Milwaukee’s Lightning & Thunder is lighting up the big screen.
The real-life Neil Diamond tribute act, featuring married couple Mike and Claire Sardina, is the subject of a movie, “Song Sung Blue,” in theaters Christmas Day and starring Hugh Jackman as Mike (aka “Lightning”) and Kate Hudson as Claire (aka “Thunder”).
So how did this Milwaukee tribute act become the basis of a major biopic? Here’s more about the real people behind the film.
The real Mike and Claire Sardina, aka Lightning & Thunder
Lightning & Thunder were Mike and Claire Sardina, a Milwaukee couple who honored Neil Diamond and artists like Patsy Cline and ABBA at shows in Milwaukee, Chicago and the surrounding area from 1989 to 2006. They were regular fixtures at bars, festivals and fairs.
The two most prominent places they played were the Wisconsin State Fair, where they got married in 1994, and Summerfest, where in 1995 they joined Pearl Jam as a special guest in the Marcus Amphitheater, with Eddie Vedder joining the duo to sing Neil Diamond’s “Forever in Blue Jeans.” In May 2025, the Wisconsin Area Music Industry gave Lightning & Thunder its inaugural WAMI Lifetime Achievement Award.
What happened to Mike and Claire Sardina?
As it’s depicted in “Song Sung Blue,” Mike and Claire Sardina faced major setbacks in real life.
Mike served in the Vietnam War as a “tunnel rat” and struggled with alcohol and drug addiction after his service. He was sober when he first met Claire in 1987, and he maintained his sobriety until his death in 2006.
Claire Sardina was struck by a car while gardening in front of her Milwaukee home on May 10, 1999. As a result of the accident, her left leg was amputated below the knee, and Claire struggled with mental health issues.
Claire overcame her struggles and the duo returned to the stage, but Lightning & Thunder’s comeback was tragically cut short when Mike died in 2006.
Mike Sardina cause of death
Mike had coronary issues, and even underwent a quintuple bypass.
In the summer of 2006, he fell and hit his head, but didn’t want to go to the hospital, according to an obituary published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on July 28, 2006. After he fell, he and Claire performed at a Madison Mallards game — what would turn out to be their last gig together. On the drive home to Milwaukee, he became increasingly ill, and was taken to the hospital.
They found bleeding on his brain, and he slipped into a coma. Doctors performed surgery, but Mike never regained consciousness and died on July 27, 2006, at age 55.
Is Claire Sardina still alive?
Claire lives in Wisconsin for part of the year, spends her winters in Arizona, and is still performing. She sang with Jackman at Landmark Lanes Dec. 2 at the after party for the Milwaukee premiere of “Song Sung Blue,” and again with Jackman and Hudson at a party following the New York premiere of the movie Dec. 11. On Dec. 30, she’ll perform at Paulie’s Pub & Eatery, 8031 W. Greenfield Ave., West Allis.
How did Lightning & Thunder’s story become a biopic? It’s because of the “Song Sung Blue” documentary
So how did Lightning & Thunder’s story inspire a biopic from writer/director Craig Brewer (“Hustle & Flow”)? Brewer credits Greg Kohs, director of “Song Sung Blue,” a documentary about Lightning & Thunder that hit the film festival circuit beginning in 2008 (and is available to watch on YouTube).
“Had [Kohs] not made the effort and taken all of that free time to make this documentary about this family, none of this would have happened,” Brewer told the Journal Sentinel.
Kohs, a Philadelphia-based filmmaker, was a Neil Diamond fan who stumbled upon a Lightning & Thunder gig at a Harley Owners Group event at Wisconsin State Fair Park in the early ’90s. He fell in love with the Sardinas, often filming them when he was in Wisconsin shooting Packers games for NFL Films. He was motivated to spend more time with them after Claire was struck by a car, hoping a documentary film could help them, he told the Journal Sentinel.
Brewer saw the documentary at a film festival in Memphis in 2009. When he turned 49, the same year his father passed away from a heart attack, Brewer began to contemplate what movie he would want to make more than anything else. “It was clear to me it was ‘Song Sung Blue,'” he told the Journal Sentinel.
Other real-life Milwaukee figures portrayed in ‘Song Sung Blue’
In addition to Mike and Claire Sardina, other real-life Milwaukee people appear in “Song Sung Blue.” Lightning & Thunder were promoted by Tom D’Amato and Mike’s dentist Dave Watson, played by Jim Belushi and Fisher Stevens, respectively. Claire’s children Rachel and Dayna are played in “Blue” by Ella Anderson and Hudson Hensley, and Mike’s daughter Angelina is played by King Princess. Late Milwaukee music figure Mark Shurilla, friends and collaborators of the Sardinas, is also a prominent character in the movie, played by “Sopranos” star Michael Imperioli. And Mike did perform with noted Milwaukee soul band The Esquires, which is also featured in the film.
