The Riddle,” “Chances,” “World,” and “Easy Tonight,” which have earned tens of millions of streams and place him as a top-10 Hot Adult Contemporary artist for the 2000s. The reflective “100 Years” has joined “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” as part of the American Songbook and continues to stand the test of time at weddings, birthdays, graduations, memorials, and many a home video. Five For Fighting’s music has also been featured in more than 350 films, television shows, and commercials, including the Oscar-winning The Blind Side, Hawaii Five-O, The Sopranos and the CBS drama, Code Black.
We had the privilege to sit down with John as he and his bandmates were preparing to head out and join Barenaked Ladies on the second leg of the tour.
Hi John, how are you doing sir?
Five For Fighting/John Ondrasik: I’m great; how are you? Are you in Raleigh (North Carolina)?
Yes sir I am; I am a transplant here. I moved to Raleigh about seven years ago.
Where are you from?
I grew up in a small city in Southwest Virginia. Our town was big on furniture and textiles until everything pulled out and went to China, Honk Kong and places like that. That really killed our town because thousands lost their jobs and I don’t think it every fully recovered from that. It took it years, decades to start to shown signs of growing again, but it never bounced back to when it was really booming. It’s a shame because it’s a beautiful little place to live.
One of the interesting things about being a touring musician is you see all aspects of America. You see the old steel towns that are kind of abandoned and you see the small towns and the towns that are suffering. You see the towns that are recovering and thriving especially when you’ve been doing it as long as I have. You see the comebacks and the failures and it’s kind of wild. But I do love Raleigh and I love North Carolina I have a lot of friends there so it’s always fun to come to town.
Then you are well aware of all of the great food that’s here as well as so many amazing music venues of all sizes. Unfortunately, not all of the small ones were able to survive Covid, but most of them did.
There are so many cool venues there and people love live music and we’re excited because we’re doing the 4th of July with you guys. That’s the date I always circle because it’s always a special show for us.
Yeah I can’t wait; it’s going to be a great show. You were just here about a year ago or maybe a little more?
Yes we played by the lake at a beautiful venue and it was a very special show there. I’m not sure if you are aware but I went to Ukraine to make this video about a year ago and I went with a group called Save Our Allies that I met through Afghanistan. They’re all based in North Carolina and the woman who runs Save Our Allies and a couple of the folks that work with her were actually at that show in Raleigh. For the first time I was able to recognize her for her amazing work and Sarah Verardo. I was actually in Raleigh a few months ago doing an event for them and supporting them. I have a very soft spot in my heart for your neck of the woods because these incredible people are based out of there, so I’m sure this show will be no different.
I know there is a lot of work involved when you go out on tour. When you go out and do these summer shows is it kind of like summer camp for musicians?
You literally took the words right out of my mouth. There’s nothing like headlining; I love it but there’s also a pressure that goes with it. You’re playing two hours and you really have to manage your health, your voice and you have a lot of prep obligations. If I get sick, it’s a disaster. I’m really kind of looking forward to being the opener. You’re right; you have obligations to the fans and the Barenaked Ladies fans to put on a great show but it’s basically 45 minutes. You play the hits, you have fun and it’s outdoors in the summertime. I do some talking about where the songs came from. Maybe it’s a little more serious; maybe it’s a little more melancholy. I was laughing with the guys in my band the other day. These guys are my best friends as well as some of the most incredible musicians in the world. Basically, it’s kind of like a locker room. It’s fun to play the show with the camaraderie and the goof-balling. The memories we create off the stage are as important as the ones we create on the stage. So you’re exactly right, especially because so many of my other tours are so different and have a different tone. This really is like old man summer camp and we’re really looking forward to it (laughs).
There’s also the element of the weather when doing these outdoor summer shows. You never know which card Mother Nature will play. I’ve had some amazing shows that I’ve attended in the pouring rain that have become really special and very memorable ones. I’m not hoping for rain at our show, but you never know.
I’ll never forget this magical moment we had when we were playing outdoors in Atlanta one summer night. A big store was rolling in and we knew we kind of had to cut the set short because lightning was coming. So, it’s important for me to play the Ukraine song because we play it with the audio with the Ukrainian Orchestra. I set the tone of being in the bombed out plane in the airport. I’m with the Ukrainian Orchestra and every orchestra member has lost someone or has someone still missing because of the war. I play the song and I have the actual recorded audio of the orchestra and there’s this big moment at the bridge where the orchestra really crescendos. I start to play and the wind’s picking up. It’s getting very emotional and you can hear a pin drop. I’m playing and the wind is picking up more and more and you can literally smell the humidity increasing. I hit the big note where the orchestra crescendos and this big gust of wind comes and blows all my music up in the air, out from the piano. It’s one of those things where you go there’s a higher power here (laughs). So you’re right; frankly I love playing in the rain but I don’t like getting electrocuted. I just love the weather and all that fun stuff. You’re right, you never know but as you said it makes it exciting for everybody.
I have an even deeper respect for you after prepping for our talk. Your level of humanitarianism blew me blew me away and tugged at my heart. You have such a huge heart that you don’t always come across in this day and age. All the work that you do with the troops and the families of the troops and being a spokesperson for the Gary Sinise Foundation is an inspiration. I really wanted to talk a little bit about the video for “Can One Man Save the World.” The song itself is powerful and emotional and can really get to you but then you add the visual of the music video and it just takes it to an even higher level. I was not familiar with the storyline going into it, so I wasn’t sure what was happening when the screen went black with over a minute left in the video. Then the words come up and tell you a little bit about what happened and it just brings tears to your eyes. It’s such an amazing piece of work on so many levels. Who proposed the idea of making the video there?
You are so kind; thank you for saying that. The story actually started with Afghanistan. I had written “Blood on my Hands” about the withdrawal from Afghanistan as kind of a voice for them. They felt ashamed that their brothers in arms were abandoned to the Taliban and some of them were angry and in a very bad place. So that’s the thing about music and that song really gave them the feeling that somebody is speaking my pain. Through that, in this crazy surreal world, I started getting requests from people trapped in Afghanistan to help get them out and I didn’t know what to do. I’m just a singer guy, so I reached out and connected with many of these NGOs that were rescuing people from Afghanistan. So I started working with them and then when the war in Ukraine broke out and I wrote “Can One Man Save The World” I was kind of immersed in this community of folks helping people in Afghanistan. and many of these organizations have moved some of their operations to Ukraine with one being Save Our Allies with Sarah Verardo. I saw that “Can One Man Save the World” was resonating but as you mentioned sometimes video imagery can take it to another level. So my first thought was why don’t I go to Poland because Poland had been so amazing I took four million refugees their prime minister for the first to stand with Zelenskyy why don’t I go to Poland and I’ll play it with the Polish Orchestra. I have a friend who is a very high reporter who had a lot of good relationships there and she worked with the state department. She said she would get back with me so she called me back a few weeks later and she said something that I’ll never forget. She said ‘John how would you like to go to Ukraine and play with the Ukrainian Orchestra and I was stunned. This is not a person who jokes around and I said do they even exist? They did but they were scattered around the country. We could get them to Kiev for two or three days to record the song and make a video. The ministry wanted it to happen and we would have a lot of boxes to check.
So, long story short, I was on the road with my violin composer writing charts in the back of my van as we were doing the quartet tour. I got to call after a show that said check your email there’s a plane ticket to Krakow. My next day off, with my wife’s permission which I will always be grateful to her for, we went over there with an American camera crew and had an adventure getting there. We expected that like most of the artists that go there usually film in a subway because of all the air raid sirens. They said we may have the opportunity to film in this blown up airport with the symbol of Ukrainian Independence. Their airplane The Myria was hangered and destroyed at the beginning of the war. I was really moved by that and I really hoped that could happen. The symbolism of the orchestra and the fortitude of these people representing the Ukrainians in front of this plane could be very powerful but we weren’t sure if it was going to happen. We sat at the gate for three hours and a lot of generals had to sign off and it was crazy. Eventually it happened and the orchestra came and we got the recording done. We were able to film in this location that was so significant. I think put a face to these Ukrainians and their plight and the atrocities of this war. Personally, it was overwhelming; if you can imagine every emotion that a human can feel. You felt you’re inspired by them, you’re incredibly angry at what is happening, you’re frustrated, you’re scared and you’re excited. You kind of go through all these emotions and it’s exhausting. When we finally got back to Krakow, everyone literally fell down on the couch and slept for 24 hours. It was such an overwhelming experience but I kept thinking all the time that I get to leave and go back to our sunny California homes and watch this on the news. These people have to stay and that was a year ago so here we are a year later from that experience and those people are still going through the David and Goliath. I can talk to you for hours but it was incredibly moving and I’m glad the song and video resonated. We are still trying to parlay that into some larger concerts for Ukraine. I really look forward to the day I can go back to that country after they win this war so I can go back and play it to the people there They definitely gave me a perspective I have never seen with their fortitude and courage from the 18-year-olds on the frontline fighting to the grandmothers who played the violin in that orchestra and everyone in between.
I was going to ask if you were scared while you were doing that. It seems like it was it would be such a weird mix of emotions being scared but at the same time having your adrenaline flowing at a level you’ve never felt before
You’re exactly right; we might have slipped an hour a night but the sleep wasn’t even good. It was scary there but people are going about their work and restaurants are open but the air raids were an experience. You know you can go underground but that adrenaline of being there and being around them and talking to some of the generals and frankly some of our security and Special Forces people. You talk to them and see what they are doing and the lives that they are saving. You may remember there was a Fox news reporter Benjamin Hall who was severely wounded His camera crew was killed and I met the guy who drove the ambulance that saved him. I literally saw the blood in the ambulance so when you meet people like that it changes who you are. When we finally crossed back into Poland we could breathe for the first time in five days but yeah what a wild experience
I don’t know how much radio play “Can One Man Save the World” received, but thanks to the internet millions and millions of people heard the song and or the video. See, there are some good things that actually do come from the internet.
Oh you’re right; both that and “Blood on my Hands” got virtually no radio play but probably has more views and reached further than any of my songs except for “Superman” and “100 Years” which is frankly inspiring to me. News channels played the whole song around the world. I have troops walking up to me in tears thanking me for that song (“Blood on my Hands”) As a songwriter, it’s great to have songs that people know and love. It allows me to do it, but it also allows me to do these other songs that may impact the world in different ways and maybe even more meaningful. As I said, we’re trying to parlay that Ukraine song into something bigger and me and Gary (Sinise) talk about this a lot; he’s the Bob Hope of our generation. We always talk about the great thing about our kind of activism and philanthropy is that we meet heroes. Gary is certainly a hero in his own right but we meet heroes and we try to support them and their work and that is a true blessing for me. I don’t take it for granted and it inspires me to keep making music.
And that in turn inspires me as a writer. I appreciate you and all that you do John, tenfold at least. I better let you get back to packing. Your first date with the Barenaked Ladies is June 28 and that’s just a few days away. Safe travel to you and all of the guys! See you on July 4th in Raleigh, North Carolina!
See you on July 4th Johnny! We’re going to have fun!
I’m Music Magazine Owner/Editor Johnny Price
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