The Song Of America

Independence day. 2025. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Jocko Willink?

  So I want to tell you a story about America, about our country. I went to the opening day of a soccer game here in my hometown of San Diego, California, going to see the San Diego Football Club. It was the first game in the history of our club and there was a lot of hype. It was a completely sold out game and it was hyped by the local news and it was all over the media and social media and whatnot. And it was a big deal because the people of San Diego, we were excited for our new professional team.

• 0:44Jocko Willink?

  And because it was such a big event, they had a lot of ceremonial type activities before the game. There were local politicians in attendance, there was ribbon cutting and there were some dedications. And there was all the pomp and circumstance of a momentous occasion.

• 1:06Jocko Willink?

  And finally, the players took the field and the crowd was fully engaged. And finally, just prior to the game, it was time for our great American tradition before a sporting event. It was time for the singing of our national anthem.

• 1:28Jocko Willink?

  Now, this is a song that often brings tears to my eyes.

• 1:37Jocko Willink?

  Tears to my eyes as I remember

• 1:42Jocko Willink?

  the hundreds of thousands of men and women throughout our history

• 1:48Jocko Willink?

  who made the ultimate sacrifice to defend our nation.

• 1:54Jocko Willink?

  And of those hundreds of thousands of heroes,

• 2:00Jocko Willink?

  some of them were my friends, my brothers.

• 2:08Jocko Willink?

  That sacrificed their life and died defending our flag and our ideals.

• 2:18Jocko Willink?

  So as I thought about those heroes,

• 2:23Jocko Willink?

  I wondered who is going to have the solemn and sacred duty of performing

• 2:33Jocko Willink?

  the Star Spangled Banner.

• 2:36Jocko Willink?

  And as I thought about it, I thought maybe they selected a local celebrity. There's plenty of talented musicians in San Diego who could do this powerful song, "Justice."

• 2:53Jocko Willink?

  But then I thought, maybe they, you know, for the local touch, bring in a proud distinguished school band or a church choir to belt out the moving song that explains

• 3:13Jocko Willink?

  our republic and how our republic started and captures the spirit of our flag and the spirit of our people. And also captures the sacrifice of our military. And as I thought about that, I

• 3:27Jocko Willink?

  I had what seemed like the most obvious choice, the hopeful choice in my mind was that perhaps they had, or they were going to have either the Navy or the Marine Corps band.

• 3:41Jocko Willink?

  Maybe they were going to perform. The Navy and the Marine Corps are deeply rooted in San Diego.

• 3:48Jocko Willink?

  And millions of sailors and Marines have deployed from San Diego's shores to face our nation's enemies. And I knew it would be fitting to see our flag honored by active duty troops in uniform.

• 4:07Jocko Willink?

  I thought that that would be very fitting.

• 4:11Jocko Willink?

  And so I was anticipating what I was actually going to get to see when finally the announcer invited the crowd to stand for the National Anthem.

• 4:23Jocko Willink?

  And I rose to my feet with 35,000 other people.

• 4:28Jocko Willink?

  And then to my surprise, the announcer explained that the National Anthem wasn't going to be performed by any one person. It was going to be performed by us. By the crowd. It was going to be a sing-along. A sing-along for our National Anthem. I was shocked and quite frankly, I was disappointed. And I was kind of beside myself because what were they thinking? Here we are. It's opening day. It's a historic moment.

• 5:10Jocko Willink?

  And now, look, I'm no Pavarotti or Elvis Presley or Robert Plant, but I know how to sing. I've sang in bands since I was a kid and I know that singing is not easy. In fact, singing is difficult and it's difficult to stay in tune and difficult to get the right timing and difficult to hit the right notes. And to think that 35,000 people, random people, were going to be able to pull this off? It didn't make sense to me. There's going to be people that would sing too loud. There's going to be people that would sing too quiet. There's going to be people that sing too high, people that sing too low. Some people wouldn't sing at all.

• 5:55Jocko Willink?

  Many people that would sing would be tone deaf. So to hit the right rhythm and the right pitch and to achieve the proper level of clarity and elegance that this song deserves. I didn't think there was a chance. And I was disappointed. And when the Jumbotron began to scroll the words, it looked like I was right. For a moment. Because right as people started to sing, as I expected, some people were too high

• 6:35Jocko Willink?

  and some people were too low and some were off pitch and some were off tempo, but in a few bars and a few chords.

• 6:45Jocko Willink?

  The voices started to blend together.

• 6:50Jocko Willink?

  And the low voices were balanced by the high ones and the quiet voices were bolstered by the loud ones. And the out of tune notes were leveled out by people singing perfectly on pitch.

• 7:06Jocko Willink?

  And as I sang myself, as I did my part, I heard it.

• 7:15Jocko Willink?

  I heard this mass of people from every background, people of every size, every shape, every color, every creed. People with a wide variety of contrasting and conflicting voices. As they sang, the sum of their voices, it harmonized.

• 7:44Jocko Willink?

  And it sounded better than I ever imagined it could.

• 7:51Jocko Willink?

  That group of 35,000 individuals singing together was as good as I ever heard that song.

• 8:04Jocko Willink?

  Now, it wasn't perfect, but those imperfections gave it soul. They made it human. Every individual doing their share gave our national anthem a unique identity.

• 8:30Jocko Willink?

  An identity that wasn't perfect, but even though it wasn't perfect, it was amazing.

• 8:42Jocko Willink?

  Just like our country.

• 8:46Jocko Willink?

  We have the voices of so many people. Some quiet, some loud, some rich, some poor, some left, some right, some center.

• 8:58Jocko Willink?

  Some angry.

• 9:00Jocko Willink?

  Some happy, some working hard. And some hardly working.

• 9:07Jocko Willink?

  Some concerned. Some carefree.

• 9:13Jocko Willink?

  We're all different.

• 9:16Jocko Willink?

  Some people like country. Some heavy metal. And some soul, some like hip hop. Some hardcore punk. And of course. Some rock and roll.

• 9:31Jocko Willink?

  That's because. We are all individuals.

• 9:36Jocko Willink?

  And we are all free. To sing our tune. The way we want.

• 9:45Jocko Willink?

  But together. Even with those differences, we are more alike than we are not. We are determined.

• 9:57Jocko Willink?

  We are tough. We are individualistic and we're optimistic.

• 10:05Jocko Willink?

  We will not be controlled.

• 10:09Jocko Willink?

  And we will fight.

• 10:12Jocko Willink?

  And we will die if necessary for our destiny.

• 10:18Jocko Willink?

  And for our freedom.

• 10:22Jocko Willink?

  You see.

• 10:24Jocko Willink?

  We are all American.

• 10:30Jocko Willink?

  This is our country.

• 10:35Jocko Willink?

  And we are not perfect. And neither is America. We hit some bad notes. Our pitch is sometimes too high and sometimes too low. Our timing is not always perfect. And our rhythm is sometimes off. But together, bonded only by the freedom our forefathers fought and died for, we sing an amazing song. And America is absolutely amazing too.

• 11:20Jocko Willink?

  God bless all you Americans. Sing loud and sing proud. This is the land of the free and the home of the brave. Have a happy 4th of July. And God bless America.