AUGUST 8 • 2024 | 39
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a frequent (and outspoken) 
guest on news programs and 
talk shows. 
Ondrasik, whose wife, 
Carla, was raised Jewish, is 
happy to do it — although 
not happy that he has to. But 
he’s befuddled and not at 
all happy that he’s not been 
joined in this pursuit.
“I’m like, ‘Me? Me?! 
Really?’” he explains via 
Zoom from his home in 
California. “I mean, this is 
the music industry, right? 
This is Live Aid. This is 
Sun City. There are very big 
artists who like to stand on 
their pedestals and lecture 
us on human rights. Many 
are Jewish. The fact that not 
one of them can say Hamas 
is bad, release the hostages. 
They don’t have to say, ‘I love 
Israel’ or ‘Netanyahu is my 
hero’ — just say ‘Release the 
hostages. Stop using Gazans 
as shields.’”
He adds that in the video 
for “We Are Not OK,” which 
is filled with Oct. 7 images, 
“it was very intentional that 
the last image is Martin 
Luther King’s quote that 
‘silence in the face of evil 
is complicity.’ The music 
industry is complicit. It’s a 
historical shame I don’t think 
we’ll ever recover from. It’s 

really depressing.” 
Ondrasik is quick to 
mention those he feels are 
stepping forward, however, 
such as actor Michael 
Rappaport and David 
Draiman of the heavy rock 
band Disturbed (“Who’s 
amazing,” he says). And he 
was happy Barbra Streisand 
released her song “Love Will 
Survive” during April as a 
response to antisemitism. 
But he thinks there should be 
more.
“I’ve talked to some of 
them, some folks who work 
with a couple of the biggest 
stars, like, ‘Look, you have 
more of a relationship 
to this than me. Where 
are they? Why can’t they 
say anything?’ And they 
tell me they’re afraid. 
They’re afraid for their 
families. They don’t want 
their concerts protested. 
I get it. But you have to 
understand those are the 
same arguments people used 
in 1938, 1939. 
“Cowardice is contagious. 
But courage is contagious, 
too. If one of the icons 
stepped out and said 
something, I think you would 
see a domino effect. But no 
one’s been willing to do that. 
I don’t understand.”

MUSIC WITH A MESSAGE
Social consciousness has 
become a recent path for 
Ondrasik with Five for 
Fighting, winning him both 
praise and protest from all 
sides of the divide.
Taking the Five for 
Fighting band name from 
the hockey penalty term, 
Ondrasik released his first 
album, “Message for Albert,” 
in 1997. He hit big three 
years later, however, with 
“American Town” and its 
single “Superman (It’s Not 
Easy),” a Top 20 hit whose 
expression of personal 

resilience became even 
more resonant after the 9-11 
attacks on New York. It was 
nominated for a Grammy, 
and Ondrasik performed it 
at the Concert For New York 
City during October of 2001. 
The moving “100 Years” 
went platinum in 2003, and 
Ondrasik has released six 
Five for Fighting albums and 
an EP overall, and he’s also 
written music for TV series 
such as Hawaii Five-O, Code 
Black and American Ninja 
Warrior and done some TED 
talks. 
He established a video 
charity website asking, 
“What kind of world do you 
want?” which raised money 
for various nonprofits, and 
Ondrasik performed many 
shows for U.S. troops, and he 
was honored by the National 
Fatherhood Initiative at the 
2009 Military Fatherhood 
Award Ceremony
After 2013’s “Bookmarks” 
album, however, Ondrasik 
began devoting more time 
to helping run his family 
business, Precision Wire 
Products. His muse was 
jarred again by the U.S. with-
drawal from Afghanistan in 
2021, which inspired him 

DETAILS
Five For Fighting performs 
Saturday, Aug. 10, at Saint 
Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. 
Congress St., Detroit. Doors 
at 7 p.m. Call (313) 961-8961 or 
saintandrewsdetroit.com. 

COURTESY PHOTO

YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT

John Ondrasik on stage with Five for Fighting in 2023

Thousands came 
to the Bring 
Them Home Now 
concert.

continued on page 40