One for freedom: meet a popular musician who says he supports the troops--and means it.(CULTURE WATCH)(John Ondrasik)(Interview)

ON the night of February 9, more than a thousand people gathered in tuxes and dresses at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library to pay tribute to Medal of Honor recipients. Forty-three of the 107 living medalists were in attendance, along with assorted dignitaries. The program began when John Ondrasik, a one-man act who goes by the improbable stage name of "Five for Fighting," sat before a piano and sang about war and patriotism. When he was done, Ondrasik briefly addressed the crowd. "That song, 'Freedom Never Cries,' hopefully demonstrates the theme for this evening, which is that freedom isn't free. But I don't need to tell you that."

No, he didn't. Not to that crowd of heroes and their admirers. But in recent years, Ondrasik has conveyed this message to a broader public that surely can benefit from hearing it. Whereas many celebrities attack the president and bash the war with a relentless and numbing predictability, Ondrasik, the author of hits such as "Superman (It's Not Easy)" and "100 Years," stands apart as a popular artist who supports the troops and their cause through his music and actions. And he is without a doubt the only rock star ever to write a song inspired by a lunch with NATIONAL REVIEW contributor Victor Davis Hanson.

The 43-year-old Vladimir John Ondrasik III was a math major at UCLA who might have led a perfectly comfortable life helping his family run a small business that manufactures shopping carts in Southern California. From an early age, however, his passion was music. Even as an adult, he dreamed of turning it into a career. "I put on a suit by day and went into the studio at night," he says. "For years, I got nowhere."

He finally scored a record deal in 1996, but there were problems from the start. An executive told Ondrasik that the days of the singer-songwriter were over and ordered him to come up with a name that sounded like he was a full rock band. Ondrasik proposed "Marketing Ploy," which apparently wasn't met with a smile. So he suggested "Five for Fighting," a reference to the five-minute penalty a hockey player receives for on-ice fisticuffs. It might have been a better fit for head-bangers or punk rockers than for a guy who specializes in soulful vocals and piano-driven ballads, but Ondrasik is a sports nut, and it stuck. Unfortunately, his label didn't--it shuttered in 1997, just as Five for Fighting's debut album was coming out. "I think it sold about 500 copies," he says.

So Ondrasik started over. The experience was agonizing, but he kept writing songs. Ondrasik says he can spend more than a year on a single tune, refining the lyrics and melody until he thinks they're just right. At one point during this period, however, he composed an entire song in about 45 minutes. "It pretty much wrote itself," he says. "I got lucky." The lyrics expressed the vulnerability and frustration he was feeling at the time: "It may sound absurd / But don't be naive / Even heroes have the right to bleed." He called it "Superman," and he wasn't sure whether he liked it.

Meanwhile, Ondrasik secured a new record deal--certainly not based on the commercial strength of Five for Fighting's debut, but because a label thought he showed promise and was willing to take a chance. When choosing from among several dozen songs he had written for what would become his second album, America Town, he couldn't make up his mind about whether to include "Superman." At the last moment, he decided to use it.

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