December 16, 2025 • 35 mins
On a very special In Service Of host Steve Baltin sits down for a one-on-one conversation with the legendary John Fogerty. At 80 years young, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer talks about songwriting, how the iconic "Fortunate Son" has been, on occasion, misunderstood, his friendship with Bruce Springsteen and more.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, Steve Bolton, Welcome to the best of twenty twenty
five and today. Man, there's not much more to say
than what an incredible honor to be joined by the
legendary John Fogerty, one of the greatest songwriters of all
time in the rock world, a true icon. What an
amazing conversation about writing freaking Croudberry, imagine that about have
(00:31):
You Overseen the Rain? About fortunate Son. He has written
some of the greatest songs of all time. And what
was so impressive is he is, his humility, his kindness.
This was just a wonderful conversation with a true American icon.
So I hope you enjoy this one as much as
I did.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
That it's a great honor to talk to you. And
you know, it's such an interesting thing when you get
I've talked with several artists over the years about re
recording songs and kind of revisiting them, and it's such
an interesting thing because something that happens often I found
from talking with artists is the songs change over time,
they take on different meanings. You know, It's funny because
I know Taylor and I were just talk about Joni Mitchell,
(01:24):
who she also works with and I always look at
the example of Jonie singing both sides now when she's twenty,
and then doing the song in recent years in concert
when she's eighty and almost died, and it's a completely
different song. So for you, when you were revisiting these songs,
were there any you were surprised by how much they
changed for you?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
I guess a couple of them. I didn't quite look
at it that way. I think I was. I think
I was really admiring if you can do that, if
I can say that and still remain humble. I was happy,
I guess, with the shape of the songs, the original recordings.
(02:10):
I was very happy with the form, and there was
not a lot of wasted space. In other words, it
seemed like I had done a pretty good job way
back then, even of trying to cut off the excess
and just go with the meat.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
You know.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
What's funny, you say, if I can say that and
remain humble, because you know another thing I've talked about thirst.
When you're writing a song right you're close to it,
you take some distance, you know, fifty sixty years later,
it probably almost feels like a different person who wrote it.
And so you can look at it a little more
objectively as a fan, and as a fan I could say, certainly,
you can say proudly, yes, these are something like the
(02:51):
greatest American songs ever written. Did you appreciate that at
the time or is it something now that with distance
you can say, okay? Because it's funny. I did a
book a couple of years ago called Anthonsy Love, where I
talk to people like Brian Wilson about God only Knows
and you know, all these great artists about old songs,
and it really does take some distance to look at
it and say, wow, I really accomplished something amazing there.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Well, Brian was doing it practically every day, you know,
and I surely admired him. I would say that in
my own case, I was trying real hard. I was
working real hard to make good music and to write
good songs. To me, that sort of decried a certain
(03:39):
type of intensity.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
And well, here's an example.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Back in the day, I used to tell people, well,
for every song you hear, I've written ten more that
you don't hear. And you know, it's not that those
ten are good, it's just it takes going through all
of that to get to the really good song. And
what that tender one ratio really means is I would
(04:08):
start writing a song, get in maybe to the second verse,
and start to feel like, wow, I really committed to this,
This doesn't seem like it's going to be that great,
or I don't know how to resolve this and get
it to it, you know, the next logical place, and
so I would just turn the page, I trumple the
paper up and throw that away. Literally, I almost never
(04:31):
went back. So that's the kind of work I did then.
So when the songs became successful and also ultimately very
singable by the public, let's say I felt that I
had earned that, that I'd worked really hard and gotten
(04:53):
myself there and gotten the songs there. And also I
used to tell people back in the day, I mean
nineteen seventy, well, I'm trying to make records that they'll
still play in ten years. And that was an audacious
kind of expression because in rock and roll, nobody was
playing ten year old records. They just really didn't do
(05:16):
that then. But having said all those things to you,
when time goes by and you are still hearing Born
on the Bayou on the radio or down on the
corner or fortunate son. You're dumbfounded that it's still relevant
(05:42):
because I'm not. I did not count on that. I
didn't know that would happen as precocious a young person
as I might have been.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Who can know such a thing? So that really surprised me.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
What's so funny you say that because I was talking
for them book. I was talking with Robbery Creeker, who
I'm sure you've known for many years, and we were
talking about writing Light by Fire, and I was like, well,
you know, and we were talking about writing and he's like,
I have no idea where it came from. He's like,
if I knew it, I would write a hundred more
songs like that. And Steve Winwood said the exact same
thing about give me some loving. But with some of
these songs, are you able to look at them with
(06:18):
a little bit again an objectivity and say, okay, that's
kind of because a lot of artists I've talked to
like in writing the channeling that you know, you're sitting there,
the antenna's up and the song comes in, So the
songs that came into you and you're kind of like,
now I see where that came from.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Well, yes, Proud Mary is so resonant to me. I
mean I.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
That Proud Mary was the first really good song that
I wrote, first classic, you might say. And it also
was just about the first song I wrote that was
actually really from me, rather than me trying to write
a top forty song or let's say, a British invasion
(07:06):
type song, you know, where I was being instructed by
the record company, well you need to try and do
this to get on the radio, et cetera. Proud Mary
was just sort of it just came out of my
own feelings about the world and about life, about my
own life, and that's still resonating. I mean, that's it
(07:30):
just resonates with me. I still feel very comfortable with
that song. I mean, Proud Mary is you know, it's Americana.
It's got my plaid shirt in it. It's got my
funny way of talking in it. It's got my total
what's the word I'm trying to say, dedication and love
(07:56):
of my own country America in it. You know. Surprisingly,
these weren't things I set out to do. The song
just came out of me, and all those things were
in it, but it wasn't It just wasn't on purpose.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
It's just kind of happened.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
And that's interesting because when you hear I talked about
this with other artists, when you hear other people do
your songs, I sometimes they you know, they'll bring other
things to it and proud Maary of course, as you say,
I mean, you know, Tina Turner just killed that song
as well. So when you listen to her version, did
it did you hear new things in it at all?
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Oh? For sure.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
I still remember the first time I heard her version.
I was driving in the car and it was around
seven o'clock and it was dark, so it must have
been sort of winter time here in California.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
I mean, that's our winter. It just gets dark earlier.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
And I loved the slow part at the front, seemed like,
even though I didn't arrange it that way in my song,
I was kind of singing about that feeling, and she
sure took that vibe, that sort of can I dare
I say anti bellum you know version of America, that
(09:23):
that whole vibe and put it at the front of
her song. She didn't call it that, of course, And
then of course went into the absolutely Tina Tina being
Tina version for the second half, and those two elements
together were just a wonderful presentation of American music.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You know, it's so interesting to hear you talk about
this stuff because you know, one thing I love revisiting
as well is how songs again evolved but stay relevant.
And you know, unfortunately there are a lot of topical
songs like have you ever seen the Rain? Fortunate Sun
that you know, I remember talking about this A couple
of years ago I hosted a podcast called People Out
(10:09):
of the Power where people would talk about their favorite
protest songs of all time, and we talk about songs
like What's going On or even Strange Fruit, and how
those songs, you know, still were relevant and we wish
we could just enjoy them as songs and not have
them be so topical. So it's interesting for you when
you were revisiting this, we're you surprised by how relevant
(10:31):
today some of those songs still are in this day
and age in America.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Steve, that's a fascinating subject. I don't get too far
away from that, because especially in the case of Fortunate Sun,
I mean, for I don't know, almost ten years now,
probably ten years, and especially I mean at first, you know,
(11:02):
our Man in the White House was just sort of
a living embodiment of fortunate Son, but then he started
using it. You know, it's just sort of a strange
thing that, I mean, all of it together, having being
(11:22):
the guy that wrote that song, the person that was
so emotional about what's in that song, certainly what's the word?
I am amazed at the human condition sometimes I'm just
(11:42):
amazed at this can be sitting there the way it
is in front of all of us, and you know
he is and he also does, so it's amazing that
that song is it's so relevant now, Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
It's interesting. I mean, you know, it's interesting how I've
talked with a lot of songwriters about this as well,
Jackson Brown probably being the most prominent one, about how
songs can be prophetic, how you can write a song
fifty years ago a song look, for example, in Jackson's case,
these days, and it still holds so much meaning. So
for you, like you say, it's interesting that it's still
(12:25):
so relevant. I mean, do you see things in these
songs now that you understand why? And it's funny because
I know your friends with Springsteen and I remember seeing
him talk about born to Run right and he talked
about on the eighty seven tour he would do acoustic,
and he said, I thought about how much that song
was me, and how much I didn't want it to
be me. So are the songs that surprise you by
(12:47):
how much they're still related to your life today.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
I don't know that I'm surprised. I think more that
I'm happy that it's this way. I'm happy that you
songs do have quite a bit of my own DNA
in them, so, you know, and I have pretty much
remained the same person. I didn't have some radical shift
(13:12):
in my life that turned me into some other person,
you know, And therefore I certainly still back proudly, I
guess sing the songs and back then I and I
endorse the I endorse this commercial, you know. I endorse
(13:34):
the meaning, the hind the song as written. I'm surprised, though,
sometimes I mean, it's when you're half asleep. These kind
of things happened where you're wake up remembering a line
in one of your own songs, but maybe you actually
misremember it a little bit because you're asleep, and then
(13:56):
you put the right word in. Oh yeah, no, no,
I decided to use that word and then you laugh, Well,
of course you used that word because that says it,
doesn't it, you know, and you're still affirming that choice
all these years later.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Interesting, So can you give me an examples of one
of those songs where you'd like kind of misremembered and
you're like, oh, wait, I really did use the right line.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
I can't think of one off hand. I just know that.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Particularly fortunate son, because I was writing from a place
from a you know, I had been drafted. I was
in the military, but I received the draft notice right
at the time that most of my generation was absolutely terrified,
(14:49):
you might say, of receiving a draft notice and going
into the jungle. You know, it wasn't wasn't some happy
prospect that I wanted to do. Number one, most of
us didn't think that that war was in any way,
shape or form good for America, or patriotic or in
(15:09):
any sense something that was, you know, a realistic, accepted
duty for us all. But the other perspective that I
had was that, yes, I was in the military. I
came back course, and my feelings were still the same.
I was what you would probably call a hippie in
(15:30):
nineteen sixty seven, sixty eight, sixty nine, And by that,
I really just mean a young person becoming very aware
of the world and how the world works, and very
disenchanted with the generation ahead of us who had gotten
us into the war, and many other things that were
(15:54):
not going right, for instance, civil rights. So I was
with my peers, but yet I would be around when
many of them would be talking very perhaps we're at
a what you call it demonstration in those days of protests,
and there would be lots of soldiers around, either army
(16:18):
or National Guard, and the people who are civilians would be,
you know, and young people very disparaging about the military.
And I'd have to say, look, let's get something straight here.
Those guys that are standing over there in uniform didn't
start this, and it's not their policy. In fact, they
(16:40):
don't get to make any policy. Now look over there
and look at that kid over there. You see him.
He's nineteen years old. He likes all the same stuff
you like, he's singing the same songs. He hates the
freaking war, he hates the army. He wants to be
home like you in a civilian life, but he was drafted,
(17:02):
so he has to do that. But you got to
understand he's just like you. This is not his gig,
this war, this oppression coming from the White House.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
I could still say the same.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Thing I was gonna say. That's interesting, you know, it's funny.
I mean, do you feel like now you're able to
sort of be an ambassador for that sentiment where people
(17:38):
are probably even I mean, I wasn't alive during that time,
so I can't say for sure, but I've talked to
people who were who say they'd never seen us more divided,
And it's funny. Do you feel like now you're able
to sort of convey that sentiment of like, because right
now it seems like no one is willing to listen
to the other side at all. No one cares what
anybody has to say. Everybody is fine what you're talking about,
(18:00):
Fortune Sun And there were two instance that came to mind.
Both of them, I know are friends of yours. Springsteen
of course was born in the USA and eighty four,
which is one of the most misunderstood songs of all time.
And Tom Morello, who's a longtime friend of mine. You know,
people would be bitching about the politics and raged against
the machine, and he's like, have you ever listened to
a fucking song of ours. Yeah, it's amazing how people
(18:22):
just don't pay attention at all.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Well, no, and especially now, it's pretty much knee jerk,
you know, they're way I think in the late sixties
it really was generational. I mean, I think young people
were more than ninety percent in agreement, maybe even more
than ninety five percent. One of the big phrases back
(18:45):
then was don't trust anyone over thirty, and that was
more or less the ciniment. It was the older people.
If you well, if you ever heard of Missus Miller,
who was sort of an older person who was also
I think a comedian. I don't think she's saying much,
but she became sort of a spokesman for older people.
(19:07):
She took a trip and went to Vietnam and came
home and you know, this would be kind of like
Bob Hope or John Wayne doing this. She comes home
and she says, Oh, the morale is very high, nothing
to worry about.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
All the boys are doing.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Great, you know, and you just kind of went, you know,
she doesn't get it. She doesn't know. It's old people
against young people. That's kind of the way the world
was in nineteen sixty nine, but nowadays the division is
much more political and there's not as much age separation,
(19:43):
Although how can I say it, I'm certainly very proud
of young people, especially on college campuses the last couple
of years, who have been letting the world know how
they feel about certain situations. And I'm proud of them.
As Americans, I'm very proud of them. I'm glad, you know,
(20:06):
they're getting knocked in ahead by our administration. But young people,
it's very hard to fool young people. You know, you
can't fool a kid. It's something I used to say
back then, and I think they absolutely identified what's going
on in the Middle East.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Well, what's interesting you say that, because I've always believed
that about not being able to fool a kid, and
I also think that's very true of music. I think
people are way smarter than they're given credit for for
being able to tell when something is authentic versus manufactured.
But it's interesting you say that because one of the
things I've really talked a lot about with people. Again,
as I mentioned, I hosted the song about protests or
the show about protest songs, you know, and I've talked
(20:51):
with people about them it is hard to write a
good protest song, you know, it's not easy. And so now,
of course you have a lot of artists like Billy
for example, who I'm a fan of and who I
know who speaks out versus via social media, which is
very effective because of course she's got three hundred million followers.
So are there people that you really young artists you
(21:11):
really admire for their activism and the way they've been
kind of leading the movement the way that you know
you did and several other artists did in the sixties
for social activism and awareness.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
I think Billy is one of them.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
I guess the social media thing is, well, it's so
prevalent that maybe that's that's where it makes more noise,
you might say, these days. The point the deal with
writing a song is you have to be able to
state your position eloquently enough that it's understandable and so,
(21:52):
but it also has to be a good song. Yeah right,
I mean that's the real challenge. It can't just be
epithets and even poetry, you know, it also has to
have a melody, at least in my view, to be
a good song, to be a real song, you know,
Bob Dylan did it quite successfully, but a few years
(22:12):
later Bob was saying things like, well, I don't write
any protest songs, you know, or I don't intend the
right process. I think he was a bit tongue in cheat,
because he was sort of the you know, in the
dictionary where they it says protest songs, they have a
picture of Bob Dylan, you know. But I think he
(22:34):
also understood the quagmire of you get to a point
where that challenged. I mean, who's going to write a
song as good as Blowing in the wind?
Speaker 4 (22:44):
You know?
Speaker 3 (22:44):
So maybe you just want to let that stand for
you and not have to keep trying to do that.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
So it's fine for you. What's the one song you
wish you had written?
Speaker 3 (22:56):
And why, oh there's you mean? Along these lines are
just in general in general.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Now I'm curious because you mentioned he's gonna write a
song as good as Blown in the Wind.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
I wish I had written when a Man Loves a Woman.
It's a different train of thought, of course, but it's
just a it's my kind of music, you know, it's
and it says it so well, and of course Percy
sang it so well. Turn his back on his best friend,
(23:30):
h if she if, if he put her downy sleep.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Out in their aid.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
All those things very absolutely true, and hopefully I hope
to be able to, uh what's the word express that
about my wife in a song one of these days.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Well, I won't keep you much longer. But I am
curious because you mentioned Dylan, and you know, it's funny
because one of the people I'm sure you've known for
you I mentioned interviewing Krieger. I've also spoken a lot
the last few years with Carlos Santana, who I'm sure
you've done for many years. Are there artists that you
came up with that you really admire the way they
evolved and that you kind of look at and that
you've stayed close with, or that you you know, you
(24:15):
kind of just watch and you guys look at each
other and you know, again you're proud of the way
they evolve, and it motivates you to the way you evolve.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Well, I didn't come up with Bruce.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
I was a little ahead of him, but I certainly
loved the way Bruce has evolved and is still He's
still Bruce, He's still relevant, He's he remained true to himself.
I think Bob Dylan handles himself like, you know, very eloquently,
(24:54):
like the almost mythical American that he is. You know, Oh,
I mean, what a great body of work and he
he is. He remains Bob, very elusive, hard to actually
(25:14):
figure out, you know, pin down what he is, because
that body of work just seems to come from a
place that's beyond most of us.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Gosh.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
I admire Paul Simon, you know, through the years, as
you know, he made himself a much better musician as
he went along. That's something I strive for.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
I would say.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Stevie Windward, you know, I certainly loved his music back
when he was well, we were all kids. Well Carlos
by the way, Gee, been a while since I've seen
Carlos in person, but you know he still plays guitar.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
Great. That's what he was.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
To do and he's still doing it. I would aspire
to be a musician like Carlos.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Well.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I love the fact that you said hopefully one day,
I mean, you've written some of the greatest American songs
of all time, as we've determined, and you say hopefully
one day I'll write a song like that that expresses
that for my wife. I love that so much because
that's like the mentality of every artist. You can never
be satisfied. And I remember interviewing bb King when he
was seventy one, when I was only twenty seven, and
(26:28):
I was so nervous because I was like, what the
hell am I gonna ask him? That he hasn't been
asked a million times, the nicest.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
Guy in the world.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
But when he said to me that, I always remember
he was talking about picking up the clarinet and I
asked him why at seventy one he was starting a
new instrument. He said, because every day that you don't
learn something is a day wasted. And I always love
that thought so much. So for you, what are the
most recent things that you've either learned? Are the moments
where you've come closest to writing that song that you
(26:57):
want to write for your wife?
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Well, something you may not know about me is I
practice guitar every day, and it is true that you
can learn something new, Even for me about guitar. I
actually think guitar is probably, how can I say it,
you never you can't completely conquer it because there's so
(27:22):
many different ways to play guitar, all fingers, picks and
fingers all picks, you know, different styles of music, different tunings,
all that sort of thing. And I'm totally committed and
fascinated about playing guitar, so that in fact, I of
course was doing that even this morning before you and
(27:44):
I have been speaking. And I also understand that process
that you must learn and get engaged every day. I
think it keeps your mind active. I think it, you know,
which is something somebody my age is gonna certainly be
aware of. I don't want to end up being a
(28:06):
blob in front of the TV mindlessly, you know, staring
at the screen. And I think that challenge of trying
to make your brain go to rewire it different ways
is what keeps you active and alert.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Last two questions now I have to ask, because you're
talking about guitar, who's your favorite guitarist of all time?
Speaker 3 (28:29):
WHOA Well, my favorite musician is Jerry Douglas. He plays Doughbro.
But he has been just a huge source of inspiration
to me. He plays bluegrass, which is how I discovered him,
and through that discovered.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
Doughbro.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
You know, eventually I wanted to I had bought a
dough Bro and I wanted to figure out how to
play it, and finally, all the roads of Doughbro roads,
at least finally you're going to cross the road as
Jerry Douglas on it. And I was flabbergasted what a
great musician he is and the great musicians that he
(29:15):
surrounds himself with.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
And after that I was off.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
That was my path and as a matter of fact,
the curse of me playing and wanting to be better
every day I owe to Jerry Douglas. I was listening
to his music, of course, very intently in the middle nineties,
I think, and you know, as I was listening and
(29:44):
hearing the musicians around him and marveling at how wonderful everybody.
This was just a very high level of playing and
musical thought, and my mind started to kind of go
through those canyons in tunnel. It was more like a tunnel,
and the flashlight in my little hand in my mind
(30:05):
suddenly shone on a molecule of my fourteen year old
self saying, I'm going to go up and I'm going
to be a great guitar player. I might be one
of the greatest in the whole world. And when I
think I was about forty eight years old at the
time when I.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Saw that molecule shining at me.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
You know, I realized most people would go hah, and
they would brush it away, you know, with their hand.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
They just go nah. But I didn't.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
I took that as a challenge. They say, oh my god,
I'm forty eight, I gotta get busy. And that's exactly
what happened.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Awesome. Well, the last question, actually I might try and
sneak in two more real quickly. The podcast I host
called in Service Up, and I talk with musicians all
the time about giving back and how they do that
and what it means to them. And you know, giving
back musically is such an interesting thing because when you
talk with any artists fanatizing with the other question, I
want to ask, Look, you know, giving back can be
(31:03):
either film profically, but it also as a musician. I
am sure you've heard so many countless times over the
years what your songs have meant to people, how would
save someone's life, how it got them through a rough time.
So talk about, you know, how your music is helped
people giving back and what it means to you as
an artist to know that you've done that. And are
(31:24):
there certain causes that are very important for you.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Well, I'm very happy that my music inspires people. I've
heard many people say things like that, you know, a
cause that's near and dear to me.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
Really is.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Fighting against the mistreatment of children. I just I just
can I say. I want to explode when I hear
that children and have been treated poorly, and I do
try to support causes that will help to rectify that. Obviously,
(32:13):
another cause that's been very near and dear to me
has been the veterans of our military. I think probably
because I actually was drafted and on the inside. Even
though I didn't have a long career in the military,
I still was given the boots to wear for a
(32:37):
time and understand the mindset, especially during a very volatile
and I would say useless war that was going on
in our country, and those guys particularly came back pretty
battered and confused and were not even admired and helped
by their own country. If anything, they were kind of
(32:59):
hustled out a side door and told the go away.
So I do try to help veterans and perform for
or show up at benefits for as often as they can.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Cool I'm gonna sneak in this last one and it
ties in with this, but it's a fun one. I
mentioned talking with Robbie and John not long ago from
the Doors. It was for a sixty eighth anniversary piece.
And you know it's funny because I was interviewed, of
all people, a palaeontologist who was telling me this amazing
story about listening to the Doors while excavating dinosaur bones
in Patagonia, how he would hire these gauchos who literally
(33:42):
would like drag dinosaur bones while listening to writers on
the store. And I was telling Robby and John and
they were blown away. And I'm sure you've heard amazing
stories of where your music has traveled to. So is
there any place you've heard of your music being played
or listened to that kind of blew your mind? What's
the most fun place?
Speaker 4 (34:01):
Oh boy?
Speaker 3 (34:02):
I uh.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Hm.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Actually, the most fun place for me has been when
my kids that Julie and I have together, When Shane
and Tyler were young, starting for a time when we
lived in Nashville, they were in.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
Little League and.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Suddenly, coming from let's say one of the other fields,
here comes center field. And my kids were so little
they didn't know who that was, right, And eventually, perhaps
maybe during the first or second year of them being
in Little League at this point they're six seven, you know,
(34:51):
t ball, that sort of thing. The song gets played
in our own situation. You know, I was lucky enough.
I got to be an assistant coach a lot of times,
and that was It's just great.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
It was wonderful. And suddenly here's my kids.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Now, what's the word owning the fact that their dad
has written a baseball song.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
So that might be a little personal and a little too.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Focused, you might say, but that was a pretty special
moment for me and my family.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
No, that's an awesome answer. Cool. Is there anything that
you want to add that I did not ask you about.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
No, I'm happy with what we've been talking about.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Thank you, Steve, Now it was a great, great, great pleasure.
Thank you so much for your time.
Hey, Steve Bolton, Welcome to the best of twenty twenty
five and today. Man, there's not much more to say
than what an incredible honor to be joined by the
legendary John Fogerty, one of the greatest songwriters of all
time in the rock world, a true icon. What an
amazing conversation about writing freaking Croudberry, imagine that about have
(00:31):
You Overseen the Rain? About fortunate Son. He has written
some of the greatest songs of all time. And what
was so impressive is he is, his humility, his kindness.
This was just a wonderful conversation with a true American icon.
So I hope you enjoy this one as much as
I did.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
That it's a great honor to talk to you. And
you know, it's such an interesting thing when you get
I've talked with several artists over the years about re
recording songs and kind of revisiting them, and it's such
an interesting thing because something that happens often I found
from talking with artists is the songs change over time,
they take on different meanings. You know, It's funny because
I know Taylor and I were just talk about Joni Mitchell,
(01:24):
who she also works with and I always look at
the example of Jonie singing both sides now when she's twenty,
and then doing the song in recent years in concert
when she's eighty and almost died, and it's a completely
different song. So for you, when you were revisiting these songs,
were there any you were surprised by how much they
changed for you?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
I guess a couple of them. I didn't quite look
at it that way. I think I was. I think
I was really admiring if you can do that, if
I can say that and still remain humble. I was happy,
I guess, with the shape of the songs, the original recordings.
(02:10):
I was very happy with the form, and there was
not a lot of wasted space. In other words, it
seemed like I had done a pretty good job way
back then, even of trying to cut off the excess
and just go with the meat.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
You know.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
What's funny, you say, if I can say that and
remain humble, because you know another thing I've talked about thirst.
When you're writing a song right you're close to it,
you take some distance, you know, fifty sixty years later,
it probably almost feels like a different person who wrote it.
And so you can look at it a little more
objectively as a fan, and as a fan I could say, certainly,
you can say proudly, yes, these are something like the
(02:51):
greatest American songs ever written. Did you appreciate that at
the time or is it something now that with distance
you can say, okay? Because it's funny. I did a
book a couple of years ago called Anthonsy Love, where I
talk to people like Brian Wilson about God only Knows
and you know, all these great artists about old songs,
and it really does take some distance to look at
it and say, wow, I really accomplished something amazing there.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Well, Brian was doing it practically every day, you know,
and I surely admired him. I would say that in
my own case, I was trying real hard. I was
working real hard to make good music and to write
good songs. To me, that sort of decried a certain
(03:39):
type of intensity.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
And well, here's an example.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Back in the day, I used to tell people, well,
for every song you hear, I've written ten more that
you don't hear. And you know, it's not that those
ten are good, it's just it takes going through all
of that to get to the really good song. And
what that tender one ratio really means is I would
(04:08):
start writing a song, get in maybe to the second verse,
and start to feel like, wow, I really committed to this,
This doesn't seem like it's going to be that great,
or I don't know how to resolve this and get
it to it, you know, the next logical place, and
so I would just turn the page, I trumple the
paper up and throw that away. Literally, I almost never
(04:31):
went back. So that's the kind of work I did then.
So when the songs became successful and also ultimately very
singable by the public, let's say I felt that I
had earned that, that I'd worked really hard and gotten
(04:53):
myself there and gotten the songs there. And also I
used to tell people back in the day, I mean
nineteen seventy, well, I'm trying to make records that they'll
still play in ten years. And that was an audacious
kind of expression because in rock and roll, nobody was
playing ten year old records. They just really didn't do
(05:16):
that then. But having said all those things to you,
when time goes by and you are still hearing Born
on the Bayou on the radio or down on the
corner or fortunate son. You're dumbfounded that it's still relevant
(05:42):
because I'm not. I did not count on that. I
didn't know that would happen as precocious a young person
as I might have been.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Who can know such a thing? So that really surprised me.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
What's so funny you say that because I was talking
for them book. I was talking with Robbery Creeker, who
I'm sure you've known for many years, and we were
talking about writing Light by Fire, and I was like, well,
you know, and we were talking about writing and he's like,
I have no idea where it came from. He's like,
if I knew it, I would write a hundred more
songs like that. And Steve Winwood said the exact same
thing about give me some loving. But with some of
these songs, are you able to look at them with
(06:18):
a little bit again an objectivity and say, okay, that's
kind of because a lot of artists I've talked to
like in writing the channeling that you know, you're sitting there,
the antenna's up and the song comes in, So the
songs that came into you and you're kind of like,
now I see where that came from.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Well, yes, Proud Mary is so resonant to me. I
mean I.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
That Proud Mary was the first really good song that
I wrote, first classic, you might say. And it also
was just about the first song I wrote that was
actually really from me, rather than me trying to write
a top forty song or let's say, a British invasion
(07:06):
type song, you know, where I was being instructed by
the record company, well you need to try and do
this to get on the radio, et cetera. Proud Mary
was just sort of it just came out of my
own feelings about the world and about life, about my
own life, and that's still resonating. I mean, that's it
(07:30):
just resonates with me. I still feel very comfortable with
that song. I mean, Proud Mary is you know, it's Americana.
It's got my plaid shirt in it. It's got my
funny way of talking in it. It's got my total
what's the word I'm trying to say, dedication and love
(07:56):
of my own country America in it. You know. Surprisingly,
these weren't things I set out to do. The song
just came out of me, and all those things were
in it, but it wasn't It just wasn't on purpose.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
It's just kind of happened.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
And that's interesting because when you hear I talked about
this with other artists, when you hear other people do
your songs, I sometimes they you know, they'll bring other
things to it and proud Maary of course, as you say,
I mean, you know, Tina Turner just killed that song
as well. So when you listen to her version, did
it did you hear new things in it at all?
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Oh? For sure.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
I still remember the first time I heard her version.
I was driving in the car and it was around
seven o'clock and it was dark, so it must have
been sort of winter time here in California.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
I mean, that's our winter. It just gets dark earlier.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
And I loved the slow part at the front, seemed like,
even though I didn't arrange it that way in my song,
I was kind of singing about that feeling, and she
sure took that vibe, that sort of can I dare
I say anti bellum you know version of America, that
(09:23):
that whole vibe and put it at the front of
her song. She didn't call it that, of course, And
then of course went into the absolutely Tina Tina being
Tina version for the second half, and those two elements
together were just a wonderful presentation of American music.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You know, it's so interesting to hear you talk about
this stuff because you know, one thing I love revisiting
as well is how songs again evolved but stay relevant.
And you know, unfortunately there are a lot of topical
songs like have you ever seen the Rain? Fortunate Sun
that you know, I remember talking about this A couple
of years ago I hosted a podcast called People Out
(10:09):
of the Power where people would talk about their favorite
protest songs of all time, and we talk about songs
like What's going On or even Strange Fruit, and how
those songs, you know, still were relevant and we wish
we could just enjoy them as songs and not have
them be so topical. So it's interesting for you when
you were revisiting this, we're you surprised by how relevant
(10:31):
today some of those songs still are in this day
and age in America.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Steve, that's a fascinating subject. I don't get too far
away from that, because especially in the case of Fortunate Sun,
I mean, for I don't know, almost ten years now,
probably ten years, and especially I mean at first, you know,
(11:02):
our Man in the White House was just sort of
a living embodiment of fortunate Son, but then he started
using it. You know, it's just sort of a strange
thing that, I mean, all of it together, having being
(11:22):
the guy that wrote that song, the person that was
so emotional about what's in that song, certainly what's the word?
I am amazed at the human condition sometimes I'm just
(11:42):
amazed at this can be sitting there the way it
is in front of all of us, and you know
he is and he also does, so it's amazing that
that song is it's so relevant now, Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
It's interesting. I mean, you know, it's interesting how I've
talked with a lot of songwriters about this as well,
Jackson Brown probably being the most prominent one, about how
songs can be prophetic, how you can write a song
fifty years ago a song look, for example, in Jackson's case,
these days, and it still holds so much meaning. So
for you, like you say, it's interesting that it's still
(12:25):
so relevant. I mean, do you see things in these
songs now that you understand why? And it's funny because
I know your friends with Springsteen and I remember seeing
him talk about born to Run right and he talked
about on the eighty seven tour he would do acoustic,
and he said, I thought about how much that song
was me, and how much I didn't want it to
be me. So are the songs that surprise you by
(12:47):
how much they're still related to your life today.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
I don't know that I'm surprised. I think more that
I'm happy that it's this way. I'm happy that you
songs do have quite a bit of my own DNA
in them, so, you know, and I have pretty much
remained the same person. I didn't have some radical shift
(13:12):
in my life that turned me into some other person,
you know, And therefore I certainly still back proudly, I
guess sing the songs and back then I and I
endorse the I endorse this commercial, you know. I endorse
(13:34):
the meaning, the hind the song as written. I'm surprised, though,
sometimes I mean, it's when you're half asleep. These kind
of things happened where you're wake up remembering a line
in one of your own songs, but maybe you actually
misremember it a little bit because you're asleep, and then
(13:56):
you put the right word in. Oh yeah, no, no,
I decided to use that word and then you laugh, Well,
of course you used that word because that says it,
doesn't it, you know, and you're still affirming that choice
all these years later.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Interesting, So can you give me an examples of one
of those songs where you'd like kind of misremembered and
you're like, oh, wait, I really did use the right line.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
I can't think of one off hand. I just know that.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Particularly fortunate son, because I was writing from a place
from a you know, I had been drafted. I was
in the military, but I received the draft notice right
at the time that most of my generation was absolutely terrified,
(14:49):
you might say, of receiving a draft notice and going
into the jungle. You know, it wasn't wasn't some happy
prospect that I wanted to do. Number one, most of
us didn't think that that war was in any way,
shape or form good for America, or patriotic or in
(15:09):
any sense something that was, you know, a realistic, accepted
duty for us all. But the other perspective that I
had was that, yes, I was in the military. I
came back course, and my feelings were still the same.
I was what you would probably call a hippie in
(15:30):
nineteen sixty seven, sixty eight, sixty nine, And by that,
I really just mean a young person becoming very aware
of the world and how the world works, and very
disenchanted with the generation ahead of us who had gotten
us into the war, and many other things that were
(15:54):
not going right, for instance, civil rights. So I was
with my peers, but yet I would be around when
many of them would be talking very perhaps we're at
a what you call it demonstration in those days of protests,
and there would be lots of soldiers around, either army
(16:18):
or National Guard, and the people who are civilians would be,
you know, and young people very disparaging about the military.
And I'd have to say, look, let's get something straight here.
Those guys that are standing over there in uniform didn't
start this, and it's not their policy. In fact, they
(16:40):
don't get to make any policy. Now look over there
and look at that kid over there. You see him.
He's nineteen years old. He likes all the same stuff
you like, he's singing the same songs. He hates the
freaking war, he hates the army. He wants to be
home like you in a civilian life, but he was drafted,
(17:02):
so he has to do that. But you got to
understand he's just like you. This is not his gig,
this war, this oppression coming from the White House.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
I could still say the same.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Thing I was gonna say. That's interesting, you know, it's funny.
I mean, do you feel like now you're able to
sort of be an ambassador for that sentiment where people
(17:38):
are probably even I mean, I wasn't alive during that time,
so I can't say for sure, but I've talked to
people who were who say they'd never seen us more divided,
And it's funny. Do you feel like now you're able
to sort of convey that sentiment of like, because right
now it seems like no one is willing to listen
to the other side at all. No one cares what
anybody has to say. Everybody is fine what you're talking about,
(18:00):
Fortune Sun And there were two instance that came to mind.
Both of them, I know are friends of yours. Springsteen
of course was born in the USA and eighty four,
which is one of the most misunderstood songs of all time.
And Tom Morello, who's a longtime friend of mine. You know,
people would be bitching about the politics and raged against
the machine, and he's like, have you ever listened to
a fucking song of ours. Yeah, it's amazing how people
(18:22):
just don't pay attention at all.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Well, no, and especially now, it's pretty much knee jerk,
you know, they're way I think in the late sixties
it really was generational. I mean, I think young people
were more than ninety percent in agreement, maybe even more
than ninety five percent. One of the big phrases back
(18:45):
then was don't trust anyone over thirty, and that was
more or less the ciniment. It was the older people.
If you well, if you ever heard of Missus Miller,
who was sort of an older person who was also
I think a comedian. I don't think she's saying much,
but she became sort of a spokesman for older people.
(19:07):
She took a trip and went to Vietnam and came
home and you know, this would be kind of like
Bob Hope or John Wayne doing this. She comes home
and she says, Oh, the morale is very high, nothing
to worry about.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
All the boys are doing.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Great, you know, and you just kind of went, you know,
she doesn't get it. She doesn't know. It's old people
against young people. That's kind of the way the world
was in nineteen sixty nine, but nowadays the division is
much more political and there's not as much age separation,
(19:43):
Although how can I say it, I'm certainly very proud
of young people, especially on college campuses the last couple
of years, who have been letting the world know how
they feel about certain situations. And I'm proud of them.
As Americans, I'm very proud of them. I'm glad, you know,
(20:06):
they're getting knocked in ahead by our administration. But young people,
it's very hard to fool young people. You know, you
can't fool a kid. It's something I used to say
back then, and I think they absolutely identified what's going
on in the Middle East.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Well, what's interesting you say that, because I've always believed
that about not being able to fool a kid, and
I also think that's very true of music. I think
people are way smarter than they're given credit for for
being able to tell when something is authentic versus manufactured.
But it's interesting you say that because one of the
things I've really talked a lot about with people. Again,
as I mentioned, I hosted the song about protests or
the show about protest songs, you know, and I've talked
(20:51):
with people about them it is hard to write a
good protest song, you know, it's not easy. And so now,
of course you have a lot of artists like Billy
for example, who I'm a fan of and who I
know who speaks out versus via social media, which is
very effective because of course she's got three hundred million followers.
So are there people that you really young artists you
(21:11):
really admire for their activism and the way they've been
kind of leading the movement the way that you know
you did and several other artists did in the sixties
for social activism and awareness.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
I think Billy is one of them.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
I guess the social media thing is, well, it's so
prevalent that maybe that's that's where it makes more noise,
you might say, these days. The point the deal with
writing a song is you have to be able to
state your position eloquently enough that it's understandable and so,
(21:52):
but it also has to be a good song. Yeah right,
I mean that's the real challenge. It can't just be
epithets and even poetry, you know, it also has to
have a melody, at least in my view, to be
a good song, to be a real song, you know,
Bob Dylan did it quite successfully, but a few years
(22:12):
later Bob was saying things like, well, I don't write
any protest songs, you know, or I don't intend the
right process. I think he was a bit tongue in cheat,
because he was sort of the you know, in the
dictionary where they it says protest songs, they have a
picture of Bob Dylan, you know. But I think he
(22:34):
also understood the quagmire of you get to a point
where that challenged. I mean, who's going to write a
song as good as Blowing in the wind?
Speaker 4 (22:44):
You know?
Speaker 3 (22:44):
So maybe you just want to let that stand for
you and not have to keep trying to do that.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
So it's fine for you. What's the one song you
wish you had written?
Speaker 3 (22:56):
And why, oh there's you mean? Along these lines are
just in general in general.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Now I'm curious because you mentioned he's gonna write a
song as good as Blown in the Wind.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
I wish I had written when a Man Loves a Woman.
It's a different train of thought, of course, but it's
just a it's my kind of music, you know, it's
and it says it so well, and of course Percy
sang it so well. Turn his back on his best friend,
(23:30):
h if she if, if he put her downy sleep.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Out in their aid.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
All those things very absolutely true, and hopefully I hope
to be able to, uh what's the word express that
about my wife in a song one of these days.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Well, I won't keep you much longer. But I am
curious because you mentioned Dylan, and you know, it's funny
because one of the people I'm sure you've known for
you I mentioned interviewing Krieger. I've also spoken a lot
the last few years with Carlos Santana, who I'm sure
you've done for many years. Are there artists that you
came up with that you really admire the way they
evolved and that you kind of look at and that
you've stayed close with, or that you you know, you
(24:15):
kind of just watch and you guys look at each
other and you know, again you're proud of the way
they evolve, and it motivates you to the way you evolve.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Well, I didn't come up with Bruce.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
I was a little ahead of him, but I certainly
loved the way Bruce has evolved and is still He's
still Bruce, He's still relevant, He's he remained true to himself.
I think Bob Dylan handles himself like, you know, very eloquently,
(24:54):
like the almost mythical American that he is. You know, Oh,
I mean, what a great body of work and he
he is. He remains Bob, very elusive, hard to actually
(25:14):
figure out, you know, pin down what he is, because
that body of work just seems to come from a
place that's beyond most of us.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Gosh.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
I admire Paul Simon, you know, through the years, as
you know, he made himself a much better musician as
he went along. That's something I strive for.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
I would say.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Stevie Windward, you know, I certainly loved his music back
when he was well, we were all kids. Well Carlos
by the way, Gee, been a while since I've seen
Carlos in person, but you know he still plays guitar.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
Great. That's what he was.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
To do and he's still doing it. I would aspire
to be a musician like Carlos.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Well.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I love the fact that you said hopefully one day,
I mean, you've written some of the greatest American songs
of all time, as we've determined, and you say hopefully
one day I'll write a song like that that expresses
that for my wife. I love that so much because
that's like the mentality of every artist. You can never
be satisfied. And I remember interviewing bb King when he
was seventy one, when I was only twenty seven, and
(26:28):
I was so nervous because I was like, what the
hell am I gonna ask him? That he hasn't been
asked a million times, the nicest.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
Guy in the world.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
But when he said to me that, I always remember
he was talking about picking up the clarinet and I
asked him why at seventy one he was starting a
new instrument. He said, because every day that you don't
learn something is a day wasted. And I always love
that thought so much. So for you, what are the
most recent things that you've either learned? Are the moments
where you've come closest to writing that song that you
(26:57):
want to write for your wife?
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Well, something you may not know about me is I
practice guitar every day, and it is true that you
can learn something new, Even for me about guitar. I
actually think guitar is probably, how can I say it,
you never you can't completely conquer it because there's so
(27:22):
many different ways to play guitar, all fingers, picks and
fingers all picks, you know, different styles of music, different tunings,
all that sort of thing. And I'm totally committed and
fascinated about playing guitar, so that in fact, I of
course was doing that even this morning before you and
(27:44):
I have been speaking. And I also understand that process
that you must learn and get engaged every day. I
think it keeps your mind active. I think it, you know,
which is something somebody my age is gonna certainly be
aware of. I don't want to end up being a
(28:06):
blob in front of the TV mindlessly, you know, staring
at the screen. And I think that challenge of trying
to make your brain go to rewire it different ways
is what keeps you active and alert.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Last two questions now I have to ask, because you're
talking about guitar, who's your favorite guitarist of all time?
Speaker 3 (28:29):
WHOA Well, my favorite musician is Jerry Douglas. He plays Doughbro.
But he has been just a huge source of inspiration
to me. He plays bluegrass, which is how I discovered him,
and through that discovered.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
Doughbro.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
You know, eventually I wanted to I had bought a
dough Bro and I wanted to figure out how to
play it, and finally, all the roads of Doughbro roads,
at least finally you're going to cross the road as
Jerry Douglas on it. And I was flabbergasted what a
great musician he is and the great musicians that he
(29:15):
surrounds himself with.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
And after that I was off.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
That was my path and as a matter of fact,
the curse of me playing and wanting to be better
every day I owe to Jerry Douglas. I was listening
to his music, of course, very intently in the middle nineties,
I think, and you know, as I was listening and
(29:44):
hearing the musicians around him and marveling at how wonderful everybody.
This was just a very high level of playing and
musical thought, and my mind started to kind of go
through those canyons in tunnel. It was more like a tunnel,
and the flashlight in my little hand in my mind
(30:05):
suddenly shone on a molecule of my fourteen year old
self saying, I'm going to go up and I'm going
to be a great guitar player. I might be one
of the greatest in the whole world. And when I
think I was about forty eight years old at the
time when I.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Saw that molecule shining at me.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
You know, I realized most people would go hah, and
they would brush it away, you know, with their hand.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
They just go nah. But I didn't.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
I took that as a challenge. They say, oh my god,
I'm forty eight, I gotta get busy. And that's exactly
what happened.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Awesome. Well, the last question, actually I might try and
sneak in two more real quickly. The podcast I host
called in Service Up, and I talk with musicians all
the time about giving back and how they do that
and what it means to them. And you know, giving
back musically is such an interesting thing because when you
talk with any artists fanatizing with the other question, I
want to ask, Look, you know, giving back can be
(31:03):
either film profically, but it also as a musician. I
am sure you've heard so many countless times over the
years what your songs have meant to people, how would
save someone's life, how it got them through a rough time.
So talk about, you know, how your music is helped
people giving back and what it means to you as
an artist to know that you've done that. And are
(31:24):
there certain causes that are very important for you.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Well, I'm very happy that my music inspires people. I've
heard many people say things like that, you know, a
cause that's near and dear to me.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
Really is.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Fighting against the mistreatment of children. I just I just
can I say. I want to explode when I hear
that children and have been treated poorly, and I do
try to support causes that will help to rectify that. Obviously,
(32:13):
another cause that's been very near and dear to me
has been the veterans of our military. I think probably
because I actually was drafted and on the inside. Even
though I didn't have a long career in the military,
I still was given the boots to wear for a
(32:37):
time and understand the mindset, especially during a very volatile
and I would say useless war that was going on
in our country, and those guys particularly came back pretty
battered and confused and were not even admired and helped
by their own country. If anything, they were kind of
(32:59):
hustled out a side door and told the go away.
So I do try to help veterans and perform for
or show up at benefits for as often as they can.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Cool I'm gonna sneak in this last one and it
ties in with this, but it's a fun one. I
mentioned talking with Robbie and John not long ago from
the Doors. It was for a sixty eighth anniversary piece.
And you know it's funny because I was interviewed, of
all people, a palaeontologist who was telling me this amazing
story about listening to the Doors while excavating dinosaur bones
in Patagonia, how he would hire these gauchos who literally
(33:42):
would like drag dinosaur bones while listening to writers on
the store. And I was telling Robby and John and
they were blown away. And I'm sure you've heard amazing
stories of where your music has traveled to. So is
there any place you've heard of your music being played
or listened to that kind of blew your mind? What's
the most fun place?
Speaker 4 (34:01):
Oh boy?
Speaker 3 (34:02):
I uh.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Hm.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Actually, the most fun place for me has been when
my kids that Julie and I have together, When Shane
and Tyler were young, starting for a time when we
lived in Nashville, they were in.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
Little League and.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Suddenly, coming from let's say one of the other fields,
here comes center field. And my kids were so little
they didn't know who that was, right, And eventually, perhaps
maybe during the first or second year of them being
in Little League at this point they're six seven, you know,
(34:51):
t ball, that sort of thing. The song gets played
in our own situation. You know, I was lucky enough.
I got to be an assistant coach a lot of times,
and that was It's just great.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
It was wonderful. And suddenly here's my kids.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Now, what's the word owning the fact that their dad
has written a baseball song.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
So that might be a little personal and a little too.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Focused, you might say, but that was a pretty special
moment for me and my family.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
No, that's an awesome answer. Cool. Is there anything that
you want to add that I did not ask you about.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
No, I'm happy with what we've been talking about.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Thank you, Steve, Now it was a great, great, great pleasure.
Thank you so much for your time.
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