Ed. — From the Sunday, Aug. 11, print edition.
VIRGINIA BEACH — You might not know John Ondrasik’s name, but you probably know at least a couple of his songs if you’ve listened to rock radio with any regularity over the last 25 years.
Ondrasik, who is scheduled to perform a free show on Wednesday, Aug. 14, as part of the Oceanfront Concert Series, is the singer-songwriter behind Five for Fighting, who brought you such hits as “Superman (It’s Not Easy),” “100 Years,” and “The Riddle,” and delivered the platinum-selling albums America Town in 2000 and The Battle for Everything, which hit record store shelves in 2004.
Of late, Ondrasik has favored releasing singles over albums, and while those singles haven’t managed to find their way onto the charts, they’ve nonetheless managed to secure no small amount of attention thanks to their timely subject matter.
First came 2021’s “Blood on My Hands,” which was inspired by Afghanistan. This was followed by 2022’s “Can One Man Save the World,” about the Ukrainian situation, which led to him performing the song in Kyiv in July 2023.
Then earlier this year, Five for Fighting released, “OK (We Are Not OK),” which Ondrasik penned as a reaction to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel.
“After Oct. 7, the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, gave a speech basically saying, ‘Something’s really broken when we have thousands of people celebrating these atrocities in Times Square,’” recalled Ondrasik. “That kind of stuck with me. And in the months following, we saw so many collapses of moral institutions. Some of our media became Hamas propagandists, our college campuses – as everybody knows – have run amuck with anti-Semitism and Marxism, and even members of Congress were spouting Hamas propaganda. So that really made me think about that sentiment of, ‘Yeah, something’s really broken in the culture.’”
Lyrically, “OK (We Are Not OK)” came together at a fast clip, but not so the music.
“I wanted to make sure it had the right tone,” said Ondrasik. “So I went back and listened to some classical funeral marches, some Jewish music, and…that took awhile. It took a couple of months for me to get that right. So it was a bit of an effort to write it, and very hard to sing. Every time I sing it, it kind of puts my voice back a little bit. But it should be hard to sing. And it should be anguished, and it should be painful. And the fact that it’s resonated as it has is actually pretty humbling.”
To say that it’s resonated is an understatement. The video for the song was actually shared by Israel’s official Twitter account.
Although the recent material certainly has a place in the current Five for Fighting sets, Ondraisk makes a point of spreading the wealth in terms of the songs he and his band perform.
“Well, you’ve got to play ‘100 Years’ and ‘Superman’ and ‘Chances’ and ‘The Riddle.’ I think it’s frankly rude not to do that. We always do a song for our troops. Whether it’s ‘Two Lights’ or ‘Freedom Never Cries,’ we always do a song to recognize our veterans. And we always throw a few surprises in there. You might hear a little Queen, you might hear a little Elton John. But we always have a lot of fun. I like keeping it loose so it’s not the same thing every night, so everybody’s on their toes and every show’s different.”
Five for Fighting with opener Red Stapler perform at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 14 at 24th Street Park. Visit beacheventsvb.com for more information.
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