Where indeed? Music and film legend Pat Boone has a new single out asking that very question. And he has plenty of commentary to give about where he sees the country going off the rails -- and how to bring it back.

Pat talked with me yesterday about his new song, "Where Did America Go", and about his perspective on the changes and challenges facing our country. He's now 90 years old but still working almost as much as ever, and seems decades younger in spirit. In our conversation, Pat talked about the need to return to the concept of America as a godly nation in the constitutional form created by its founders. That comes directly from the song itself, where one verse laments:

That old Constitution
Still holds the solution
But we gave up our freedoms for sale ..

The song, Pat tells me, was a conscious effort to return to folk music as a form of social protest. He wanted to write a Bob Dylan song, Pat says, and even reached out at one point to see whether Dylan might be interested in collaborating on it. Dylan is on tour, though, so Pat put it together himself with a minimal group to emphasize the folk-music sensibilities of "Where Did America Go?" The result -- as you'll see at the end -- succeeds in Pat's ambition.

Pat and I chatted briefly before the recording began, so when we started, he made sure we would have fun right off the bat:

Ed: Pat Boone joins us today. Mr. Boone, thank you so much for sitting down with us.

Pat: Mr. Ed, I enjoy your TV series from years ago. You look better than the Mr. Ed I remember. 

I repeated that to everyone I contacted afterward; I was absolutely tickled by it, as you'll see in the video. Pat has a sharp but fun sense of humor, and even more a gentleness that bolsters his message about the drift and decline in American culture and unity -- not unity on policy, of course, but unity in spirit as Americans. 

Here are a few quick highlights from one of my more enjoyable interviews:

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Pat: In woke stuff that's happening now, here we are in America today, which is why I had to write the song, where we have parades on college campuses and protests and actually anti-Semitic I mean, it is astonishing to think that the same forces that led to Hitler's Nazi Germany are operating full steam now with, you know, we're having to really stand up and try to resist it or it can take over.

So this song, I'm a big Bob Dylan fan, and I loved his Blowing in the Wind. I loved that song and what it did, and it was just recorded with himself, his rhythm guitar, and a harmonica, which was on his chest, you know, he blew his own harp. So that song affected our society, and I knew that's what we needed now. ...

Ed: Well, I think what it hearkens back to is the sense of America as a godly nation, right? And that doesn't necessarily mean sectarianism. It just means a godly nation, a nation that understands that there's a creator. It's in our foundational documents. That's where we get our own unique individual dignity and government is supposed to be structured to respect that.

Pat: And the Pledge of Allegiance, one nation under God. Now that people trying to take under God out of our pledge, they want to take in God we trust off our currency, which has been there. That was Ben Franklin when he was designing our currency. He's the one that not only put in God we trust, but if you look closely on most of our currency, there's a Jewish menorah on our currency. Most people don't know that you have to look for it.

But it was there from the beginning. ...

Ed: Every single person lives in troubled times throughout the history of the world. But there seems to be something that has accelerated, you know, simply, right? I mean, are you sensing that as well?

Pat: Oh, definitely. Yes. I mean, it's right in front of our faces. It began to happen, unfortunately, and it's the human human capability, that when we got most of our problems solved, you know, in times of strife, in times of being attacked, and in times of losing what we have, we've grown strong and we've gotten on our knees and we, you know, it took World Trade Center. Remember what happened when after the World Trade Center, when suddenly on our streets, street corners, everywhere we drove, people were out there with flags, God bless America, and saluting, you know, any policeman or serviceman, and churches were full.

Well, it lasted about a month.

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Pat speaks at length about his faith, and especially about abortion and the election. He has five questions for Kamala Harris on that topic, which you'll want to watch for yourself rather than have me transcribe them here. 

Below is the full interview, as well as the lyrics video of "Where Did America Go?" A more robust video will come out shortly, so be sure check on that at PatBoone.com, which has plenty of other content, as well as his Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok, and Spotify accounts. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did.