Greenwood wrote '' God Bless the U.S.A. '' in response to his feelings about the shooting down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 . He said that he " wanted to write it my whole life . When I got to that point , we were doing 300 days a year on the road , and we were on our fourth or fifth album on MCA . I called my producer , and I said I have a need to do this . I 've always wanted to write a song about America , and I said we just need to be more united . " As for writing the song itself , Greenwood wrote that it more or less " wrote itself " , and that the lyrics flowed naturally from the music as a reflection of his pride to be American
Korean Air Lines Flight 007
Korean Air Lines Flight 007
God Bless the U.S.A.