Missing Stateside Is The Most Patriotic Band In America, According To Sarah Palin

JD Morgan is a simple dude.

His band, Missing Stateside, is also simple. They're a local rock 'n' roll group from Albuquerque. They play gigs at dive bars. They perform at county fairs. Sometimes, they'll even drive up to Colorado and rock at a motorcycle rally. On their website, they describe themselves as "four guys that love our country, support our veterans, and love to rock!"

JD Morgan is also the cousin of Sarah Palin.

About a week ago, he got the Sarah Palin bump. The former governor of Alaska took to Twitter and endorsed Missing Stateside as "the most patriotic band [she] knows," and went on to post the video for the band's newest single, "Fire & Ice," a heavy, grungy, guitar-fueled song that sounds like the soundtrack for a bar you'd find in the Midwest that serves pitchers of Miller High Life for a dime.

Last week, I called JD up to chat about what the response to this unexpected endorsement has been like. And so, here it is, a question that we all must have wondered since she became a figure in the national spotlight: This is what happens when Sarah Palin calls you patriotic.

Noisey: How long has Missing Stateside been a band?
JD Morgan: Well, it's kind of a weird story. We started up in Iceland back in 2003, so about ten years ago. We were stationed there; we were a military band. I'm the only original guy left, everyone else got orders to go to different places so since 2003 there's been 15 people in the band; bass players and drummers and lead singers. So I'm the only guy left.

So it's a service band?
Well, it was. It wasn't a service band but we were all active duty military when we started. My lead singer Tony is a former marine who teaches special education now at the high school here in Albuquerque. And I just retired from the military, two and a half years ago now.

Congratulations. What military branch?
I was Air Force. We started with members of the Air Force and Navy. We were stationed at a navy base up in Iceland so that's how we started. We played all the local clubs there. But there weren't that many of them.

And now you live in Albuquerque. Do you guys tour or just play locally?
I wouldn't quite call it touring. We go up to Colorado and do the bike rallies up there. We've opened for Foghat a few times and Steppenwolf and Skid Row and Quiet Riot.

Did you meet those guys?
Yeah. We got to meet them. The other guys in the band are used to stuff like that, but for me, I get star struck. We got to meet Ted Nugent.

What was Ted Nugent like in real life?
He was really quiet and obviously he was getting ready for a show so we didn't get to talk much to him. We didn't open for him—we did an after party for him, so we got to meet him. He doesn't get involved with doing many parties or anything. He's always supportive of the troops and all the military stuff. But we didn't get to talk to him that much. Not too long ago, I also got to meet Hank Williams Jr. which was amazing.

Look, our band is sitting here in Albuquerque minding our own business, playing the clubs here, and this endorsement from Sarah happened last week. We don't claim to be Van Halen or anything. That was my first concert: Van Halen.

What's your favorite Van Halen song?
All of them, really. I love all of them, all the way back to "Jump" but being a guitarist, I always wanted to be Eddie. I honestly love all of their songs.

What's the last week been like now that you got the Sarah Palin bump?
Well, it's been really crazy. I texted her once or twice and told her, "Thank you." It's been amazing. It's been very hectic. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of emails that I can't keep up with. Look, we're a garage band. We literally play in my garage. It's been very hectic and not a lot of sleep. Like obviously, I've gotten negative comments. Everybody went to iTunes and got my CD and, yeah, I've gotten a lot of negative comments.

How's that been?
It's pretty tough for a guy like me who's not used to that kind of thing. I'm not trying to sound like I never get negative comments, but it's hard for me to write a song. I'm even critical of myself. When I write a song, I think it's great, and then when I record it, I'm like "Oh, that sounds horrible."

Yeah, I'm the same way, I feel like anything I write is terrible.
I did this solo project. It's on iTunes, it's called Lift Me Up.There are eleven tracks on there. When I did it, this lady I was working with in Hollywood said "Oh, let's put it on right now." And I said, "Well it's not mastered." And she said, "Oh no, that's the new sound." This was a couple years ago. She told me, "Everyone likes that sound now. You know, like when the Rolling Stones were kind of raw?" And I said, "No, that's not what I want." And she said, "No, let's do it." So we put it on there and it kind of just sat there for awhile and now people are just buying the heck out of it. As far as I've been told, with all these hundreds and hundreds of emails. It's been very hectic—but a good hectic.

Who was this lady in Hollywood? Was she an agent?
Look, I don't know much about the music industry. I love playing music so I found her online and she said she could help me out with some of my music and I said okay. I don't use her anymore, and I don't remember her name.

With Sarah promoting us, I know there's obviously good and bad that comes with it, as far as people accepting your music. I got a lot of people slamming me—[Palin] said we're the most patriotic band she knows—and people said, "Oh you guys don't sing anything about America." But Sarah wasn't saying that because of our music. We do a lot of fundraisers and charities for the military; we're military ourselves. That's what she was getting at. So I never claimed to be Van Halen.

Is there any part of you that's like, "Man, Sarah, why'd you have to say that?"
The pros outweigh the cons. I'm used to this, not as much as she is obviously. I saw her a couple of months ago. We went home and our whole family got together. She's my first cousin on my mom's side. She understands everything that is going on and she's very respective to that. She wasn't putting us out there to get any bad publicity. And the pros are outweighing the cons. I've gotten so many people who want us to come to different areas of the United States and perform. Minnesota and Washington DC, different military events and stuff like that. So it's a great thing, we love playing to the military.

Sarah is your first cousin. What is your relationship with her?
Our family is really close. We're not calling each other every day. I've been in the military for the last twenty years so we definitely don't see family as much as we need to.

She's probably pretty busy.
She is extremely busy and I'm kind of a lazy guy now that I'm retired. [Laughs.] We exchange occasional texts and emails and how are things going kind of stuff. We just don't get enough time to spend together with our entire family—you know, Todd and the kids. We also have a lot of people that are in the military so it's hard to get everybody together at once.

How does your band reflect your own patriotic and political beliefs?
Well, the guys in the band are very realistic about what a band is. We know we play the local areas here and we're definitely not Van Halen. So we don't mix politics into our band. Our band is strictly about playing music and entertaining people, especially the troops and the military folks. A few years ago, during the campaign, when John McCain came to Albuquerque, we got asked to perform before he came out on stage and talked. So everybody thought, wow, man, your cousin must have pulled some strings to get your band to play for this. And when I called and asked my family, they actually said no. We were just picked because we were playing the scene. We don't do politics, left or right. We keep political opinions to ourselves when it comes to the band. I don't think that's a bad thing.

I've been getting a lot of emails from people who absolutely love Sarah and occasionally I get the other side too. But I can tell you: this band has nothing to do with politics. I absolutely love Sarah and Todd and all the kids and cousins and their family. I can tell you this: Sarah is one of the most honest people I've met in my life. But as far as the politics, we're a band that stays out of that, for obvious reasons.

Have you felt any sort of pressure, especially since Sarah's endorsement, to buckle in a certain direction or make statements?
I've gotten a couple of emails that are pretty strong. Both sides: left and right. And I stay away from them. I don't know how to tweet people, so that was a new thing for me. I started getting tweets and my brother said, "Hey you might want to invite some other people to your Twitter, tweeter thing." And I'm like, "How the heck do I do this?" But I'm learning.

People have very strong feelings about Sarah Palin. That must be a tough position to be in: getting berated because you're related to a person that somebody disagrees with politically.
I see what you're saying. But I'm a big boy and I can handle it. I know what my beliefs are, I know what my political views are. We get a lot of hate mail, some like "I'm going to do this to you and your family." My belief is simple: believe in what you want and I'll believe in what I want. There's no need to hurt someone. There are people out there saying they're going to hurt people over this stuff. And that's kind of ridiculous to me.

Were you getting those emails and letters before she endorsed you?
I've had people in the past who have disliked me because of my music and they tell me my music sucks. Other people write and thank me for my music. So I understand it's both ways. We're having a good time with it, and I'm sure there's a little negativity, but that's everything in life. We're happy with it and we actually thank her for doing this. It was a great thing to have this publicity and people look it up on iTunes and purchase the CD and it's great.

You mentioned earlier that you're a patriotic band but you're not a political band. I feel like that's kind of a hard line to walk. Especially with a band name like "Missing Stateside," that carries a lot of undertones. What does it mean to you to be patriotic?
People sometimes refer patriotic to just being in the military. It's like the term "hero." When people say the word "hero," they spread that around pretty lightly now, and I reserve the word hero for people I think are doing the better for the United States—and not just people downrange—those people putting themselves behind and doing something for someone else. Being patriotic to me is people serving their communities, whether it's police officers or first responders or people that work for the Red Cross. To me, it makes the United States a heck of a place.

As someone then who has that approach to music, what's it like then to receive positive responses?
It's a great feeling. I can't really compare it to anything else. It's a wonderful feeling to have someone say that your music is good, and thank you for your service. I posted a thing a couple of days ago. I was getting a lot of people messaging me and thanking me for going to war for us. So I thought, wow, I need to make something clear. I posted something that explained that there are a lot of us in the military who didn't go downrange to Afghanistan and Iraq and fight the battle like all the brave men and women do. I was one of those. I did not go do that. I basically assisted. I was a criminal investigator and a bodyguard and I stayed behind a lot. I stayed in the United States and I traveled all over the place when I was a bodyguard, but I wasn't the combat guy with bombs going off around me. I said this in the blog; I don't care if you're a cop or a cook or you work on the jet fighters or you're downrange or infantry. All of those are the same to me. They're all wonderful.

Does it ever feel frustrating or disingenuous when people thank you so flippantly?
People are busy in their lives right now in the United States. They're worried about the economy; they're worried about the big [Trayvon Martin] trial. People are very hectic during the day and not everybody knows exactly what the military does and whether they're stateside or downrange. My son is joining the Air Force next year and he doesn't know everything about what the military does and it's not ignorant. I think people are very concerned about their lives right now and what they're doing and their children and their family. The ones who do know exactly what the folks who are downrange right now are doing to protect us are fortunate. I feel fortunate for those people who do know what our services do for us. But yeah, I'm not frustrated at people who don't understand it; I don't understand what you do at your job.

What is your goal with Missing Stateside?
The group we have right now is the best we've ever been and I love these guys. We have no drama in the band. We all get along great. We tell everyone when they come into the band that we're doing this to have fun. We say there's no politics involved. It's to have fun. And we all have jobs. It's always been kind of a hobby. I've always wanted to push it to the next limit. Being in the military, I really didn't have time to be recording. That CD that's on iTunes is literally recorded—every single beat of it—in my garage. I do the drums and then I do the guitars and then the bass and I record all the instruments by myself and then Tony steps in and helps me with some guitar parts and vocals. I would love to get in a studio. We've probably got 30 or 40 more songs now. I would like to get in the studio and do it the right way. That would be my goal. I would never ask the other guys to quit their jobs and take a leap with me and see if we could chance going out on the road but now that I'm retired, I can kind of fall back and do what I want.

Look, I've always wanted to be Van Halen. But I've been doing this for ten years and I've got a long way to go and I know it doesn't happen to everybody. I got some people criticizing me, saying, "You've been doing this for ten years and you're in the same spot." And I'm like, "Look, I was a little busy serving in the military."

Eric Sundermann proudly hangs an American flag on the wall in his apartment. He's on Twitter — @ericsundy