On an April morning at the Parade Company’s headquarters on Detroit’s east side, Black Sabbath is blasting inside an executive office.
It’s two months from one of the institution’s signature events — the Ford Fireworks — and company president Tony Michaels is huddled at his computer, finalizing the 24-minute music sequence that will serve as a template for one of North America’s biggest annual pyrotechnics shows.
Strewn across Michaels’ desk are pages of scribbled song notes, including a near-final draft notating precise time stamps for the chosen tunes. “R.O.C.K in the U.S.A,” selected to kick off the 2026 fireworks display as an America 250 salute, will snip that John Mellencamp hit from the 26-second mark through 1 minute, 22 seconds.
A nod to Ozzy Osbourne, who died one month after last year’s Ford Fireworks, is a late addition to the playlist. Michaels mans his computer mouse, scrolling through an “Iron Man” clip, thinking aloud as he works.
“If there are repeated beats … see …” he says, closely listening and watching the time counter. “I pick the later one. Boom, right there.”
And now 50 seconds of Ozzy is set, ready for its booming accompaniment in the sky. Now Michaels needs to decide where it fits best. Ultimately, it’s blended between Michael Jackson and Taylor Swift.
By the time you read this story, the Ford Fireworks will have taken place Monday, June 22, witnessed by Detroiters packing the riverfront and watching on WDIV-TV, where Michaels’ musical handiwork will get its real test.
On this April day, Michaels has welcomed the Free Press into his office for a peek behind the scenes. Hours from now, his final song list will be rushed to a Detroit studio to mix and engineer the audio track, which will be transmitted to Patrick Brault of Pennsylvania-based Zambelli Fireworks, which will be responsible for designing the visual oohs-and-ahhs befitting the 18 song selections.
Brault is an industry long-timer who remembers the cumbersome days when fireworks displays were timed by hand. Today, software is a crucial tool, allowing him to lock in cues for shells to burst and cascade in sync with the musical rhythms.
Capturing the essence of a song with fireworks is the cool part of his job, Brault says, and he considers himself as much artist as technician.
“You have to be,” he says, “or you’re just shooting fireworks to background music.”
For nearly seven decades, millions have been wowed by the annual display on the Detroit River, which has gone by several names since its 1959 debut. But only in recent years has the accompanying music soundtrack become this essential — a tight, genre-inclusive playlist that turns the fireworks into a colorful, choreographed dance.
That ramped up when Michaels took the Parade Company helm in 2009, and he has since embraced the fireworks music as a year-round passion project. He’s always alert for song inspirations: on the treadmill, in the car, in the shower.
“It all starts as notes in my phone and ends up spread across the kitchen island in my home,” he says. He’s open to old classics and hot modern hits — which sometimes puts him on the hunt for a clean, profanity-free song edit.
The Detroit fireworks have long featured musical accompaniment. But before his arrival, Michaels says, the selection was limited, the style choices less eclectic, and he “wanted the music to touch everybody.”
“The fireworks needed a kick. We needed a longer show, a more lively show,” he says. “It needed new music. And so somehow I found myself picking the songs every year.”
The diversity could be heard in Monday’s soundtrack: country music (Morgan Wallen), R&B (Olivia Dean), pop (Benson Boone, Sabrina Carpenter), rock (David Bowie) and, in a fireworks first, K-pop (“Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters”).
Michaels is particularly pleased with the Wallen selection, the 2024 hit “Cowgirls,” explaining: “We’re the Ford Fireworks, and I’ve finally got a song that uses the word ‘Mustang.’”
Like Ozzy, funk-soul icon Sly Stone is another figure who died after the 2025 show was arranged, and Michaels has chosen to pay tribute with Sly & the Family Stone’s “Everyday People.” It’s a rare song to be deployed in its entirety at the fireworks.
“It’s got a universal type of message,” he says. “If I can get a song in there that says something really nice, that’s a good thing, and I’ll give it a little more attention.”
Every year, Michaels ensures there’s generous representation of Detroit’s rich musical heritage, and in 2026 it’s come via the Supremes (“You Can’t Hurry Love”), Stevie Wonder (“Sir Duke”), Mike Posner-Big Sean (“Buried in Detroit”) and Bob Seger (“Roll Me Away”).
He’s confident that the soaring Seger chorus, deliberately positioned toward the end of the show, will make “the place explode, and it’s not going to stop.”
In another America 250 move, Michaels has opted for a powerful show closer: more than three minutes of Celine Dion and a choir performing “God Bless America.”
“The way we’re going to choreograph those fireworks at the end, it is absolutely going to be a tearjerker,” Michaels vows.
Like any good mixtape, the fireworks playlist is purposefully paced with highs and lows. It’s not just 24 minutes of overdrive, and one of the calming stretches this year comes via Michael Jackson’s “Heal the World.”
That’s the sort of moment when Zambrelli’s Brault will turn to a gentler, more elegant burst — perhaps a soft-flowering “willow,” as it’s known in the trade.
“You need lows in the show so the highs can be more impactful,” he says. “But the lows don’t necessarily have to be lesser fireworks.”
For the high-energy Michaels, who seems to operate on a gallon of caffeine at any given time, the musical brainstorming happens year-round. In his head, he’s continuously adding and dropping songs, and artists left on the cutting-room floor this year included Electric Light Orchestra, U2, Irene Cara and Tears for Fears.
While the final list is entirely his own doing, he’s occasionally open to suggestions: For instance, recent Ford Fireworks productions have featured personal favorites requested by Ford Philanthropy President Mary Culler, including Bruno Mars’ “APT” and Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers.”
In the week ahead of Monday’s show, Michaels planned to sit with Brault to watch a computer simulation of the 24-minute display synced to the music.
After years of collaborating, Michaels likes to say the two read each other’s minds.
“I really enjoy doing this and working with Patrick,” he says. “We’re kind of weirdos — he taps into what I’m thinking, and I tap into what he’s thinking. We just blend this music, and then he’s off and running.”
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
2026 Ford Fireworks soundtrack
“R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.,” John Mellencamp
“You Can’t Hurry Love,” the Supremes
“Man I Need,” Olivia Dean
“Cowgirls,” Morgan Wallen featuring Ernest
“Mystical Magical,” Benson Boone
“Sir Duke,” Stevie Wonder
“Manchild,” Sabrina Carpenter
“The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy),” Simon & Garfunkel
“Buried in Detroit,” Mike Posner featuring Big Sean
“Everyday People,” Sly & the Family Stone
“Space Oddity,” David Bowie
“Hall of Fame,” the Script
“Heal the World,” Michael Jackson
“Iron Man,” Black Sabbath
“The Fate of Ophelia,” Taylor Swift
“Roll Me Away,” Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band
“Golden,” EJAE, Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami
“God Bless America,” Celine Dion
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Behind the music: How the Ford Fireworks song soundtrack came together
Reporting by Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
