Iraq War veteran BJ Ganem is more than happy to talk about “Warrior Life,” a country music compilation recently released that features musicians who have played with everyone from David Lee Roth to Steve Vai.

BJ Ganem is comfortable talking about anything – or, well, almost anything, that is. While he’s an open book about his time in the Marine Corps, Sierra Delta (a veteran service dog organization he helps lead), and some of the darkest times of his life, there is one thing he won’t go on the record about when it comes to why he decided to enlist in the first place (and now, that information won’t be divulged here).

No matter. Because above all else, the Iraq War veteran was more than happy to talk about “Warrior Life,” a country music compilation recently released that features musicians who have played with everyone from David Lee Roth to Steve Vai. Ganem stepped up to get songwriting credits on a few tunes while the rest came from established artists looking to help a good cause – 100% of the proceeds of the album, which was spearheaded by Texas songwriter Billy Dawson, will go to Sierra Delta as a means to support veterans and their families.

We caught up with Ganem recently to talk about how the project came together, life as an amputee, the importance of dogs and how it feels to now officially be a published songwriter. The following conversation has been edited for clarity and space.

I wanted to start with how this came together. Who came up with it and how was everything hatched?

It started when Billy Dawson and I met about five or six years ago. I captained this Wounded Warrior amputee football team where a bunch of us amputees played flag football against NFL legends like Michael Vick and Michael Irvin and Roger Staubach – the list goes on and on. We would do this every year before the Super Bowl. One of those years Billy Dawson came out to be entertainment – he volunteered his time and sang “Warrior Life.” He had just got done writing it at that time and it just spoke to me. We started hanging out and becoming really good friends.

I introduced him to Chris Bishop, who was the founder of Blue Buffalo. His family was really big in helping us start Sierra Delta and Blue Buffalo is still a big corporate sponsor for us. We started hanging out and talking about how we all loved music and this country. I was saying to him that it’s a shame we don’t hear songs like Johnny Cash’s “Ragged Old Flag” anymore. Our music stars anymore, more often than not, don’t serve, so there’s a lack of our voice in music. It really struck Billy as a songwriter, so we started thinking about writing songs. He was like, “You should write a song,” and I was like, “I don’t know how to write songs,” but he said, “You have great ideas, and you can help.”

So, I sat down with him and Kelly Johnson and Eric Barker, who wrote the majority of George Strait’s No. 1 hits. So, it was really cool how learn how to turn my thoughts and ideas into a song. So, “God And a Dog” is a song we wrote together and it’s about what makes Sierra Delta go, which is the relationship between humans and dogs. It’s so simple. What Sierra Delta is working to do is to make it easier for more veterans to get help with the full spectrum of dogs. It’s better for us all and it’s better for dogs.

Then, there was “The American Way,” which is the other song I helped write and it speaks to what we’re seeing right now. I get it that there are things in our history that make it difficult, but I want to know how we’re going to define a way forward and what it means to be an American. From there, a bunch of other veterans helped write these songs. It speaks to people in so many ways. We’ve had people write in and say how grateful they are that our perspectives are represented in popular culture.

You mentioned you’re an amputee. Can you talk a little more about that?

I got blown up in Iraq in 2004. The IED killed my gunner Ryan Contafio and it ended my Marine Corps career. When I came home, I struggled with all the stereotypical things veterans struggle with when they come home. Emotions, I drank too much, I was going through a divorce, bankruptcy. It was after getting picked up for a DUI and having to spend a night in the drunk tank and having to walk home – when I got home, I almost ended everything just because I was angry that I didn’t finish that deployment. I knew rationally, it was an option, but it’s one of those things that’s really hard to describe even though most people get it. If you served, you understand. It’s just something you have to work through.

But in that moment, I had this old English Bulldog. Without training or any special breeding, he was the best medicine I had for phantom pains and a lot of other things. In the moment that I was ready to check out, I was thinking everybody would be better off without me just because of the depression, but this dog was gruff – he was scary to other people. His only talent was he’d get slobber into places it was physically impossible to get slobber in. So, I knew if I checked out, nobody would want to take him in, he’s going to end up in a shelter, and older, mean-looking dogs don’t get adopted easily. I figured he’d end up being euthanized and that was enough for me to pull my own head out of my ass and start putting one foot in front of the other and figure it out.

Whether it was the carbon and fiber and titanium foot or if it was the God-given flesh and bone foot, whichever foot my weight was on was going to be my good foot. Just like the James Brown song – “Got a job and I’m paying my bills on the good foot.” I was able to see my way through that depression through Dozer, the dog, and that was the inspiration for “God And a Dog.”

Then, being able to sit down with other veterans and like-minded Americans … it’s like the song “22.” I don’t really like how we throw around how 22 veterans a day are committing suicide because we don’t really have good data, but since everybody recognizes it, I love how it’s used in that song. There’s help. Reach out. Don’t be one of the 22. Then there’s “Owe ‘Em All.” We might not know everyone who’s ever served this country, but we owe every single one. It really speaks to what Sierra Delta is trying to do. We believe we can provide reasonable and sustainable support around helping veterans get dog training so they can get whatever it is they need to live a good life.

I think by Americans being able to hear us through song, they might be able to hear what makes us tick and why we believe what we do and why we regard freedom so important.

I’m glad you mentioned that. I wanted to ask you what drove you to serve in the first place. How did you decide you wanted to be in the Marine Corps? Were you always attracted to that?

No, sir. I was voted least likely to go into the military. I got kicked out of a military high school my sophomore year and was let back in my senior year. I was politely asked to leave college. I went to Georgia Southern University on the Georgia Hope scholarship. I think I ended up with a 1.3 grade point average. So, they politely asked me to not come back and I didn’t feel like working in a factory or working on the docks. I also didn’t feel like being in school anymore.

Then I watched “Legends of the Fall,” and the character that Brad Pitt had – he just ran off and joined whatever he joined, so serving felt appealing to me. I went in and wanted guaranteed infantry and recruiters looked at me like I had three heads. But I thought if I was going to do it, I didn’t want a desk job. I wanted to do the things I couldn’t do anywhere else in the world and I ended up loving it. I served four years of active duty, but this was 1996 to 2000. It was the Clinton years and we were drawing down. I was really frustrated with the lack of training, so I decided to get out and try my luck in the corporate world and get back into school. There’s just a lot of wasted time in the military.

So, I got out and did the Ready Reserves. The one weekend a month thing. Then 9/11 happens right after I’m in the reserves. We were scheduled to go in 2003, but Turkey had closed its borders to coalition forces, so we got bumped to 2004 and the rest is history. I got injured Thanksgiving night in 2004.

That happening on Thanksgiving – does that mean on Thanksgiving each year, it kind of messes you up a little?

Not me. I’ve always had this coping mechanism that whatever happens to me, I’m going to make the best of it. It’s what it’s supposed to be. The way I look at it is, I have just enough information that if something went a different way, it would be worse and not better. So I err with where I’m at and that always helps. They say USMC stands for United States Marine Corps, but it also stands for “You signed a motherf--- contract.” If you didn’t know it was a possibility, especially in an active war … I think we have to recognize that. So, I’m more at peace than a lot of other people.

That’s what we do with Sierra Delta. All veterans are able to join. It’s not needs-based or disability-based. We actually look at this as wellness. Even if you’re doing really good, we want you to join up because if you want a dog in your life, we think that dog, with curated training and routines, that dog can help you maintain wellness so when, for instance, Thanksgiving Day comes around again, it doesn’t f—you up as much. A lot of things will quit on people; I’ve yet to see a dog quit on a person, even if that’s a s--- person.

I was once talking to a friend who said that anyone who doesn’t like dogs is someone you can’t trust. Do you agree with that?

A lot of times. But there are people I know, who I trust with my life, who are germaphobes or they can’t stand the hair or the dandruff and it’s just a condition they have, but they like other people’s dogs. They just don’t want to own dogs. Still, for the most part, yeah. If someone tells me they don’t like dogs, that’s usually strike one (laughs). That’s kind of like if they say they don’t like freedom. We might not be friends (laughs).

I want to get back to the record. You said you didn’t know how to write songs, but then this thing happened and you learned how to write a song. Did this experience kick off a whole new side of your brain? Are you like, “I can be a songwriter now.”

It absolutely did. Every once in a while when I see people I haven’t seen in a while, I’ll be like, “Hey, in case you didn’t know, I’m a published songwriter (laughs).” This goes back to a tremendous gift that Bill Dawson and Chris Bishop gave to the veterans because the veterans own this album. 100% of all the proceeds of everything goes to Sierra Delta. I think it’s unlike any gift I’ve ever seen because it’s what we choose to do with it. The licensing deals we can get for commercials for some of these songs – how that’s going to help veterans get the support and services they need really makes everybody feel good. You don’t have to be somebody special. It just takes time learning the craft.

Being able to sit down with someone like Billy Dawson, and to watch how it comes to him is amazing. It rubs off on you and you start getting lyrics pretty easy. It’s pretty fun. Therapeutic. There are so many veterans who want their story told. How cool would it be if we could make this a thing and we could get these stories out there in a way that we can enjoy them and learn. Part of what bothers me about the veteran world is that we always seem to be positioned as a charity case and I’ve never liked that perspective. I know all these men and women have more to give and they want to give. That’s why we’re really proud of our programs.

For instance, our national cemeteries. There aren’t any school or civic groups who come to clean those headstones and they’re under disrepair and there’s no budget for it. So, we work with Carry The Load and other organizations to set up working parties, scrub some stones, have some fellowship and feel good.

That positivity seems to surround this whole project. Would you agree?

It does. One thing I really pride myself on is that we’re really focused on not complaining about the problems that we have, but finding ways to overcome them. It’s like we did in the military. When we had an obstacle course – part of the fun is the journey. Life is not a destination; it’s a journey. We need to find a good way to deal with the peaks and valleys.

Especially with PTSD. If we can manage our emotions and all these different things that combine to make us ourselves and find a way to make it fun, I think we have a better chance to make things better. If we can be connected, we won’t be as angry and as scared anymore. That’s why we chose dogs. Everyone loves dogs.

Yeah, and if they don’t you can’t trust them, right?

(Laughs) Right!

You mentioned the ability to tell stories through music and what that means to writing songs. Did you always consider yourself a storyteller?

My first speaking thing happened in fifth grade. I was in this Optimist Club and I wrote about Wilma Rudolph, who was this tennis player back in the 1940s, and I won this competition. I always loved orating, and now I’m trying to get better at writing. I write in notebooks and I know that in order for me to understand things better, it can be put in a narrative format. Tell me the story about why I should care about this. I think it’s a way humans have always communicated. With us, we want everyone to be the hero in their own story.

You seem so much at peace. How did you get here?

One foot at a time. Not being afraid to fail. We had to burn this whole thing down in December and rebuild. It just wasn’t working. A lot of people were mad, but we showed them that there’s no easy button in life. The Marine Corps taught me that. Other things taught me that, too. I’m a third generation Lebanese immigrant from a family that’s had a store for the past 83 years in Savannah, Ga. That also played a huge part in who I am. The unit I served with in Iraq, we’ve stayed close. The critic quote by Teddy Roosevelt. I can’t quote the whole thing, but it’s something like, “It’s not the critic that matters. It’s the man in the arena, the one that doesn’t care how many times they fail; they’ll keep trying until they get it right.” I heard that as a young person and it really stuck with me. I’ve always wanted to own what’s in my life – the good and the bad. It doesn’t always work. I find myself in these depressive moments and I’m lucky to have really good friends who are in Sierra Delta who will call me on my B.S. Then, I have to reevaluate and get back on that good foot. I just want to live a life on the good foot and enjoy it. There’s something to striving and accomplishing. There’s a great song by Tyler J. He’s a former military person. It’s called “The Circus.” He sums it up really perfectly. He says, “I don’t miss the circus, but I sure to miss the clowns,” meaning the people you serve with. Creating Sierra Delta was my way of finishing my deployment. I was a platoon sergeant in Iraq and if you serve in that capacity as a sergeant in the Marines … to me, there’s nothing better.

Is there any desire for you to want to perform? You did the record, wrote some songs – do you ever want to get in front of a live crowd?

Yeah, I love speaking in front of live crowds. I actually opened for the Beach Boys and Chicago at different events. I came out and did 10 minutes of a speech. I’ve been playing around with comedy. I love it and I’ve been trying to find ways to make some of the experiences I’ve had funny without getting the pity laugh. That’s something I could see doing. I also think I want to write more songs. I took guitar lessons early on as a kid, but I was just never musical. I’m better with the spoken word and writing, so I’ve been working on that. I try to find a way to get the most out of our participation instead of treating our politics and our systems like a sports event. (laughs)

It always comes back to sports and music, doesn’t it?

(Laughs) Yes, sir, it does.