Madison Rising stands behind NASCAR rock anthem performance

The band facing a lot of backlash for their rock rendition of the national anthem at the Daytona 500 last Saturday are holding their heads high after the performance.

Madison Rising lead singer Dave Bray tells KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz they were just doing what they do.

“We are America’s patriotic rock band,” says Bray. “We’ve done nothing but pro-American, patriotic rock music to get a message through to our kids and to our youngsters and the people of America that American culture is alive and well and we’re not just going to stand and take it and watch people try to destroy that.”

By mixing patriotism with rock music, Bray hopes they can get kids excited about being patriotic at an early age.

“This is why we do what we do to stand up and be proud of being American and being proud to rock it out with pride.”

Coming from a military family where most every man has served, Bray says he felt compelled to show his patriotic pride through his music.

“We wanted to pay homage to God and country and we wanted to stand up for some of the things that a lot of people in the music business are a little bit scared to stand up for,” says Brady. “Madison Rising stands for the second amendment. We stand up and support our troops. We stand up and support our men and women in uniform, our first responders, our fire and police and that’s what we’ve done with our new record.”

Bray thinks the backlash came because people just weren’t prepped to expect a rock version of the song.

“They were expecting the normal deal, and if NASCAR had promoted a little better and told people what was coming they would have been ready.”

He says despite all the media controversy, they plan to just keep doing what they’re doing.

“At the end of the day, this is what we do, it’s what we stand behind and we’re not going to stop doing it.”