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CNN Live Sunday
Interview With Paul Revere
Aired May 25, 2003 - 16:53 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The 16th annual Rolling Thunder Ride for Freedom roared through the nation's capital today. Motorcyclists from around the country are in Washington to pay tribute to those POWs and those still missing in action. CNN's Patty Davis joins us from Washington with a look at the action there. Hi, Patty.
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, how are you doing? The rain did not have much of an impact here on this demonstration in Washington. In fact, thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of motorcycles converging from the Pentagon across the Memorial Bridge over to the Washington Mall. In fact, it took two solid hours to drive all of those motorcycles here into Washington, D.C.
Now, these bikers are part of Rolling Thunder. And they were met at the Pentagon by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who shook hands. Rolling Thunder honors POWs and those still missing in action to keep that issue on the front burner. Rolling Thunder, named after a 1965 campaign, a bombing campaign by the U.S. military in Vietnam. Those rolling pictures you see there, shot by our cameraman Martin Dougherty (ph) as he rode with Rolling Thunder bikers.
Now we're joined here by Paul Revere of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Welcome to Washington.
PAUL REVERE, SINGER: Thank you.
DAVIS: Now you are part of a lot of these events around the country. Why is that?
REVERE: We're trying to bring attention to the POW/MIA issue, and attention to Rolling Thunder, and bring attention to the fact that how much we owe our veterans. And we do our show kind of like a tribute to our Vietnam veterans who never got a welcome home. And so we're just trying to stay in tune with the vets and everything that they're trying to do.
DAVIS: And you have a song titled "Rolling Thunder." You have a special connection here, I take it?
REVERE: Actually, it was written by a couple of Marines, and we put it on a CD that we sell on our Web site, and we sell them after our concerts. Ridetothewall.org (UNINTELLIGIBLE). We don't make no money on it. All net proceeds go to the Ride to the Wall Foundation to help veteran outreach programs and to help our vets. And we're totally committed to that. We've been riding across America eating bugs for the last three years coming here every Memorial Day weekend. This year I got my buddy Billy Ray here, and Nancy Sinatra. Our fearless leader over here Arty Muller, Rolling Thunder president. He asked them to come and join us. So this was very exciting. We got a new album that we're coming out this summer that's also going to be -- all the proceeds go to help our veterans, it's called "Ride to the Wall 2." And we got special guest stars on that, and that's too many to name because I know you're running out of time.
DAVIS: Thank you so much, that you very much. Great concert. That's right, Nancy Sinatra, Billy Ray Cyrus, Paul Revere and the Raiders gave a really great concert here on Washington's National Mall. As Paul Revere is saying, those proceeds going to that nonprofit organization. Back to you, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Patty Davis, thanks very much. And with Paul Revere, they're dressing the part from start to finish.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 25, 2003 - 16:53 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The 16th annual Rolling Thunder Ride for Freedom roared through the nation's capital today. Motorcyclists from around the country are in Washington to pay tribute to those POWs and those still missing in action. CNN's Patty Davis joins us from Washington with a look at the action there. Hi, Patty.
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, how are you doing? The rain did not have much of an impact here on this demonstration in Washington. In fact, thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of motorcycles converging from the Pentagon across the Memorial Bridge over to the Washington Mall. In fact, it took two solid hours to drive all of those motorcycles here into Washington, D.C.
Now, these bikers are part of Rolling Thunder. And they were met at the Pentagon by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who shook hands. Rolling Thunder honors POWs and those still missing in action to keep that issue on the front burner. Rolling Thunder, named after a 1965 campaign, a bombing campaign by the U.S. military in Vietnam. Those rolling pictures you see there, shot by our cameraman Martin Dougherty (ph) as he rode with Rolling Thunder bikers.
Now we're joined here by Paul Revere of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Welcome to Washington.
PAUL REVERE, SINGER: Thank you.
DAVIS: Now you are part of a lot of these events around the country. Why is that?
REVERE: We're trying to bring attention to the POW/MIA issue, and attention to Rolling Thunder, and bring attention to the fact that how much we owe our veterans. And we do our show kind of like a tribute to our Vietnam veterans who never got a welcome home. And so we're just trying to stay in tune with the vets and everything that they're trying to do.
DAVIS: And you have a song titled "Rolling Thunder." You have a special connection here, I take it?
REVERE: Actually, it was written by a couple of Marines, and we put it on a CD that we sell on our Web site, and we sell them after our concerts. Ridetothewall.org (UNINTELLIGIBLE). We don't make no money on it. All net proceeds go to the Ride to the Wall Foundation to help veteran outreach programs and to help our vets. And we're totally committed to that. We've been riding across America eating bugs for the last three years coming here every Memorial Day weekend. This year I got my buddy Billy Ray here, and Nancy Sinatra. Our fearless leader over here Arty Muller, Rolling Thunder president. He asked them to come and join us. So this was very exciting. We got a new album that we're coming out this summer that's also going to be -- all the proceeds go to help our veterans, it's called "Ride to the Wall 2." And we got special guest stars on that, and that's too many to name because I know you're running out of time.
DAVIS: Thank you so much, that you very much. Great concert. That's right, Nancy Sinatra, Billy Ray Cyrus, Paul Revere and the Raiders gave a really great concert here on Washington's National Mall. As Paul Revere is saying, those proceeds going to that nonprofit organization. Back to you, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Patty Davis, thanks very much. And with Paul Revere, they're dressing the part from start to finish.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
