Andrew Jackson: victor at the Battle of New Orleans, seventh President of the United States, first Westerner in the White House, author of the policies that lead to the Trail of Tears.

President Jackson may seem an unlikely subject for a Broadway rock musical, but Michael Friedman felt differently. He wrote the music and lyrics to Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, a rock production that he co-created with writer-director Alex Timbers.

With its provocative title and controversial main character, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson opened on Broadway after a successful run at New York City’s Public Theater in 2009.

Michael Friedman describes the story behind Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, and how he found the “man who put the man in manifest destiny” in America’s seventh president. Copyright 2010 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. Copyright 2010 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.