Five For Fighting with….Five For Fighting

A while back I began writing a segment called Five For Fighting. I connect with talented writers from around the web and trade five questions, the questions and answers then appear in posts on both of our sites. I thought it would be a fun opportunity to reach new readers and to offer you, my loyal visitors, perspective from around the sports blogosphere. The name of the segment comes from the five minute major penalty in hockey for fighting. I was not the first to take that penalty as a namesake. It was first done by John Ondrasik, singer/songwriter who performs under the name Five For Fighting. In addition to being a Grammy Award Nominee and platinum selling artist John is also a big time sports fan. Recently his manager reached out with kind words about the segment and wondered if I would be interested in having John be a part of the next installment. It didn’t take long for me to say yes.

John Ondrasik was born in 1968 in Los Angeles, California. The lone member of Five For Fighting, John has released four studio albums and is putting the finishing touches on a fifth, Slice, which will be released in October of this year. He also released Back Country, a live CD/DVD compilation, in 2007. His song Superman (it’s not easy) vaulted him into mainstream success in 2001. The single helped propel the album America Town to platinum status and paved the way for his ever popular hit 100 years, which became his first platinum single.

In addition John has worked diligently over the years to help numerous charities, including Augie’s Quest, Autism Speaks, the Fischer House Foundation and many, many others. He’s performed numerous times for US troops overseas through the USO and has helped coordinate the comilation and release of two CD’s worth of free music for troops stationed around the globe. the CD For The Troops (1 and 2) series, distriubted through AAFES, includes songs from Billy Joel, The Fray, Good Charlotte, Brooks and Dunn, Maroon 5 and others.

When not saving the world and writing platinum albums John loves sports, particularly hockey. He’s covered the NHL for Sports Illustrated and cherishes the opportunity to talk sports with friends and fans alike. I’m honored to have John join me here in this format for a very special segment of Five For Fighting.

You’re widely known to be a big time hockey fan, what were your impressions of this years Stanley Cup Finals?

Any finals that goes to a game 7 is classic. (I had the Wings in 7). Though it’s no conciliation for Wings fans I enjoyed seeing the Pens get a ring and we’ll see how many Crosby can rack up over the next decade.

Growing up in California, were you an Angels fan, a Dodgers fan or did your allegiance lie with another team? How about these days?

I started as a Dodger fan with the glory infield of Garvey, Lopes, Russel, and Cey. When the team was sold the Dodgers lost a bit of the magic and I jumped on the Angel bandwagon with Scioscia. These days I watch both teams but due to the steroid era find my only passion for baseball is watching my 9-year old behind the plate.

You’ve obviously had great success in the music business, if you could go back in time and pursue a sports related career, what would it be?

2 guard for the Lakers, though that job is taken these days.

When you begin work on a new song what comes first – the music or the lyrics?

There are no rules in song writing. Early in my career most songs started with the music. These days I usually have a concept in mind when I sit down to write. I’ve also written entire lyrics before putting music to them. The key is to write dozens of songs for each record and to suffer through months of re-writes on the tunes that are worthy.

When you’re in Detroit, what do you like to do? Any old haunts? Favorite venues?

I usually try and schedule the tour to take in a Wings or Pistons game. Priorities in order.

The first single from the upcming album Slice will be the song Chances, which will be available everywhere for download tomorrow, July 21st, 2009. You can check out all the goings on related to John, his music and his work at the Five For Fighting website.

My thanks once more go out to John and to Steve from Aware Records for helping put this together. Make sure to check out his new album come October and keep your eyes peeled for the subsequent tour.

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