Lee Greenwood, Chris Janson appear at 2024 Republican National Convention

2017 Grand Ole Opry inductee Chris Janson and multiple-time country chart-topping "God Bless the U.S.A." vocalist Lee Greenwood appeared during the first evening of the 2024 Republican National Convention at Milwaukee's Fiserv Center.

For the latter, it continued in a four-decade-long string of iconic Republican party moments attached to his 1984-released patriotic anthem.

"Prayer works. This nation is based on faith. Prayer works. Because He was sure, as Donald Trump turned his head just slightly, that the bullet missed him just enough to save his life to be the next president of the United States," Greenwood said from the podium before introducing former President Trump to the crowd as he sang "God Bless the U.S.A."

"You will not take this man down. He has the courage, the strength and he will be the next President of the United States," Greenwood added.

Trump's surprise convention appearance occurredafter a gunman opened fire at his rally in Pennsylvania on Sunday. The incident left the former Chief Executive and two others injured and one man dead.

Chants of "fight, fight, fight" came from the crowd as Greenwood finished his song and Trump — with his right ear bandaged after the assassination attempt — stood front and center on the stage.

Chris Janson continues series of Trump-supporting Republican National Convention appearances

Janson appeared to perform his latest single, "All American Guy" — he has done so at a cross-country string of concerts and festival appearances throughout July including in front of 25,000 people as the headlining act at Rhinelander, Wisconsin's Hodag Country Festival 48 hours before appearing at the Republican National Convention.

"Country music is for the fans and I have the best fans! This is real America. This is real country music. The energy all around me felt so united and wonderful that I just decided to have them all on stage," he added, describing being surrounded by side-stage and VIP attendees joining him onstage to close the event.

Janson joined the house band at 2016's convention at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland to sing a version of Tim McGraw's "Truck Yeah" entitled "Trump Yeah."

Chris Janson and LoCash helped write "Truck Yeah" for McGraw in 2012.

About his work of late, Janson added the following in a 2023 Tennessean feature:

"For most Americans, those values of family, God, and our local communities are not just what country music is all about — they're alluring to all of us."

Lee Greenwood's longstanding history of Republican support

Two decades into his career as a pop band frontman on the Las Vegas circuit, by 1979, Greenwood was lured to Music City by Mel Tillis' bandleader, Larry McFaden.

A half-decade later, "God Bless The U.S.A." — Greenwood's seventh consecutive top-10 single — was released. It was initially penned as a response to the Soviet military shooting down a Korean airliner en route from Anchorage, Alaska, to Seoul, mistaken as a U.S. spy plane in Sept. 1983. All 269 passengers and crew aboard, including Georgia resident Larry McDonald, a member of the United States House of Representatives, died.

Ronald Reagan included the song in a video shown at the 1984 Republican National Convention. Four years later, during the presidential election campaign, Greenwood performed the song supporting George H.W. Bush at rallies and the 1988 Republican National Convention.

Years later, the song also assumed a military legacy.

During 1991's Gulf War and after the September 11, 2001, attacks, the song eventually became an all-genre, top-20 Billboard Hot 100 chart hit.

For Greenwood, the song strategically mentions his home state of California, the nation's pop cultural centers of New York City and Los Angeles, plus Detroit and Houston as "economically part of the basis of our economy —Motortown and the oil industry," he noted in a 2012 interview.

Greenwood and Trump

During the 2016, 2020 and 2024 United States presidential election campaigns, President Donald Trump used Greenwood's song as a rally introduction track. Greenwood, an avid Trump supporter, has also frequently appeared as a stump speaker for the former President.

Trump has also publicly endorsed Greenwood's May 2021-released "God Bless the U.S.A." Bible.

Initially launched into the marketplace to commemorate the 2001 World Trade Center attacks, it includes Greenwood's hand-written version of the chorus of "God Bless the U.S.A." alongside the text of the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, Bill of Rights and Pledge of Allegiance, plus the Bible's King James Version.

"Our founding fathers did a tremendous thing when they built America on Judeo-Christian values," Trump said in a video posted to social media in March, encouraging supporters to purchase Greenwood's bible. "Now that foundation is under attack perhaps as never before."

"All Americans need to have a Bible in their home and I have many. It's my favorite book," Trump added. Religion is so important and so missing, but it's going to come back."

On July 13, after the shooting at Trump's rally, Greenwood posted the following on social media:

"With the assassination attempt tonight, the nation has been moved ever closer to chaos and an emergency lockdown. We must pray. Make America Pray Again!"

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Lee Greenwood, Chris Janson appear at 2024 Republican National Convention