<\/p>\n
WEST SPRINGFIELD \u2014 When Five for Fighting<\/a> released \u201cSuperman (It\u2019s Not Easy)\u201d in 2001, the song was a near-instant a hit in the U.S., debuting at No. 38 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.<\/p>\n Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the song unexpectedly became more than \u201ca hit\u201d \u2014 it became an anthem that people resonated with and found comfort in. On Oct. 20, 2001, John Ondrasik was invited to perform the song at the Concert for New York City in Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n In an interview earlier this month, Ondrasik called it \u201cfate.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou could never predict anything like that, so even to this day, I have a lot of gratitude knowing that a lot of this is kind of like fate,\u201d Ondrasik said of his musical career. \u201cCertainly, you have to work hard, you gotta\u2019 have the relationships, you gotta\u2019 write the songs, but sometimes it\u2019s just fate and having a song that\u2019s out at the right place at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n More than two decades after the first release of that hit song, Ondrasik released a new version earlier this year with changed lyrics to support hostages held by Hamas, including Alon Ohel, an Israeli pianist who was abducted in October 2023. “Superman (For Alon, the Hostages and their Families)<\/span>” can be watched on YouTube and downloaded from the Five for Fighting website.<\/a><\/p>\n Before his show at The Big E, which is planned for Sept. 21 at 8 p.m.<\/a> on the Court of Honor Stage, Ondrasik spoke with The Republican about his music\u2019s legacy and the importance of using his voice for change. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n Q. You\u2019ve been making music and touring for 30 years. What inspires you to keep going?<\/b><\/p>\n Ondrasik:<\/b> Well, a few things. There\u2019s a certain camaraderie on the road with my bandmates, whether it\u2019s my rock band or my string quartet, and it\u2019s kind of like a locker room. Every tour is like a reunion, and we all have so much fun. I actually have my daughter opening for me on the string quartet tour, so that certainly adds a new spice of life and joy.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s also talking to the fans and hearing their stories of why these songs matter to them. I\u2019ve had a few songs in the last couple of years that haven\u2019t necessarily been songs on the radio, but they\u2019ve had a global impact. I wrote a song about Afghanistan, and that became a huge song for our Afghan veterans. I went to Ukraine and wrote a song. In just the last few months, we\u2019ve done a new version of \u201cSuperman\u201d for the hostages. So having songs that are relevant in the culture and impacting the world also, I think, keeps you inspired to keep doing it.<\/p>\n Q. Do you think musicians have a responsibility to use their voices and their platforms to speak out against injustices in the world?<\/b><\/p>\n Ondrasik:<\/b> I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a responsibility, but I think throughout musical history, musicians have spoken about their worldview, and you can kind of see the culture, conversations, battles and other moments through music. You can listen to music of the \u201860s and get a sense of the times. I was honored to perform at the Concert for New York, which made a huge statement supporting America after 9\/11. I also understand that some people just want to write songs and maybe they don\u2019t want to have to speak on big issues.<\/p>\n That said, I\u2019ve been very disappointed in the music industry with their silence after Oct. 7, 2023 (the date of the attack on Israel by terror group Hamas), and the refusal to condemn the atrocities of Oct. 7. The whole world came together after 9\/11 and condemned Osama bin Laden. The fact that there\u2019s been so much silence after Oct. 7 shows that the music industry has, in a sense, lost its soul.<\/p>\n Q. Do you think the unwillingness of musicians to speak out is just part of our political climate today?<\/b><\/p>\n Ondrasik:<\/b> I think it\u2019s two things. I think younger artists have been indoctrinated by the propaganda. You see these polls that show young Americans, a good majority of them support Hamas over Israel. And you have to ask yourself, how is that possible?<\/p>\n But I think the older artists, the artists of my generation, are the ones I\u2019m most disappointed in, because they know better. I think it\u2019s just cowardice. They\u2019re afraid that people might protest their concerts, they might not buy tickets. And that silence, even by Jewish artists, I put to moral cowardice. I wish I had a nicer answer, but I think it\u2019s cowardice in the culture. There should be, in my mind, thousands and thousands of us speaking out.<\/p>\n Q. Did you ever think your music would have the lasting effect that it does today?<\/b><\/p>\n Ondrasik: <\/b>No. I had success very late, in my late 20s, early 30s, which at 60, that sounds very young. But back in the day, it was rare for a songwriter of that age to break in. I had struggled for 15 years just to get myself heard. With \u201cSuperman\u201d becoming one of the songs that recognized the heroes of 9\/11, you know, you could never predict anything like that.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to even wrap my mind around the fact that \u201c100 Years\u201d is 20 years old. As a songwriter, we\u2019re grateful that these songs have stuck around. People still put them in their home movies or weddings, funerals, graduations, you still hear them. It\u2019s nice, you know, I\u2019ve played these songs tens of thousands of times, and I still really love playing them. And there\u2019s a whole new generation finding them for the first time.<\/p>\n Q. You\u2019re coming to The Big E, so I have to ask, any treats you\u2019re excited to try?<\/b><\/p>\n Ondrasik:<\/b> The band\u2019s always out there scouring fairs for the yummies, even though it\u2019s never the best thing for our diets. (laughs)<\/i> But we can always put that on pause for a day. The nice thing (about The Big E) is we can wander and watch some bands and be fans, as well as performers.<\/p>\n Tickets for Five for Fighting\u2019s concert at The Big E, to be staged Sept. 21 at 8 p.m. on the Court of Honor Stage, are priced at $54 and available on the <\/i>fair\u2019s website<\/i><\/a>. Tickets include admission to the fair on the day of the concert.<\/i><\/p>\n Read the original article on MassLive<\/a>. Add MassLive<\/a> as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WEST SPRINGFIELD \u2014 When Five for Fighting released \u201cSuperman (It\u2019s Not Easy)\u201d in 2001, the song was a near-instant a hit in the U.S., debuting at No. 38 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the song unexpectedly became more than \u201ca hit\u201d \u2014 it became an anthem that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2017282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[370155,366569,306299,370157,31353,370156],"class_list":["post-2017281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-five-for-fighting","tag-hamas","tag-madison-square-garden","tag-ondrasik","tag-superman","tag-terrorist-attacks"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/John-Ondrasik-reflects-on-\u2018Superman-legacy-ahead-of-Big-E.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2017281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2017282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2017281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2017281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2017281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}