PHILLIPSBURG, N.J. \u2014 Phillipsburg native John DeRosa is being recognized on a national stage after writing a song honoring fallen U.S. soldiers and the sacrifices made by military families.<\/p>\n
DeRosa\u2019s song \u201c13,\u201d written and produced four years ago, will be honored during the USA\u2019s 250th anniversary celebration at the 2026 Nashville Music Awards, where he will receive the Producers Choice Honors Award.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’re receiving this award. It’s already decided. And I was like, just in shock,\u201d DeRosa said.<\/p>\n
According to DeRosa, previous recipients of the award include Olivia Newton-John, Jack Black and Lita Ford.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can’t believe I’m getting something that they obtained. It’s just amazing,\u201d DeRosa said.<\/p>\n
But for DeRosa, the true impact of the song comes from the emotional response it has received from families across the country.<\/p>\n
The inspiration for \u201c13\u201d came after DeRosa heard a story about the body of a pilot being returned from Afghanistan, while the pilot\u2019s wife and children waited at an Air Force base to receive the folded American flag.<\/p>\n
The title of the song refers to the 13 folds used in properly folding the American flag.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found out that a lot of the families are starting to use it at the funerals of the soldiers and that I get really emotional when I think about that,\u201d DeRosa said.<\/p>\n
DeRosa and his band plan to perform \u201c13\u201d during the awards ceremony to honor the soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice for the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILLIPSBURG, N.J. \u2014 Phillipsburg native John DeRosa is being recognized on a national stage after writing a song…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":819868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[29],"tags":[8378,171,975,271373,67,132,68,84790],"class_list":["post-819867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-newjersey","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-warren-county"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116632065745030226","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}