John Ondrasik follows 'Superman' with '100 Years'

LOS ANGELES -- For the past few years, it wasn't easy being John Ondrasik.

The one-man band known as Five for Fighting was faced with the unenviable task of following up a career-defining pop smash, 2000's "Superman (It's Not Easy)," which became an anthem of survival after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"I knew from day one that no matter what I wrote, considering what happened with 'Superman,' that it would never be another 'Superman,' and nor should it be," Ondrasik told AP Television News. "I sat at the piano and just spent a year writing songs again."

He can breathe easier now. Five for Fighting's latest, the contemplative ballad "100 Years," is skipping up the "Billboard" magazine Hot 100, currently at No. 35. The song, from the new Five for Fighting album, "The Battle for Everything" (Columbia), is an oddity: a bittersweet self-portrait with a sing-along hook.

Ondrasik says that while he enjoyed breaking out with "Superman," success is even sweeter this go-around. As a Los Angeles native, he knows that such second acts are rare things indeed.

"I just hope I get to make another record," he says. "Every time I sit down to do this, my goal is to make another one. In the music business today, I don't think you can look past that. It's reality."

And I'm just going to try to write the best songs I can. And as long as people care to hear them, I'll keep doing it."