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Lee Greenwood music biography continued...

Greenwood took an interest in music from an early age, and taught himself to play guitar, saxophone, bass, banjo, and keyboards. He joined a band in high school and made his first television appearance at age 15 as a bandmember of country singer Chester Smith. On the day of his high school graduation, he left for Las Vegas to pursue his musical career. Greenwood would spend the next two decades toiling as a sometimes performer, sometimes card dealer, until he was discovered in 1978 by a bandleader for country star Mel Tillis. With his encouragement, Greenwood sent demos to Nashville, and was picked up and given a recording contract at age 39 by MCA Records. Greenwood's first album release, 1981's Inside and Out, generated four singles that scaled up to the Top Twenty on the country charts. Soon thereafter, Greenwood achieved star- recognition with the release of 1983's Somebody's Gonna Love You, which, in addition to its number one title track, included "I.O.U.," a romantic declaration which became a popular choice for wedding music. He received back-to-back Country Music Association Male Vocalist of the Year honors in 1983 and 1984, and continued to turn out hit singles, paired in some cases with MCA's popular female country star, Barbara Mandrell. His greatest success of all came with "God Bless the U.S.A.," a memorial for America's war-dead, which made him a household name when it became a hit in 1984 and was adopted by the Reagan's presidential campaign.

Although his career never attained the high profile it had in 1984, Greenwood has since scored several more Top Ten recordings. In 1992, his duet with singer Suzy Bogguss, "Hopelessly Yours," climbed into country's Top 20. In the meantime "God Bless the U.S.A." continues to receive airplay whenever the fires of U.S. patriotism burn bright. And with his success as a country singer and songwriter, Greenwood has ensured that he will never have to go back to dealing cards for a living—something that has given his fans reason to smile.