What if Madison Rising had been asked to perform at Trump’s inauguration this week? “If we had been asked, we would have done it.”

So said Rio Hett, the band’s new singer and an Air Force veteran, in an exclusive interview with LifeZette on Tuesday afternoon.

The band that once promoted itself as “America’s most patriotic rock band” is looking to expand its fan base without changing its core beliefs. It earned seven million hits on YouTube for its updated version of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” performed the theme song for Sarah Palin’s “Amazing America” television series, and became a staple at veterans events. With a new album dropping Feb. 10, Madison Rising is looking to branch out in the music industry by being a little less heavy-handed politically — without forgetting its roots.

Rising is looking to expand its fan base and branch out in the music industry. Yet it isn’t forgetting their roots.

“We’re going to ‘backdoor’ you a little bit with the patriotism,” said Hett about Rising’s upcoming work. He said the new album, “Battered Not Broken,” was an evolution for the band, whose previous songs included on-the-nose political tunes like “In the Days When Reagan Ruled” and “Where Was the Media Then.”

Related: ‘Madison Rising’ Rocks Patriotism

“We want everyone to know it’s more of an inclusive journey,” Hett said of the new record. “You’re not going to be told what to think about any certain subject.” Madison Rising is still a patriotic rock band with the same point of view as before, he said.

Part of that point of view is informed by the band’s involvement with military shows and by playing for a part of the country mostly ignored by the left-leaning pop culture. “We talk about some really deep-seated issues that we see in our community,” said Hett about his debut album with the band.

As far as military issues go, the band was sure to hit on real problems within the veterans community. “We have a song that directly talks about suicide, which is huge in the veteran community and on one point, it’s really hard to understand how somebody could do something like that. Then on the other side, once you see the real issues and you talk to these guys and girls who’ve contemplated it and you ask, ‘Why?’ It’ll shine a whole new light on what you may think about it,” said Hett.

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In terms of the audience Madison Rising has established over the years, Hett said the people he sees at concerts “are certainly a specific group.” With the culture wars so furious now and millions of previously silent people making themselves heard loudly through politics and the arts, Hett said Madison Rising’s long-held patriotic message “put the band behind the 8-ball.”

“If you have certain viewpoints — and we all know that the world of the arts is a very liberal world — if you go against that grain, then you’ve certainly put yourself and your career at risk,” said Hett. “The rest of the rock world is very hesitant to touch us … because of what our beliefs are.”

Still, that won’t keep Hett or Madison Rising from voicing their opinions or engaging in the culture wars. In regard to the controversies surrounding the artists who are refusing to play at the presidential inauguration, and the way in which others have been bullied out of performing, Hett said, “One of [America’s] incredible institutions is the transfer of power.”

Related: Toby Keith Won’t ‘Apologize’ for Inauguration Performance

Of stars using the event to push their own political beliefs, Hett said, “Politicizing is a slippery slope.” It’s not something he thinks is disappearing from the music industry any time soon. “We’ll see a lot more of this in the future, unfortunately.”

He said artists are partly to blame. “Some of the artists’ own pretentiousness has allowed them to think more of themselves and their own position.”

The singer reiterated a point made by country star Toby Keith, who refused to apologize for playing at the upcoming inauguration of Donald J. Trump —  an inauguration performance that is not political, but rather a unifying celebration of the country. Hett said things could have gone very differently for the inauguration if some artists had chosen to be braver.

“If you took a left-wing artist and that person said, ‘I respect the office, I respect the inauguration as far as what it stands for and why it actually happens’ —  if they took a stand for unification, you might see other people follow suit.”