When Lee Greenwood released “God Bless The USA” in the spring of 1984, “it was not a massive hit,” the 82-year-old country music icon tells Billboard.

The song peaked at No. 7 in July 1984 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, but it has returned to the charts several times over the decades, including over Fourth of July weekend 2020, the first year of the pandemic — when it hit No. 1 on the Digital Song Sales chart.

The anthem’s enduring appeal has led to it being played in the wake of the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks and the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. It has been covered by Beyoncé, Dolly Parton, and on Friday (Nov. 1), Drew Jacobs released a rock version. And, of course, it is consistently played at political events, including every Republican National Convention since 1988 — Greenwood sang it live at the last one in July — and now as the walk-on music for former President Trump.

“To be honest, having President Trump use ‘USA’ as the song he walks out to every single place he goes is a dream come true for any artist,” says Greenwood, who adds he wrote the song for all Americans.  “Millions of people hear my song on a weekly basis all because President Trump uses it.”

So what is that worth? Billboard spoke with Greenwood and ran the numbers to estimate how much he stands to gain from the Trump bump.

STREAMING

Greenwood says he owns the writer’s and publishing rights to “God Bless The USA,” and that peermusic administers the publishing and synch licensing for it and other songs in his catalog.

Greenwood says he has never charged for the use ‘USA’ at rallies by the former president, whom he knows from his wife Kim Greenwood’s work with the Miss Universe Organization. He says that he did charge the Ronald Reagan campaign $1 to use the song in 1988, but “just because they wanted to have ‘paper on the deal.’

“I don’t look at money as the driver for my music,” he adds.

That said, “God Bless The USA” has earned Greenwood a nice bit of coin this year. The song enjoyed a noticeable increase in consumption, especially in the immediate weeks following Greenwood’s performance at the Republican National Convention.

In the 16 weeks since the RNC, “USA” has averaged over 4,100 song equivalents in the United States, according to Luminate. That’s an increase over the roughly 3,000 U.S. song equivalents it averaged in the 27 weeks of 2024 that preceded the convention.

That post-convention total includes an average of 568,000 U.S. primarily on-demand audio streams compared to 468,000 in the weeks leading up to the convention.

Compared to Greenwood’s “USA”, Sam & Dave’s “Hold On I’m Coming” has seen a smaller average bump. That song is currently the subject of a copyright infringement lawsuit filed in August by the estate of Isaac Hayes, who co-wrote the song. The complaint alleges that the song has been used multiple times during rallies without authorization.

“Hold On I’m Coming” averaged over 5,200 song equivalents in the U.S. since the RNC, just a smidge over the 5,000 U.S. song equivalents it averaged in the 27 weeks before the convention.

Looking at U.S. streaming and download revenue for the songs, the master recording rights for “Hold On” generated more revenue overall than “USA” after the convention — an average of $4,613.81 per week, compared to an equivalent $3,337.24.

However, the bump the songs’ master recording rights netted was bigger for “USA” than “Hold On.” Greenwood’s signature song’s master recording rights generated $744 more per week on average since the convention, compared to $148 for “Hold On.”

That adds up to an estimated Trump bump of an additional nearly $12,000 from the song’s master recordings over the past 16 weeks. These calculations are for label revenue, and Greenwood’s share of that figure would depend on his contract, details of which are not known.

On the publishing side, Greenwood song’s earned an average of about $675 a week from U.S. streams and downloads in the 27 weeks leading up to the convention and $845 a week after. That means the song produced an average of $3,267 a week — master recordings and publishing combined — leading up to the convention and $4,182 a week after the convention.

Billboard estimates Greenwood’s U.S. master recording catalog revenues, not including publishing, brought in $219,000 for his label so far this year compared to almost $184,000 in 2023 — a Trump bump of approximately $35,000 year to date.

THE TRUMP… SLUMP?

Not all songs used at Trump events enjoyed the same post-rally glow. The Foo Fighters‘ “My Hero” was played to introduce Robert Kennedy Jr. at an August rally for the former president in Arizona without permission, according to the band. At the time, a spokesperson for the Foo Fighters said any royalties gained from post-rally plays of the song would be donated to Trump’s challenger, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. (A spokesperson for the band did not respond to a request for comment for this story.)

Since “My Hero” was played at the rally, it has declined in popularity, according to data from Luminate. Prior to the convention, the song’s U.S. streams and downloads averaged almost $10,100 in master recording revenue a week. But after the band denounced the song’s use by the Trump campaign, the audio stream counts average weekly plays fell by almost 200,000 from 1.668 million to 1.488 million. Consequently, revenue that had averaged nearly $10,100 a week fell to just below $9,200 a week, a weekly decline of approximately $900.