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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview with

Aired May 05, 2002 - 11:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN ANCHOR: More than 120 musicians are competing for attention this weekend at the massive music midtown festival in Atlanta. But one artist has more than guitar lessons on his resume. Kenny Thomas served with the Ranger regiment that fought in the battle of the Black Sea in Mogadishu.

The event was portrayed memorably in the movie "Blackhawk Down" and of course the book. Kenny is now the lead singer for the Columbus, Georgia band Cornbred. He joins us live from the big music event, there with his guitar, also with his partner, Alex Jacobs. Welcome, both of you.

That's one of my favorite events down there, the Midtown Festival.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You should be here.

KARL: I wish I was.

Kenny, you've got an amazing story. Most of us just either read the book or watched the movie, "Blackhawk Down," but you were over there. This is obviously an incredible transition for you, but tell us a little bit about your experience in Somalia.

KENNY THOMAS: Well, I was you know part of the third ranger battalion, which was part of Task Force Ranger, and for those of you who have seen the movie and read the book, I was on one of the birds that went in and the mission was basically to go get some people that were in a target building, and the mission went down and went smooth, and it didn't change until the first Black Hawk went down, and that's when we all moved to that crash site and were pretty much holed up there most of the night.

KARL: And you talked about how you emerged, you survived, but a lot of people you knew didn't and kind of the feelings you've gone through, a sense of that time. How's it been watching this movie coming out, being now everybody knows the story.

We obviously knew it from news reports at the time but now it's become something that, you know what's that process been like watching that movie and watching people relive that?

THOMAS: Well, most of all you know for the guys who died, you know I think that the movie and the book have done a good job honoring them and it's done a good honor to the men of Task Force Ranger.

We're all very proud to have been part of it and we're glad that the country has seen it and for the most part everyone has been amazingly patriotic and very grateful to us, and we're all very proud of what we did and I think that the movie and especially the book did a very good job and portrayed everything well.

KARL: All right, talk to me about Cornbread. First of all, when did you start? When did you start this band?

THOMAS: Yes, Cornbread's been around for about six years. The name actually was a nickname I picked up in Somalia. Nobody wanted to eat this crappy cornbread that the army wanted to serve, except for me. That's how I picked up the name and here we are in Midtown Music in Atlanta talking to you in D.C. Who'd have thunk it?

KARL: And you know Cornbread, keeping on the food theme, you know it's a crispy creme stage there.

THOMAS: Yes, crispy creme stage, there you go (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

KARL: So the band's name comes in part from your experience over there. What about some of your music, have you written about your time in the military?

THOMAS: Absolutely. There's a lot of songs that have - you write about what you feel and that's what moves me and there's a lot of our stuff, a lot of our material comes from experiences in Somalia. The song we're going to do for you though, however, is a little bit lighter. It's Sunday morning. I figure there's enough heavy stuff on CNN. We're going to do something light for you.

KARL: Well, no more questions then. Take it away. Let's hear what you've got.

THOMAS: It's called "Mona Lisa's Smile." Alex is going to start it.

(PERFORMANCE OF "MONA LISA'S SMILE)

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