Lead singer of Creedence Clearwater Revival and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, John Fogerty joins Bobby on this episode of the BobbyCast! John takes a deep dive into the origin story of CCR and how the name came about. Plus, John tells the stories about writing a few classics, such as "Proud Mary" in 1 hour and "Fortunate Son" in just 20 minutes while in his bedroom without any melody. John also talked to Bobby about the true meaning behind his lyrics, his earliest memories of music during his childhood days and when he got his first guitar. Bobby also found a picture of John in his early 20's and asked him if he had any advice for himself back then, what would it be. John then goes on to say, 'everything will be alright in life and just enjoy the ride because he wouldn't change his life for anyone else's, not even for one day', and much more!
Listen to John's new album Legacy: The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years
Follow on Instagram: @TheBobbyCast
Follow on TikTok: @TheBobbyCast
Watch this Episode on Youtube
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
One night I went into my bedroom and said, all right,
you got a right favorite son, and suddenly this idea about.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
That, So folks are board made the way.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
That you know?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I like that, finished that first verse, wouldn't you know it?
I changed favorite Son in the Fortunate Son because it
ain't me. I walked out of that bedroom with a
finished song in twenty minutes.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
I think this is our second Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame member Ringo obviously.
Speaker 5 (00:37):
About Sheryl Crowe, hmm, she in the Hall.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Of Fame possibly, but if she is, we did not
interview her until she got in, because I would think
she just got in pretty recently if she did get in.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
A right twenty twenty three. Yeah, so I think we've
had good memory.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
I think we've had now three but two you say, Dolly, No,
I didn't, Okay, three but four?
Speaker 5 (01:06):
Yeah, anyway, it's rare.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
This is John Fogerty, which, by the way, Creden's clear
Water Revival one of my favorite bands ever. I did
not get to live while they were making current music
because they were very much late sixties seventies and then
he had a solo career. But so many great songs
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
Speaker 5 (01:25):
Great song?
Speaker 4 (01:26):
It ain'ty it a'my, I ain't no fortunate song. Now
good one, there's a bad moon on the rise, a
good one, Proud Mary, keep on burn and wrote that one.
Speaker 5 (01:37):
Oh, he wrote all these, but great one.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Come on around the ben, Jam, down on the corner,
out in the street, Jam, Digger, run through the Jungle.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Brom bromp Front.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
I could keep going. They have so many freaking songs.
We just can't play music on this podcast because you're
not allowed to play music. So I want to make
sure everybody knows just how significant this is. Who stop
the rain Jam? I don't know, Come on, arise and win.
I could keep going. They have so many songs, so
this was very cool for me. And I don't want
(02:10):
to spend a lot of time up front because I
want you to hear what's going on. But he has
made a new record with the Suns. It's the Creden's
Clearwater Revival Years, which was just released. It's twenty classic tracks,
fresh energy back by his sons Shane and Tyler, and
Let's give it a run here. He was born in Berkeley, California,
in nineteen forty five. Before CCR, he served in the
(02:31):
US Army Reserve. He had to do active duty though,
and we talk about that. He was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in nineteen ninety three
as part of CCR. He's left handed, plays the guitar
right handed. He once said he wrote Bad Moon Rising,
there's a bad Moon on the Rise, after watching The
Devil and Daniel Webster, so it's a movie. And his
(02:53):
wife Julie has been a big part of his later career. Comeback,
and he's playing at our iHeartRadio Music Festival, and you
may hear this way after the festival, but I'm pretty
excited about that. So here he is, Episode five thirty eight.
Lead singer of Creden's Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty, John, it
is really good to see you. I'm sure you hear
this a lot, but it's it's an honor. Was that
(03:14):
a Was that a weird part of your life when
everybody started to go it's an honor.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Well, I always say it back, it's an honor to meet.
Speaker 5 (03:20):
You too, and I mean, well thanks.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
I'm a big fan, like of CCR, of like your
original stuff. So for me, I just texted my stepdad,
who is the original fan who made me a fan,
and I was like, John Fogerty's coming over to the house.
But I didn't say you're doing an interview. I made
it like we're friends. Yeah, and he was like he's
coming over. I was like yeah, he said, what are
you going to talk about? I didn't respond yet. Okay,
I'll text him later and tell him what we talked.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
About about everything.
Speaker 5 (03:45):
Yeah, So how did you get discovered? How did a
band get discovered?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Back then when there wasn't social media, you know, you
couldn't just text your buddy and be like, hey, come
check this person out. Like what was the process?
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Like, well, it depends on what you mean discovery.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
I had to get a record deal even.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Okay, well, around the age of fourteen, when the Little
Blue Velvets were playing around, we ended up representing the
Elsa Rito It's my town else Rito boys Club and
so we played various different venues, including boys clubs from
(04:22):
other towns around the Bay Area. And at one of
those things, there was this singer named James Powell about
He's about twenty four to twenty five years old, and
he tapped me on his shoulder. After we'd played, would
you guys be interested in making a record? I'll try
and cut that to Chase, I said sure. We ended
(04:44):
up learning the songs with James. He had, you know,
kind of a pocket full of songs and they were
all girls' names, but his style was pretty much do wop,
and we ended up learning recording a song called Beverly Angel,
and the other side was called Lydia, which was sort
(05:07):
of a calypso thing, but Beverly Angel was a do
wop classic. I mean it was D D D D,
you know, one of those things. And we went over
to Coast Recorders in San Francisco. I think it was
called something else then. Anyway, the trio piano, drums, and guitar,
(05:31):
and then James sang his part and harmonized with himself
and I overdubbed. It's a whole nother story I won't
get into, but from one of the guys on my
paper route who was a bass player in a country
Western band.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
He was a dad.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
He could have been my dad, he was that age.
He loaned me his stand up doghouse bass to play
on this record, and so I played that on the
record and it's actually pretty cool even now. That didn't
get discovered, but it did get played on the R
and B station, and Stu Cook tells me that in electronics.
(06:13):
I guess it was that, you know, I wasn't going
to elswet O high at that point, but anyway, he
was in electronics. The project was to make a radio
and he's got the thing working, tuned it in and
up popped Beverly Angel.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
It's a great story. I hope it's true, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
So they probably played that song, that record for about
a week, and then a little later, my brother Tom
got us on a label called Orchestra Records.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
The fella had his you know own label.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
We made I don't know, four or five records there,
one of them a song I wrote called have You
Ever Been Lonely? It was a new song, not the
old country standard, and that got picked by one of
the DJs as a pick of the week and was
played all week. So and again we got played, but
(07:07):
it didn't go much further after that, and finally took
me knocking on the door at Fantasy, which was a
little bit bigger label, not much and.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
Did they want to hear a body of work? Are
they playing your songs, Like, how do you go to
a bigger label and go, hey, we have this thing going,
we want you to invest in us.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I wish it was I wish it was that together,
and maybe it's more so nowadays.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
There had been this special on TV called Anatomy of
a Hit as a local jazz writer in the paper
had kind of narrated and produced it. It was about
Vince Daldy's song. It was instrumental called cast Your Fate
to the Wind, a jazz record that became a top
forty hit that was Fantasy. It was basically their first
(07:57):
hit record in forty years of something of being the
record label. And so I watched that. My brother Tom
watched that. So I decided to go over and just
knock on their door and went in. You know, I
think I had phoned ahead, but anyway, they were expecting me.
And I met this fella that was the guy, the
same one we saw on TV.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
I had a.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Kind of a box full of tapes of instrumentals and he's,
you know, listened to my spiel and all that, and
he said, well, do you have any songs with words
that's kind of normally what Tom and I did together.
So I said, well sure, He said, well, come back
and play us.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
At first, what he did was he walked us over,
walked me over to the desk there and opened the
Billboard magazine. He said, well, songs with words do a
lot better than instrumentals. And then it happened to be
that week he opens Billboard and there's the top ten
and the first six or Beatles songs, And of course
(09:00):
I knew about that, but he was trying to say that,
you see, songs with words will turn you into the
Beatles or something like that.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Okay, sir.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
We then made a whole bunch of recordings for that
labos kind of in this shed they had at the
back of their warehouse, a kind of a makeshift recording studio,
and they renamed us the Gollywalgs. Of course we hated
that without your consent. Yeah, the first recording we had
(09:36):
made came back, you know, they phoned us, the records
are in, come over, and you know, we opened the
box and it says gollywogs. I just figured it was
a typele. There's something wrong here, Max, look at this,
It says golly walgs. And then he let us know
the the evil plot that was afoot here.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
So they've changed your name without telling you. That's wild.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah, it's obscene. I don't know why I didn't just
walk out the door. But that's how desperate things are.
Of course, you okay, sir, whatever you want. You're just
desperate to try and make a record that might get
on the radio.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
How long were you the Golliwogs.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Until nineteen sixty seven? That was sixty four when, of course,
because of the Beatle Week in nineteen sixty seven, the
guy who had been formerly the sales rep for the
Fantasy the Jazz label, his name was Saul's Ants. He
summoned us to his house and told us that he
(10:43):
had purchased Fantasy Records. I didn't know then that he
had other investors too, but I just thought he bought
the label. And he said, and we'd like to sign
the band, meaning we meaning he'd like to sign the band.
And the first thing out of our amounts with Saul,
we got to change our name. We hate being golliwogs.
(11:04):
And he said sure, okay.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
And did he say what do you want it to be?
Speaker 3 (11:09):
No?
Speaker 1 (11:11):
No, But years later this is the you know how
Victory has a thousand bothers. What really happened was within
the band, we said, okay, we got to come up
with a new name. You know, we're scrapping everything and
we're going to come up with a.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Good new name.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Years later, I read some quote from Saul saying, and
then I told those boys, Gollywogs thinks you have to
go out and get something more earthy, in other words,
taking ownership of the whope. And it's like, and when
you're young and dumb, that's kind of what happens to you.
But clearly we went off because we've been what's the word,
(11:56):
just chafing under that yoke of a name. And it
took a couple of months. Basically, I was growing up
pretty fast. I was evolving is the word I use
in a lot of different ways, because after that experience
and having freshly just gotten off active duty with the army.
(12:20):
It was, and I was twenty two years old. I
was starting to feel like, man, it's make or break time.
My dream might go away if I don't really manifest something.
And so we came up with different names, meaning the
guys would call me and there'd be one kind of
wacky or lame thing man.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Finally, on.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Christmas Eve of nineteen sixty seven, I came up with
Creeden's Clearwater Revival and I knew it was it. I mean,
I knew in my heart that wow, this is better
than us. Actually, this name is up here in the
cloud somewhere. We got to get up there.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
So what about those words and those three terms together
made you go, this is it? What drew you to
Creten's clear Water Revival?
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Okay, well, I was watching television. It's Christmas Eve, so
you're sort of in that, you know mood, it's a
wonderful time of year and of your life. And on
comes this beer commercial for Olympia Beer, and their slogan
is It's the Water. So they're showing this really lush,
(13:28):
magical forest with the green trees, and it might have
been a little deer, you know. Band becomes over and
nudges against a little borsch or something, and then there's
this little babbling brook. You know, water is just coming
and it's just enchanted looking, and their slogan it's the
water and immediate, you know, which I liked is oh
(13:49):
and I think the Beach Boys literally are in the
background singing with their beautiful harmonies and all that. It's
just a pretty serene place to be. Immediately after that commercial, boom,
next thing. It's black and white and it's an anti
pollution commercial and it shows tyrofoam cups and cigarette butts
(14:11):
in a creek that's all polluted. And at the end
of the little commercial, black and white, very shocking looking,
it says, if you want to change this right to
clean water, Washington, that's all you got to you know,
it'll get there. And I the juxtaposition of those two waters,
you know, it really stuck. It just shocked me. And
(14:32):
I looked at that. I said, clean water, Yeah, I
like that. It touched my soul, and in an instant
I realized I was actually, what do you call it internalizing?
I was making it part of me because I had
an urgent need and I like clean water, but not
clean clear water. Wow, clear that's it. And I mean
(14:55):
that seemed to be the soul of the idea here,
and I quickly started thinking of what to goal with it.
A few months before, actually we had had the name
Credence spin around in our little orbit because we knew
(15:15):
a fella named Credence new Ball such an unusual name,
and so you know, in all the different you know,
clear Water, fruit Jar, clear Water Cloud, clear Water, warehouse,
what you know, you're just associating and suddenly clear Water Credence,
Oh no, Credens clear Water. Okay, I mean your brain
(15:40):
just does this. That was killer. That was a winner
to me, and it just felt not quite complete. And
so then to the kind of mood I was in
was that our band was having a resurgence or a renewal,
and I was trying to state that it was in
my and fin anyone that came across my mental wind shield,
(16:05):
it's Creten's Clearwater Revival. Wow. I mean, remember this is
in the Bay Area right during the time of Quicksilver
Messenger Service and Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead and all
that sort of thing. Creten's Clearwater Revival seemed to be.
It was so perfect and so above our station at
(16:27):
the moment. I really loved it.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
What was the first song you wrote as Creden's Clearwater
Revival that actually had some traction and not the first
song that came out, Because a lot of times you
write a song that it comes out, you know, it
may take a bit you have it, you've written it.
What's the first song you write as this new entity
of Creden's Clearwater Revival.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
It had traction, yeah, because there were the first Credence
album had susi Q and I Put a Spell on You,
which I didn't write.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Both of those I didn't write.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
There were some other songs I did write, but there's
sort of you know, they're work in progress, they're they're
on their way.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
Can I hear that in your writing?
Speaker 4 (17:06):
You can tell when you're getting better by listening to
your songs through the years.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Oh sure, yeah, Oh sure, that's Oh sure, I'll come
back to that if you let me in a minute.
But anyway, but right as the first album's coming out,
which had we had kind of earned the right to
do that because susi Q was already being played on
the local underground stations, it was getting some traction. And
(17:35):
right in that time, I was already trying to prepare
for my next album.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
I mean I would.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
I had my hand on the tiller and I wasn't
going to let go. I got my honorable discharge from
the army, and it's sitting on the steps to my
little apartment, and I picked that up. You know, I
didn't realize it was for me for a couple of days.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I finally, oh, it's my hist chart.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Wow. Well, anyhow, I ran in the house and I'm out.
I mean I was, I was clear. I was free
as the word to a twenty two year old. I
ran in the house, picked up my guitar and started strumming.
And what came out of me was left a good
(18:22):
job in the city, working for the man every night
and day.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
And that's exactly what that refers to.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
Wo.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
I stayed on that thought. I strummed the guitar. I mean,
these things are just I can't even say I created them.
It really felt more like if I cleared my mind,
it'll come through, you know, like a radio station. And
it did. I got to where I was singing, rolling, rolling,
rolling on the river, and I was pretty excited. This
(18:50):
is starting to seem pretty cool. What is this thing
all about? Well, I had started to keep a song book.
If you want me to go back and tell that story,
I will, but I would.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Love to hear it when we go back, I'm gonna
put a pen in it. We'll go back to.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
It, all right. Anyhow, I opened that book that.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I've been sitting there for a few months now and
I've been putting things into it. And I opened the
book and the first entry in the book, it's a
little vinyl binder, that's all it is, and the first
entry is Proud Mary. And I looked at that and went, oh,
this song's about a boat. Why it's about a boat
(19:32):
And the name of the boat is the Proud Mary.
Oh my goodness, that's it. I'm rolling on the river
with Proud Mary. I finished the song, so you right,
within about an hour it was done. And you asked
me about the first song I wrote as credence that
had traction. It was actually more than that. I'm holding
the piece of paper in my hands and I'm looking
(19:55):
at it, and I had self awareness that never happened
to me. I'd written dozens of songs in my life,
starting when I was eight years old. But I'm sitting
here with this piece of paper and proud marrying John.
You've written a classic. This is a classic. It's what
every songwriter is dreaming about.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
You know.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
My mom had told me about Stephen Foster, Irving, Berlin,
Hogy Carmichael, and I had discovered my own people.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
I loved like Libern.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Stoler, you know the Coasters, certainly, Lennon and McCartney, people
like that, Carol King, you know, people that were real songwriters,
and you just know that they're up there in the
clouds somewhere, and you're doing.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Your little ditties.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Every once in a while, you're writing your little songs
and hoping somehow you're fantasizing about being up there with
those people. I'm holding that piece of paper. You've written
a classic John Wow. And I realized at the time
that it was that good. And then then the next thing,
(21:04):
I realized, I'm sitting there looking at it. I'm the
only person in the whole world that knows this. I mean,
it was a bizarre thought that came to my mind
of understanding. I guess in some primitive way, it's going
to go everywhere, but you're the only one that knows.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
It right now.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
It's just a weird personal thought.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
And you had that feeling. I guess my question did
you ever have that feeling before? Or was this the
lightning bolt?
Speaker 1 (21:32):
This was the lightning bolt? Never had that feeling before.
I mean, if you'd walked up to me and I'm,
you know, working on one of the recordings we had done.
You know, yeah, that's good. You know, that's kind of
the way we are, or it could happen. You know,
let me play you three other songs that are worse
than this, you know from the radio. I mean everyone
(21:53):
does that. It's a foolish sort of following yourself.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
To the bottom. You know.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
The other way is the way it should happen. You
should create something that's so great that you're grinning, you're smiling,
it's so good, and everyone around you that here's it
knows it too. I mean, that's that's the way to
know that you're on your way.
Speaker 6 (22:15):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor,
and we're back on the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Whenever you take that song and you play it or
you record it, was there any convincing other people that
it was the one? Or was it uniformly like, yep,
this is it.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
I'm going to say that it was. It was a
slow awareness within my band the three other fellas in Credence, but.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
That was not unusual.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
I had to do a cell just to make Creten's
Clearwater revival work. I had to sell it to the
other three guys and you know, I was dug in.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
I was not changing my mind, but.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
There was a I don't know, that's a bit complicated,
you know, all that stuff. So the idea of people
not of the other guys not quite getting it was
not was not.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Unusual when I think about some of the lyrics of
your songs and I think of, like, there's a statue
wearing high hills look at all and.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
You know, do do do look?
Speaker 4 (23:29):
And were you whacked out of your mind when writing
that song? No, because that's some crazy imagery. Like I'm
now like, I feel like I if I were whacked
out and I was listening to it, I'd be like, man,
this song is perfect because it's a it's a it's
a it's a lot of things that weird things happening.
It's written for a child, Okay, or that that makes
sense too.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
I had as a kid.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
One of my favorite little books was a children's book,
Wow called to Think It Happened or Maybe and to
Think It Happened on Mulberry Street. And the author was
Dr Seuss. It was his first book, and I was
probably three four years old.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
We're talking nineteen forty nine, right.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
My mom would read that book to me about all
these different things that went by, and this boy is
watching this parade on Mulberry Street. So you know, I
growing up, I've always wanted to write a song that
feels like what that book was. So and I knew
even at the time when I was making the song
(24:35):
and then going to put out the record.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yep, when I talk about the creatures danced.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
In the lawn on the lawn, I changed it from grass.
If I say dancing on the grass, Oh yeah, I see,
that's shit. So I had left another line in there
that I was troubling to me, but it didn't mean
anything about drugs. It said and the flying spoon, right,
(25:02):
and it was sure some people. I didn't know enough
about drugs anyway to know how a spoon was connected,
but I kind of had a inkling that it was.
I just pictured this great, big, gigantic thing that looked
like a spoon with big old eagles wings or whatever,
just you know, the way imagery and some of the
(25:22):
beetle things like Yellow Submarine or whatever much later would
fantasizes about that. And I wanted you to see that
in your mind.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
See you purposefully, and it makes sense. Took grass and
turned it into lawn. You look at all the happy
people dancing on the lawn. Yeah, because you didn't want that.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
And I knew nothing about drugs. Still really don't know
aything about drugs.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
But I always thought, man, there's some crazy stuff happened
in the song. But it makes sense if it's written
for children. Yes, And my assumption would be people your
whole career. Thought that song was written about the seventies,
just in general, the sixties or seventies.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Well, I remember once being backstage at the film More
and certainly By your country was out Born on the
By you and it might have been even after Green River.
But a young guy comes up to me, you know,
and he just got that we were all hippies. Don't
get me wrong, I do not separate myself from the crowd,
(26:16):
because certainly my mindset was very much the same sort
of free and you know, there's a lot of hope,
hopeful for the future. And he comes up to me, John,
you must the phrase is almost what you've just been
stoned out of your mind. Tell me when you were
born on the By, you were just stone and just
(26:36):
up there on it, you know. And I smiled, and
I wanted to humor the guy, but it kind of
ticked me off because it's not that I was anti drug.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
It was the.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Idea of I didn't want to be so irresponsible when
I was writing because I thought that I was more
serious about it. I guess, right, And so what he was.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Saying to me was.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
I guess what he was doing was saying, if I'm
my teacher, Tad, well you have no talent, but you
got stoned and then you wrote that song, and so
you couldn't have possibly done that if you were just
sitting there normally. Right, As you well know, the muse,
(27:26):
the place you go to be creative, is really elusive.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
I mean, we could.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Talk all day about that, but I mean, and I'm
scared of it and very appreciative of it, a little
wary of it because it doesn't always come around. I
mean sometimes it's not around for years.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
It's a very mysterious, fragile thing. So being able to
get yourself to go there, as you just said, what
looking out my back door is like to be able
to picture those things at the time. For me, in
other words, it made total sense right or is right now.
(28:05):
I probably couldn't walk out your front door and sit
down and be in that sort of elusive, flimsy kind
of mood. But at the time I got myself there.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
I'm gonna ask you two more song questions, and one
of them is about Fortunate Son, because you talked about
getting your discharge papers and that is what created Proud Mary,
like that feeling with Fortunate Son. How long after that
did you write that song, because that's what I think
about when I think about you being discharged and the
message of the song, Like, how long until then?
Speaker 1 (28:41):
That was probably about a year of just about a year,
maybe a year and a month, thirteen months something like that.
So from sometime in the middle in the summer of
sixty eight for Proud Mary to late summer in sixty
nine for Fortunate Son.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
Did you ever get on like a hot streak?
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Because like I know Dolly a little bit, and she'll
talk about man, I wrote these two songs in this day.
I wrote another song later that week, and I did
this song, and she has like three weeks of writing
like five of her most massive songs. Did you ever
have a time period where they just fell out of you?
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Well, I think that whole period of time as they
were happening that way. I was working really hard at it.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
I mean, don't.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
In other words, I was what's the word, setting myself
up for success.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
I would stay up late.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
In other words, I knew my for my band to
have success, I needed more songs. I also knew that
it was up to me, and so I would, you know,
have dinner and then go to my little room and
stay there, trink a lot of coffee, smoke a lot
(29:51):
of cigarettes in those days, and stay up till maybe
four am writing songs.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
And so the idea that.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
One day I'm riding my motorcycle and I think about
up around the bind, just from the feeling of when
you're riding a motorcycle that feels so free, and of
course in those days, we didn't wear helmets and all that,
and it was just.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Almost like riding a wild horse, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
The phrase up around the bind came to me, and
I thought about it for a couple of days, and
within a week I'd written a song fortunate Son. Now
that you've talked about that, that was actually the quickest
song I ever wrote. Wow, all that stuff was in
my head and I had begun to show the band
the music for this I wanted. Basically, I wanted an
(30:46):
unstoppable streaming rocker for my band, you know, one of
those We'd had some kind of middle tempo things like
Proud Mary and Low Dye, and you know, I wanted
something that was just streaming, an edgy and like that.
So I started showing the band the groove and the
chords to a song, and eventually I realized, I'm writing.
(31:09):
I think I'm going to write a song called Favorite Son.
And I knew the song was political. I had grown
up watching believe it or not, even as an eight
year old or something, I was kind of interested in
the national conventions for political parties. They would be on
television a lot of times in the daytime. In those days,
(31:31):
black and white, you'd see a lot of really old men,
you know, seeing different stuff. You know, you're a kid,
you don't really know what it's all about. But so
often somebody would stand up, oh, you're sir, the great
State of Texas would like to nominate her favorite son
Billy soul estes, you know, and they always use that
(31:54):
phrase favorite son, and so that's stuck in my mind.
I actually wrote it in my little book. So as
I'm teaching my band this song and the chords for
what became fortunate son. I realized we're getting pretty tight.
When I knew something was a single, we rehearsed it
(32:14):
for like six weeks, just rehearsed and rehearse and rehearse.
You know, I figured, it's me against the whole world,
and I'm trying to get up there with the Beatles,
trying to make a great single.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Right, it will go on our radio.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
And you know, I had no illusions about me or
anybody else in the band being this great musicians that
can just pick everything and all that. To me, the
whole idea was if you practice enough, rehearse enough, you've
got every move in your subconscious. It just it just
comes out of it. And that's what would happen. We'd
go in the studio after six weeks and just turn
(32:50):
on the red light record. Within about three takes, got it.
That's the best we ever played that, right, And I
knew that time was fast approaching. One night I went
into my bedroom and say, all right, you got to
write favorite son. I sat down on the edge without anything,
no melody, no chorus lines, nothing, and suddenly this idea about.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
So folks are born made the way that you know.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
I finished that first verse and I realized, some folks
are born. Wow, I can start the second verse that
you know, what's kind of this this mantra or whatever,
And it ain't me. You know, it just happened right there,
And wouldn't you know it, I changed favorite Son into
the fortunate son because it ain't me. I walked out
(33:39):
of that bedroom with a finished song in twenty minutes.
I just you know, I mean, I'm marveled at that.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
Now.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
I wish I could do that more often.
Speaker 4 (33:47):
Of course, did you feel the way about Fortunate Son
that you did about Prodmary, where you knew like this
is something?
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yes, Yes, The reason I knew because I knew I
could sing the heck out of it, and it was
saying everything that was in my mind. You know, I'd
obviously been thinking all those thoughts about about the military,
about the war in Vietnam, about the unfairness of people,
(34:18):
you know, some senators, rich people getting their kids out
of the draft.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
It was all in my mind.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
And it it came out of me, and was I
knew it was said, Well, I could just tell it
this was going to be a lot of fun to play.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Was there any thought of social repercussion, meaning some people
wouldn't like it and that was gonna be difficult for you?
Speaker 1 (34:43):
If I thought about that at all, I think I
figured the people that wouldn't like it was probably President Nixon.
You know, that was okay with me. I was trying
to send a message and people and people that would
follow what President and that Nixon would say. In other words,
it really was kind of a what's the word cultural
(35:08):
war between young people, mostly under thirty, who were very
much against the war because there was a draft and
so you were tapped if you were drafted like I was,
to go fight in a war you really didn't believe in,
and that no one had actually explained to the American
people why we got to do this. And so you
(35:32):
found that the young people were on one side and
the other side was mostly older people that believed their icons,
meaning the president of course, and people like John Wayne
or Bob Hope and all that. They seemed that just
you know, they'd been in another war years before, probably
before I was born, and they just sort of went
(35:52):
along with stuff like that. In fact, I remember one
of my idols actually I remember tex Ritter had been
on one of those high jacked airplanes in the sixties,
so he was in the news again. But at one
point he said, those young people, if they would just
stop marching, stop that marching. You know, he was clearly
(36:15):
on the other side of the fence about those things.
Some now, something I'd really like to state because I
was drafted, and I did serve in the Army Reserves
and was on active duty, and every day, excuse me,
during my three years of military service, there was the
(36:35):
specter of, you know, at any time, my unit could
be activated and there we go. We're often to Vietnam.
So can I say I had very much mixed emotions
because I was against the war, but yet I'd been
through that experience and there was some important stuff I
had really learned, just you know, without even thinking about it.
(36:58):
After I was out of the military and then my
career started to take off with credence, there would be
all kinds of situations where I'm in a group of
people who are saying like minded that were quote unquote
hippie and against the war and all that sort of thing,
(37:19):
and some would be sometimes we'd be confronted with there'd
be some army guys over there, because we're going through
airports all the time, and so was the military, right,
And somebody'd say something mean about, you know, at the
army over there and all that sort of stuff, and
i'd have to I'm going to sound a little bit
(37:39):
like a preacher or something. But I realized I was old,
I was an old soul or whatever I had evolved,
and i'd stop them from saying, listen, look over there
at those people that you know, they're all in uniform
and fatigues, you know, going through and they're staying together
because they're kind of being shunned by everybody else. Now
(38:02):
take a good look over there. That guy is nineteen
years old. He's your age. He likes all the same
music you like. He likes all the same cultural stuff
like girls, guitars, cars, you know, all that kind of stuff,
and he hates the freaking war. But he got drafted
unlike you, so he has to go do that. And
(38:25):
I don't know how many times I said that to people,
which you know, I was still against the war. That
was my liberal position, I suppose, but I had that
insight about, yeah, but don't yell at those guys, they're
not making the war.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
You know.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
It's the powerful people that declare the war, and then
the poor people got to go wage.
Speaker 4 (38:47):
The war, which was a bit of unfortunate. Son was reflecting, yep,
which was exactly that.
Speaker 7 (38:52):
It The Bobby Cast will be right back. This is
the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
I was in Paris and I saw a signas that
you were playing in Paris. You're playing everywhere right now,
all over the world.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
There you go, rocking all over the world.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Still, well it's fun. Sure, it's actually more fun now
than ever. Why is that because I'm with my family,
because because all this music I'm making now is from
a place of joy and love, and you know, it's
it's very hard to describe, but it's like going on
(39:40):
a great vacation every day.
Speaker 4 (39:42):
Was there a time and I'm sure that it ebbed
and flowed where you fell in love with music, You
kind of probably got burnt out, maybe falling out of
love with music, and then you fell back in love again.
Speaker 5 (39:53):
Is that would that be consistent with your career?
Speaker 1 (39:55):
The words are right, but I didn't. I didn't fall
out of love with music. I just got to a
place where I was so hurt about things that there
would be pain involved, you know. I mean Julie tells
me about the times when we first were together, something
would be on the radio and all that and I would,
(40:16):
you know, turn it off. That's you probably didn't want
to hear all that.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
I've read your book, so like, like I know all
the stories and you know so it to me, it's like,
you know, what are I don't know what you want
to talk about today? Like what kind of I guess
some days I'm in the mood to talk about it all.
Some days I'm not.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
So I mean as when you first start, when you
were a kid, as I've said a couple of times,
music captured me.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
I mean I really had no vote.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
I think I think it just happened, and I went
through the whole process of being young and discovering. And
you know, my mom shared her likes early with me.
So that's how I heard about Stephen Foster, that Stephen
Foster was a songwriter, and that just mystified me. Oh,
(41:07):
you know, Stephen Foster wrote Oh Susannah, Wow. And then
you know, getting to where I thought, wow, maybe I
like to try music, you know, And I heard an
Elvis Presley record called My Baby Left Me and the Guitar,
and it was so.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Dramatic.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
I guess is the word, and Elvis is singing, you know,
in a bluesy style. But I mean, I knew who
Elvis was. He was all over the TV and radio
at the time, but I didn't know this song, so
I therefore didn't know.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Who it was.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
It was on a jukebox in a little country store,
and when I discovered what it was, I just liked
it so much. I looked at the record going around.
I said, I don't know what they're doing there, but
that's what I want to do.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
And I made up my mind right there.
Speaker 4 (41:58):
The first song that I ever learned to play fully
and played publicly at a school event was Down on
the Corner.
Speaker 5 (42:03):
Guys, you're talking about that.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
The first song I ever played all the way through
and played publicly was that was Down on the Corner.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (42:10):
Because I could actually play the down down, down't down.
Speaker 4 (42:13):
I could play that, and then I could go FCG.
You know, I felt like that was a And yeah,
you were telling that. I wasn't really planning to share that.
But when you're talking about the first song that you
ever played in my music careers, all in comedy. That
was my first ever song was Down on the Corner.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
It's a lot more complicated than the one I learned.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
I think maybe you were a bit more complicated of
a writer, but I was pretty proud of myself for
playing that one. When you talk about Sun Records, I
think sonically of those those songs and how they were
made and how approachable they were, which is how you
describe them. I feel like a lot of your famous sound,
like the Bayou sound, was very approachable sonically. Do you
(42:53):
feel like that is what you know influenced your It
sounded like a dick Southern sound.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
Oh for sure.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
Because I think a lot of people assumed you guys
were from Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Because I've heard people from Louisiana. Actually we didn't know
if you were over by Thibodeaux or you.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
Know, yeah, yeah, And that to me is the conclusion
that I draw by hearing how influenced you were by
Sun Records, is that your music with CCR in the
early days, when people thought you were this Louisiana band
creating this Byou sound, seemed very approachable in the same
way that you felt that was and I think it's
probably because of that. Maybe you were influenced by that
sound when you were making music.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
Bobby.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
The truth is that wonderful place that I go to
and I sometimes call it Sun Records, but you know,
it's kind of the swamp thing or buy you whatever.
I feel most comfortable there. I actually feel like that's
my own element or my own personality or something like that.
And you know which probably me trying to be in
(43:54):
the band with Carl Perkins something like. I've actually used
that as said, that would have been in my life
stream to be standing back there playing rhythm guitar while
Carl's doing his thing, and I could just be part
of that groove.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
So I mean, along with that.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
There's you know, you could get a college professor in
here to take all the music apart and talk about
all the things, one of the big things being to me,
it was simple instrumentation. There wasn't twenty five instruments or
one synthesizer playing twenty five parts or something. It was
(44:31):
three guys maybe playing and therefore they had to work
their butt off to make that work. And that's a
huge part of what I always try to make clear.
I guess I tried to express it, and some people
can understand it, mostly musicians. I'll use a sun to
(44:54):
be the example and then maybe talk about myself. But
for instance, Blue Suede Shoes. You know that that song
was such a hit in the day and all that
you tend to almost not hear it anymore because it
just comes at you.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
But when you actually just put the record.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
Down or the you know, the arm down and play
the record and listen the groove on, it is so unstoppable.
Speaker 3 (45:19):
I mean, it's just.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
And all of those four records I quoted about Carl
had that that there was a lot of air between
the instruments and between even what they struck. You know,
there was a big hole between the downbeat and the
back feet. I don't know. I was very aware of that.
I didn't try to cover it up by making noise
(45:42):
all over it. I wanted to learn, well, how is
he doing that? Because and it's it's feel, of course,
is what I'm talking about, And you really can't put
that on the sheet music.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
It's it's just a way of doing.
Speaker 4 (45:57):
I've also felt like it's confidence too, to even a conversation.
But if you have the confidence to be quiet that
can be very powerful, And.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
To Lincoln said that, yeah.
Speaker 4 (46:08):
And when you talk about the music, especially the music
they made it Sun Records, And even when you guys
are playing as a band, like there's confidence in pregnant
pauses or a single guitar playing a lick.
Speaker 5 (46:22):
And I think that you guys did that.
Speaker 4 (46:26):
You did that very well obviously, But now I kind
of know and the reasoning that you did that, Like
who you were influenced by the most? Were you a
kid that practiced all the time, Like did you go
int your room and just practice for hours?
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Yes, But I have to say the difference between then
and now, I thought I was practicing a lot, but
kind of well, Number one, I had no teacher. I
was kind of making up stuff other than those folk
music lessons that my mom had shared with me, and
(46:58):
those were mostly about learning some cords and then singing
down in the Valley or Careless Love or something like that.
And not Tom Dooley, because the whole folk music crowd
was very very I call him the folk music Police,
the Kingston Trio and Tom Dooley which popularized the whole movement.
(47:20):
For some reason, the so called legit people were very
suspicious of all.
Speaker 3 (47:25):
That because it was commercial. I didn't care.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
I was a kid.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
I loved it.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
But anyway, yeah, that that that I didn't progress very
quickly with the way I practiced, where I still practice
now a whole lot, but I'm much more aggressive and
trying to learn new stuff.
Speaker 4 (47:46):
So you create a band in high school, Like, that's
the first time that you got guys together to actually play.
It was junior high, eighth grade, and so what was
the intent just playing like for each other? Or were
you like, were our dream is to go out and
play and make a little money at the you know,
the dance, Like, what was the dream in eighth grade?
Speaker 1 (48:04):
That was exactly it? Yeah, oh well I was going places. Hey,
come on. It all started that I had a music
teacher in junior high, both seventh and eighth grade, Missus Stark,
and she was wonderful. Anyway, She'd let me come in
right after school, you know, three ten or whatever and
(48:24):
sit at the piano and play. So I started doing
that and after a day or two, kids were gathering around.
That's eventually how I met the two guys, Doug and
ste that were in Creden's. They just happened to be
part of that crowd of people when they Doug said, well,
(48:45):
I played drums, maybe you can come over to my house.
Well I got to his house and he had a
snare drum that he put on a flower pot stand,
and I believe he might have had a high hat,
but it was made in metal, wasn't a store bought thing,
which is kind of what the level we were all
at in those days.
Speaker 5 (49:06):
And so where did you play?
Speaker 1 (49:09):
Well, after we met the piano players do by the
end of that year, we were already I had named
us the Blue Velvets and we played a sock hop
at in the gym at the junior high. As we
(49:30):
got into high school age, we played. We began to
play for some parties and things that kids would have,
so we you know, it was kind of my job
to make it kind of started on day one, you
know now that I think about it. I became the
musical director. So I was the guy coming up with
what are we going to play? Well, what's the function? Well,
(49:51):
it's a party or kids want to dance. They want
to dance fast, they want to dance slow. So you
got to have those kind of songs, meaning you're playing
hits on off the radio, top forty band.
Speaker 3 (50:05):
In other words, I.
Speaker 4 (50:06):
Read in your book that you were talking about how
you were obviously the musical director, but you had to
kind of lay the law down, like we're gonna practice,
We're not gonna drink, We're not gonna we're gonna, we're
gonna I mean, so you.
Speaker 5 (50:17):
Were the police as well as the musical leader. Did
you feel that.
Speaker 1 (50:22):
There were Yeah, at various times in our career over
the years. Actually, because I was pretty serious about getting
better and being able to play the music, you know,
there were certainly times we at some point, I think
(50:43):
it was either our senior year of high school or
the year after, we were playing a lot of frat
parties up in Berkeley, right for the UC campus and
various other colleges that might have been close frat parties,
a lot of drinking, a lot of beer, a lout
of that, which included the band. So those times weren't
(51:06):
all that serious. But the funny thing was ahead of
the frat would always come to us, Come to me, really, Oh,
you guys, I want a bunch of slow songs because
we're trying to hustle the chicks, you know, blah blah blah. Okay, sir,
and we might play like one song like Sleepwalk, but
then Louie Louie and wipe Out and all the rest
(51:28):
happened and everybody was really happy. So you know, whatever
those designs he had, it went out the window.
Speaker 6 (51:34):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor. Wow,
and we're back on the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 5 (51:49):
Was it fun to remake this record?
Speaker 4 (51:50):
Because you did Legacy the creative clut Water Revival years
and I was looking at the track list and I
think I would either be super pumped to do all
these great songs or maybe I've played them ten thousand
times and I'm like.
Speaker 5 (52:00):
I don't know, do I need to play it again?
Was it exciting for you to do them again?
Speaker 3 (52:05):
Totally? Completely?
Speaker 4 (52:07):
I'll look at this, I got it right here. Look
at this guy. What would you tell this guy right here?
If you could talk to him, what would you tell
How old are you in this picture?
Speaker 1 (52:16):
I'm about twenty three, I want to say, maybe twenty four.
Speaker 5 (52:19):
What would you tell him?
Speaker 1 (52:21):
I would tell him it's all going to be all right.
You have no way of understanding how it's all going
to work out. But it's going to And this is
something I absolutely believe when you get to.
Speaker 3 (52:34):
Where I am, you wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (52:38):
I wouldn't trade places with that guy even for one day, really,
because I am completely happy and joyful in my life now,
and that fella was kind of unhappy. He was kind
of besiized with a lot of different forces that were
making him not happy. But that is exactly what I
(53:01):
would say to him.
Speaker 5 (53:03):
And what about these songs?
Speaker 1 (53:04):
You asked me?
Speaker 4 (53:04):
How I did cut off my own question because I thought,
what a great picture, like, that's a that's a strapping
fella right there.
Speaker 5 (53:10):
That's a good looking dude.
Speaker 1 (53:12):
I always said that he looks a little I don't know,
he's he's there's a lot of energy coming out of him.
You can't can't quite contain it, all right.
Speaker 5 (53:23):
Yeah, but you know I think God, he couldn't because
he created some great art.
Speaker 1 (53:26):
Well that's it's because of that. Yeah, it's because of that.
Making this record was an absolute joy. You know, I'm
probably going into it. I had some trepidations. Some people
from the outside would say, well, wasn't it daunting to
try and live up to these things that are you know,
(53:47):
so they're so exalted, and they've.
Speaker 3 (53:49):
Been around all those years.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
Everybody has their you know, they're they've already they already
know it all.
Speaker 3 (53:54):
He might say.
Speaker 1 (53:56):
Of course, all those things were there, and that's why
maybe I had some trepidation. I went into this though.
It was certainly at the urging of my beautiful wife Julie,
who is the manifestor of the universe. I mean, she
really has, in a very helpful way, moved elements that
(54:17):
other people would say were immovable. My son Shane and
I co produced the record together. I worked on the record,
created the record with my sons Tyler and Shane supplying
background vocals and guitars and instruments and you know, all
(54:37):
the and all the parts that were necessary. And because
I did it that way, because it was so joyful,
I get. I feel this happened to me. I feel
that the spirit God allowed me to go on a
(54:58):
journey that I had no idea about the truth something
that And as I've thought about it since the record's done,
I'm not sure how many people get to.
Speaker 3 (55:12):
Go through this process. I'm going to describe.
Speaker 1 (55:18):
At the beginning of getting the record made, a small
group of just a bass player drummer and guitar player.
Being Shane recorded basic tracks, very basic, bare bones tracks
of the songs. At the time, it was most of them,
but we got some more done later. But anyway, and
(55:40):
when I learned that they proceeded that far, I went
in to do vocals. Seemed to be my next step.
And I know that first day I walked in and saying,
Proud Mary, there she is again, you know. And I
probably did maybe three four songs that day, but on
(56:00):
each song I would do probably four takes, maybe five.
What you're doing is you're going to take the best
part of each take and compile or comp a one,
you know, really strong track, a vocal track. So I
had done that that first day, and the first song
was Proud Mary. And then we continued Shane and Tyler
(56:21):
and I producing the record, meaning filling in the parts
of all the songs and getting the thing to really shine,
you know, listening to the originals. And in many cases
I had to relearn. Sometimes Shane was the one that Dad,
you're not playing that right, you know, learning how to
(56:43):
how to play a guitar part, or in one case
with up around the bind that Shane, you're not wiggling
that thing up there. Look, take this guitar home over
the weekend and I'll see you monday. I gave him
some homework. He came back and ripped an incredible version
(57:03):
of up around the Bench. Okay, So anyway, we got
pretty far along in the making of the record. And
now I went back and I listened to Proud Mary,
all complete with all the parts, and there's my vocal
I had done many many months before, thinking I was
(57:23):
pretty hot stuff. You know, walked in been singing Proud
Mary for fifty years. Anyhow, I mean this, this is
the little bubble that was in my head. I listened,
you know, and I got Shanon Tyler, and I think
Julie was sitting there and I listened, and I mean,
the track is stunning, It's just great. And the background
(57:44):
vocals of rolling rolling on the river's great. I'm hearing
this guy singing and I'm underwhelmed, right, and I'm but then,
you know, there's a little bit of that. I mean,
you you want to move along, like tapping you on
the shoulder.
Speaker 2 (58:01):
How long are you gonna be here?
Speaker 5 (58:03):
You know?
Speaker 1 (58:04):
And I'm listening, and so then the bubble in my
head is I'm gonna turn around and I'm gonna roll
up myself. All right, somebody tell me that's not great.
Speaker 5 (58:13):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (58:14):
You know, I'm gonna just impose my will and it'll
be declared finished. But I actually didn't feel that way.
There was something wrong with it. And as I listened,
you know, I played again. As I listened, I realized
back in the day when I sang Proud Mary, I
didn't have anything. There was no big, long career with
(58:34):
a lot of success and you know, a nice house
and car and all that. It was basically coming from nothing.
I hadn't experienced success yet. I'm singing Proud Mary and
it's life and death. And I've used that phrase way
back in the day. And I said, John, that track
(58:55):
up there is not life and death. You've got to
sing it like it's life and death. And the experience
is this gift I was given that I got to
go on, was okay, how do you do that? I
guess I have to adjust my mind or my soul
(59:15):
or whatever. It's kind of like hypnosis or what's that
other word they use.
Speaker 5 (59:22):
X X.
Speaker 3 (59:24):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (59:25):
There was a bunch of movements in the seventies about
exists like, yeah, yeah, I get it, figuring yeah, out right,
and I've placed myself in that feeling like you've got nothing.
Speaker 3 (59:41):
Everything depends on it.
Speaker 1 (59:42):
And the more I thought about it, everything did depend
on it, because everybody's going to say, well, you have
this record over here, you know, all these records you made,
why would you do this now? And I realized it's
got to be it's got to be convincing, and that
it was kind of the same situation again. And so
(01:00:04):
by placing myself in that mindset and then going out,
you know, and of course you go out, you sing,
you come back and you listen, you nah, go out again,
you know, And it became a process of finally getting
to a place where I believed it. I actually okay,
all right, and you know, it passed my own muster,
(01:00:26):
meaning I believe it now. I don't know what to
call that, because it was fine before, it just wasn't convincing. Later,
long long after the record was finished and you know,
ready to come out, Julie told me she could see
that on my face, what I was doing, and she
(01:00:46):
understood that.
Speaker 5 (01:00:49):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
Sorry, sometimes when I talk about Julie, I get emotional.
That's who we are to each other. By the way,
there's an instant just support and I guess knowledge of
the other person's it's unconditional love. And she's always that
person that's there. Anyhow, she told me later, did she
(01:01:13):
she understood, She realized what I was doing and she
felt it.
Speaker 3 (01:01:18):
Obviously it was working. So there you were.
Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
So and that's what I went through for all the
rest of this song.
Speaker 5 (01:01:26):
Well, I appreciate you sharing that story. That's a great story.
Speaker 4 (01:01:30):
The Credence Clear what Revival Years, which it came out
about a month ago, and you're playing a lot of shows.
Speaker 5 (01:01:35):
Like I said, I saw you.
Speaker 4 (01:01:36):
I was in Europe and I saw posters for you
playing all over Europe, and I really wanted one of
the dates to match up. And my old manager left
me to go run your record label.
Speaker 5 (01:01:47):
And I was like.
Speaker 4 (01:01:48):
Yeah, he left me to go to you and my goodness,
and his name's Tom Betchy, and I was like, hey,
Tom Betchy, you have John Fogerty. I would love to
meet him just for a minute. And so now you're here,
and this has been like a really great hour for me.
I hope everybody checks out the album, but I just
really appreciate the time because you've been a favorite of
mine since I was nine years old. And not only that,
(01:02:09):
you were a reason that me I don't have a
dad growing up, You're a reason that me and my
stepdad were able to bond oh cool because he was
a massive fan and that's why I took interest was
because of him. And so every song, I can name
every song within like two notes because it's what we
did is we listened to a lot of credence.
Speaker 5 (01:02:28):
So this means a lot to me for a lot
of reasons. So I really.
Speaker 4 (01:02:31):
Appreciate the time that you dedicated to come over and
do this, and I hope the record does what you.
Speaker 5 (01:02:35):
Wanted to do.
Speaker 4 (01:02:36):
You don't need the money anymore, but I hope you
got the you know, the fulfillment out of making it
and your two sons, and I hope that it became
what you wanted it to be.
Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
Absolutely it was a joy to make. And I think
it's a sense of feeling of joy when you listen
to it. I think that's part of the experience of
playing this record, this album. I think what happens is
then then and they say it people they I think
(01:03:04):
they can sense that that word I used before. It
had to be convincing. I think that happens when the
listener listens as well. Well, I'm sincere about this.
Speaker 4 (01:03:16):
Thank you for your time and this has really been
an awesome and go check out John and he's playing
iHeartRadio Music Festival as well. Can't wait for that. I'm
gonna be in Vegas for that show. I don't even
know if you know what shows you up coming up.
You're just all over the place, so yeah, I'm really
looking forward to seeing you liven there.
Speaker 5 (01:03:30):
He is the great John Fogarty.
Speaker 1 (01:03:32):
Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production.
One night I went into my bedroom and said, all right,
you got a right favorite son, and suddenly this idea about.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
That, So folks are board made the way.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
That you know?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I like that, finished that first verse, wouldn't you know it?
I changed favorite Son in the Fortunate Son because it
ain't me. I walked out of that bedroom with a
finished song in twenty minutes.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
I think this is our second Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame member Ringo obviously.
Speaker 5 (00:37):
About Sheryl Crowe, hmm, she in the Hall.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Of Fame possibly, but if she is, we did not
interview her until she got in, because I would think
she just got in pretty recently if she did get in.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
A right twenty twenty three. Yeah, so I think we've
had good memory.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
I think we've had now three but two you say, Dolly, No,
I didn't, Okay, three but four?
Speaker 5 (01:06):
Yeah, anyway, it's rare.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
This is John Fogerty, which, by the way, Creden's clear
Water Revival one of my favorite bands ever. I did
not get to live while they were making current music
because they were very much late sixties seventies and then
he had a solo career. But so many great songs
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
Speaker 5 (01:25):
Great song?
Speaker 4 (01:26):
It ain'ty it a'my, I ain't no fortunate song. Now
good one, there's a bad moon on the rise, a
good one, Proud Mary, keep on burn and wrote that one.
Speaker 5 (01:37):
Oh, he wrote all these, but great one.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Come on around the ben, Jam, down on the corner,
out in the street, Jam, Digger, run through the Jungle.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Brom bromp Front.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
I could keep going. They have so many freaking songs.
We just can't play music on this podcast because you're
not allowed to play music. So I want to make
sure everybody knows just how significant this is. Who stop
the rain Jam? I don't know, Come on, arise and win.
I could keep going. They have so many songs, so
this was very cool for me. And I don't want
(02:10):
to spend a lot of time up front because I
want you to hear what's going on. But he has
made a new record with the Suns. It's the Creden's
Clearwater Revival Years, which was just released. It's twenty classic tracks,
fresh energy back by his sons Shane and Tyler, and
Let's give it a run here. He was born in Berkeley, California,
in nineteen forty five. Before CCR, he served in the
(02:31):
US Army Reserve. He had to do active duty though,
and we talk about that. He was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in nineteen ninety three
as part of CCR. He's left handed, plays the guitar
right handed. He once said he wrote Bad Moon Rising,
there's a bad Moon on the Rise, after watching The
Devil and Daniel Webster, so it's a movie. And his
(02:53):
wife Julie has been a big part of his later career. Comeback,
and he's playing at our iHeartRadio Music Festival, and you
may hear this way after the festival, but I'm pretty
excited about that. So here he is, Episode five thirty eight.
Lead singer of Creden's Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty, John, it
is really good to see you. I'm sure you hear
this a lot, but it's it's an honor. Was that
(03:14):
a Was that a weird part of your life when
everybody started to go it's an honor.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Well, I always say it back, it's an honor to meet.
Speaker 5 (03:20):
You too, and I mean, well thanks.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
I'm a big fan, like of CCR, of like your
original stuff. So for me, I just texted my stepdad,
who is the original fan who made me a fan,
and I was like, John Fogerty's coming over to the house.
But I didn't say you're doing an interview. I made
it like we're friends. Yeah, and he was like he's
coming over. I was like yeah, he said, what are
you going to talk about? I didn't respond yet. Okay,
I'll text him later and tell him what we talked.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
About about everything.
Speaker 5 (03:45):
Yeah, So how did you get discovered? How did a
band get discovered?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Back then when there wasn't social media, you know, you
couldn't just text your buddy and be like, hey, come
check this person out. Like what was the process?
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Like, well, it depends on what you mean discovery.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
I had to get a record deal even.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Okay, well, around the age of fourteen, when the Little
Blue Velvets were playing around, we ended up representing the
Elsa Rito It's my town else Rito boys Club and
so we played various different venues, including boys clubs from
(04:22):
other towns around the Bay Area. And at one of
those things, there was this singer named James Powell about
He's about twenty four to twenty five years old, and
he tapped me on his shoulder. After we'd played, would
you guys be interested in making a record? I'll try
and cut that to Chase, I said sure. We ended
(04:44):
up learning the songs with James. He had, you know,
kind of a pocket full of songs and they were
all girls' names, but his style was pretty much do wop,
and we ended up learning recording a song called Beverly Angel,
and the other side was called Lydia, which was sort
(05:07):
of a calypso thing, but Beverly Angel was a do
wop classic. I mean it was D D D D,
you know, one of those things. And we went over
to Coast Recorders in San Francisco. I think it was
called something else then. Anyway, the trio piano, drums, and guitar,
(05:31):
and then James sang his part and harmonized with himself
and I overdubbed. It's a whole nother story I won't
get into, but from one of the guys on my
paper route who was a bass player in a country
Western band.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
He was a dad.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
He could have been my dad, he was that age.
He loaned me his stand up doghouse bass to play
on this record, and so I played that on the
record and it's actually pretty cool even now. That didn't
get discovered, but it did get played on the R
and B station, and Stu Cook tells me that in electronics.
(06:13):
I guess it was that, you know, I wasn't going
to elswet O high at that point, but anyway, he
was in electronics. The project was to make a radio
and he's got the thing working, tuned it in and
up popped Beverly Angel.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
It's a great story. I hope it's true, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
So they probably played that song, that record for about
a week, and then a little later, my brother Tom
got us on a label called Orchestra Records.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
The fella had his you know own label.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
We made I don't know, four or five records there,
one of them a song I wrote called have You
Ever Been Lonely? It was a new song, not the
old country standard, and that got picked by one of
the DJs as a pick of the week and was
played all week. So and again we got played, but
(07:07):
it didn't go much further after that, and finally took
me knocking on the door at Fantasy, which was a
little bit bigger label, not much and.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
Did they want to hear a body of work? Are
they playing your songs, Like, how do you go to
a bigger label and go, hey, we have this thing going,
we want you to invest in us.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I wish it was I wish it was that together,
and maybe it's more so nowadays.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
There had been this special on TV called Anatomy of
a Hit as a local jazz writer in the paper
had kind of narrated and produced it. It was about
Vince Daldy's song. It was instrumental called cast Your Fate
to the Wind, a jazz record that became a top
forty hit that was Fantasy. It was basically their first
(07:57):
hit record in forty years of something of being the
record label. And so I watched that. My brother Tom
watched that. So I decided to go over and just
knock on their door and went in. You know, I
think I had phoned ahead, but anyway, they were expecting me.
And I met this fella that was the guy, the
same one we saw on TV.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
I had a.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Kind of a box full of tapes of instrumentals and he's,
you know, listened to my spiel and all that, and
he said, well, do you have any songs with words
that's kind of normally what Tom and I did together.
So I said, well sure, He said, well, come back
and play us.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
At first, what he did was he walked us over,
walked me over to the desk there and opened the
Billboard magazine. He said, well, songs with words do a
lot better than instrumentals. And then it happened to be
that week he opens Billboard and there's the top ten
and the first six or Beatles songs, And of course
(09:00):
I knew about that, but he was trying to say that,
you see, songs with words will turn you into the
Beatles or something like that.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Okay, sir.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
We then made a whole bunch of recordings for that
labos kind of in this shed they had at the
back of their warehouse, a kind of a makeshift recording studio,
and they renamed us the Gollywalgs. Of course we hated
that without your consent. Yeah, the first recording we had
(09:36):
made came back, you know, they phoned us, the records
are in, come over, and you know, we opened the
box and it says gollywogs. I just figured it was
a typele. There's something wrong here, Max, look at this,
It says golly walgs. And then he let us know
the the evil plot that was afoot here.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
So they've changed your name without telling you. That's wild.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah, it's obscene. I don't know why I didn't just
walk out the door. But that's how desperate things are.
Of course, you okay, sir, whatever you want. You're just
desperate to try and make a record that might get
on the radio.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
How long were you the Golliwogs.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Until nineteen sixty seven? That was sixty four when, of course,
because of the Beatle Week in nineteen sixty seven, the
guy who had been formerly the sales rep for the
Fantasy the Jazz label, his name was Saul's Ants. He
summoned us to his house and told us that he
(10:43):
had purchased Fantasy Records. I didn't know then that he
had other investors too, but I just thought he bought
the label. And he said, and we'd like to sign
the band, meaning we meaning he'd like to sign the band.
And the first thing out of our amounts with Saul,
we got to change our name. We hate being golliwogs.
(11:04):
And he said sure, okay.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
And did he say what do you want it to be?
Speaker 3 (11:09):
No?
Speaker 1 (11:11):
No, But years later this is the you know how
Victory has a thousand bothers. What really happened was within
the band, we said, okay, we got to come up
with a new name. You know, we're scrapping everything and
we're going to come up with a.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Good new name.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Years later, I read some quote from Saul saying, and
then I told those boys, Gollywogs thinks you have to
go out and get something more earthy, in other words,
taking ownership of the whope. And it's like, and when
you're young and dumb, that's kind of what happens to you.
But clearly we went off because we've been what's the word,
(11:56):
just chafing under that yoke of a name. And it
took a couple of months. Basically, I was growing up
pretty fast. I was evolving is the word I use
in a lot of different ways, because after that experience
and having freshly just gotten off active duty with the army.
(12:20):
It was, and I was twenty two years old. I
was starting to feel like, man, it's make or break time.
My dream might go away if I don't really manifest something.
And so we came up with different names, meaning the
guys would call me and there'd be one kind of
wacky or lame thing man.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Finally, on.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Christmas Eve of nineteen sixty seven, I came up with
Creeden's Clearwater Revival and I knew it was it. I mean,
I knew in my heart that wow, this is better
than us. Actually, this name is up here in the
cloud somewhere. We got to get up there.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
So what about those words and those three terms together
made you go, this is it? What drew you to
Creten's clear Water Revival?
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Okay, well, I was watching television. It's Christmas Eve, so
you're sort of in that, you know mood, it's a
wonderful time of year and of your life. And on
comes this beer commercial for Olympia Beer, and their slogan
is It's the Water. So they're showing this really lush,
(13:28):
magical forest with the green trees, and it might have
been a little deer, you know. Band becomes over and
nudges against a little borsch or something, and then there's
this little babbling brook. You know, water is just coming
and it's just enchanted looking, and their slogan it's the
water and immediate, you know, which I liked is oh
(13:49):
and I think the Beach Boys literally are in the
background singing with their beautiful harmonies and all that. It's
just a pretty serene place to be. Immediately after that commercial, boom,
next thing. It's black and white and it's an anti
pollution commercial and it shows tyrofoam cups and cigarette butts
(14:11):
in a creek that's all polluted. And at the end
of the little commercial, black and white, very shocking looking,
it says, if you want to change this right to
clean water, Washington, that's all you got to you know,
it'll get there. And I the juxtaposition of those two waters,
you know, it really stuck. It just shocked me. And
(14:32):
I looked at that. I said, clean water, Yeah, I
like that. It touched my soul, and in an instant
I realized I was actually, what do you call it internalizing?
I was making it part of me because I had
an urgent need and I like clean water, but not
clean clear water. Wow, clear that's it. And I mean
(14:55):
that seemed to be the soul of the idea here,
and I quickly started thinking of what to goal with it.
A few months before, actually we had had the name
Credence spin around in our little orbit because we knew
(15:15):
a fella named Credence new Ball such an unusual name,
and so you know, in all the different you know,
clear Water, fruit Jar, clear Water Cloud, clear Water, warehouse,
what you know, you're just associating and suddenly clear Water Credence,
Oh no, Credens clear Water. Okay, I mean your brain
(15:40):
just does this. That was killer. That was a winner
to me, and it just felt not quite complete. And
so then to the kind of mood I was in
was that our band was having a resurgence or a renewal,
and I was trying to state that it was in
my and fin anyone that came across my mental wind shield,
(16:05):
it's Creten's Clearwater Revival. Wow. I mean, remember this is
in the Bay Area right during the time of Quicksilver
Messenger Service and Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead and all
that sort of thing. Creten's Clearwater Revival seemed to be.
It was so perfect and so above our station at
(16:27):
the moment. I really loved it.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
What was the first song you wrote as Creden's Clearwater
Revival that actually had some traction and not the first
song that came out, Because a lot of times you
write a song that it comes out, you know, it
may take a bit you have it, you've written it.
What's the first song you write as this new entity
of Creden's Clearwater Revival.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
It had traction, yeah, because there were the first Credence
album had susi Q and I Put a Spell on You,
which I didn't write.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Both of those I didn't write.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
There were some other songs I did write, but there's
sort of you know, they're work in progress, they're they're
on their way.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
Can I hear that in your writing?
Speaker 4 (17:06):
You can tell when you're getting better by listening to
your songs through the years.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Oh sure, yeah, Oh sure, that's Oh sure, I'll come
back to that if you let me in a minute.
But anyway, but right as the first album's coming out,
which had we had kind of earned the right to
do that because susi Q was already being played on
the local underground stations, it was getting some traction. And
(17:35):
right in that time, I was already trying to prepare
for my next album.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
I mean I would.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
I had my hand on the tiller and I wasn't
going to let go. I got my honorable discharge from
the army, and it's sitting on the steps to my
little apartment, and I picked that up. You know, I
didn't realize it was for me for a couple of days.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I finally, oh, it's my hist chart.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Wow. Well, anyhow, I ran in the house and I'm out.
I mean I was, I was clear. I was free
as the word to a twenty two year old. I
ran in the house, picked up my guitar and started strumming.
And what came out of me was left a good
(18:22):
job in the city, working for the man every night
and day.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
And that's exactly what that refers to.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
Wo.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
I stayed on that thought. I strummed the guitar. I mean,
these things are just I can't even say I created them.
It really felt more like if I cleared my mind,
it'll come through, you know, like a radio station. And
it did. I got to where I was singing, rolling, rolling,
rolling on the river, and I was pretty excited. This
(18:50):
is starting to seem pretty cool. What is this thing
all about? Well, I had started to keep a song book.
If you want me to go back and tell that story,
I will, but I would.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Love to hear it when we go back, I'm gonna
put a pen in it. We'll go back to.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
It, all right. Anyhow, I opened that book that.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I've been sitting there for a few months now and
I've been putting things into it. And I opened the
book and the first entry in the book, it's a
little vinyl binder, that's all it is, and the first
entry is Proud Mary. And I looked at that and went, oh,
this song's about a boat. Why it's about a boat
(19:32):
And the name of the boat is the Proud Mary.
Oh my goodness, that's it. I'm rolling on the river
with Proud Mary. I finished the song, so you right,
within about an hour it was done. And you asked
me about the first song I wrote as credence that
had traction. It was actually more than that. I'm holding
the piece of paper in my hands and I'm looking
(19:55):
at it, and I had self awareness that never happened
to me. I'd written dozens of songs in my life,
starting when I was eight years old. But I'm sitting
here with this piece of paper and proud marrying John.
You've written a classic. This is a classic. It's what
every songwriter is dreaming about.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
You know.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
My mom had told me about Stephen Foster, Irving, Berlin,
Hogy Carmichael, and I had discovered my own people.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
I loved like Libern.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Stoler, you know the Coasters, certainly, Lennon and McCartney, people
like that, Carol King, you know, people that were real songwriters,
and you just know that they're up there in the
clouds somewhere, and you're doing.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Your little ditties.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Every once in a while, you're writing your little songs
and hoping somehow you're fantasizing about being up there with
those people. I'm holding that piece of paper. You've written
a classic John Wow. And I realized at the time
that it was that good. And then then the next thing,
(21:04):
I realized, I'm sitting there looking at it. I'm the
only person in the whole world that knows this. I mean,
it was a bizarre thought that came to my mind
of understanding. I guess in some primitive way, it's going
to go everywhere, but you're the only one that knows.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
It right now.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
It's just a weird personal thought.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
And you had that feeling. I guess my question did
you ever have that feeling before? Or was this the
lightning bolt?
Speaker 1 (21:32):
This was the lightning bolt? Never had that feeling before.
I mean, if you'd walked up to me and I'm,
you know, working on one of the recordings we had done.
You know, yeah, that's good. You know, that's kind of
the way we are, or it could happen. You know,
let me play you three other songs that are worse
than this, you know from the radio. I mean everyone
(21:53):
does that. It's a foolish sort of following yourself.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
To the bottom. You know.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
The other way is the way it should happen. You
should create something that's so great that you're grinning, you're smiling,
it's so good, and everyone around you that here's it
knows it too. I mean, that's that's the way to
know that you're on your way.
Speaker 6 (22:15):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor,
and we're back on the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Whenever you take that song and you play it or
you record it, was there any convincing other people that
it was the one? Or was it uniformly like, yep,
this is it.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
I'm going to say that it was. It was a
slow awareness within my band the three other fellas in Credence, but.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
That was not unusual.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
I had to do a cell just to make Creten's
Clearwater revival work. I had to sell it to the
other three guys and you know, I was dug in.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
I was not changing my mind, but.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
There was a I don't know, that's a bit complicated,
you know, all that stuff. So the idea of people
not of the other guys not quite getting it was
not was not.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Unusual when I think about some of the lyrics of
your songs and I think of, like, there's a statue
wearing high hills look at all and.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
You know, do do do look?
Speaker 4 (23:29):
And were you whacked out of your mind when writing
that song? No, because that's some crazy imagery. Like I'm
now like, I feel like I if I were whacked
out and I was listening to it, I'd be like, man,
this song is perfect because it's a it's a it's
a it's a lot of things that weird things happening.
It's written for a child, Okay, or that that makes
sense too.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
I had as a kid.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
One of my favorite little books was a children's book,
Wow called to Think It Happened or Maybe and to
Think It Happened on Mulberry Street. And the author was
Dr Seuss. It was his first book, and I was
probably three four years old.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
We're talking nineteen forty nine, right.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
My mom would read that book to me about all
these different things that went by, and this boy is
watching this parade on Mulberry Street. So you know, I
growing up, I've always wanted to write a song that
feels like what that book was. So and I knew
even at the time when I was making the song
(24:35):
and then going to put out the record.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yep, when I talk about the creatures danced.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
In the lawn on the lawn, I changed it from grass.
If I say dancing on the grass, Oh yeah, I see,
that's shit. So I had left another line in there
that I was troubling to me, but it didn't mean
anything about drugs. It said and the flying spoon, right,
(25:02):
and it was sure some people. I didn't know enough
about drugs anyway to know how a spoon was connected,
but I kind of had a inkling that it was.
I just pictured this great, big, gigantic thing that looked
like a spoon with big old eagles wings or whatever,
just you know, the way imagery and some of the
(25:22):
beetle things like Yellow Submarine or whatever much later would
fantasizes about that. And I wanted you to see that
in your mind.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
See you purposefully, and it makes sense. Took grass and
turned it into lawn. You look at all the happy
people dancing on the lawn. Yeah, because you didn't want that.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
And I knew nothing about drugs. Still really don't know
aything about drugs.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
But I always thought, man, there's some crazy stuff happened
in the song. But it makes sense if it's written
for children. Yes, And my assumption would be people your
whole career. Thought that song was written about the seventies,
just in general, the sixties or seventies.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Well, I remember once being backstage at the film More
and certainly By your country was out Born on the
By you and it might have been even after Green River.
But a young guy comes up to me, you know,
and he just got that we were all hippies. Don't
get me wrong, I do not separate myself from the crowd,
(26:16):
because certainly my mindset was very much the same sort
of free and you know, there's a lot of hope,
hopeful for the future. And he comes up to me, John,
you must the phrase is almost what you've just been
stoned out of your mind. Tell me when you were
born on the By, you were just stone and just
(26:36):
up there on it, you know. And I smiled, and
I wanted to humor the guy, but it kind of
ticked me off because it's not that I was anti drug.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
It was the.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Idea of I didn't want to be so irresponsible when
I was writing because I thought that I was more
serious about it. I guess, right, And so what he was.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Saying to me was.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
I guess what he was doing was saying, if I'm
my teacher, Tad, well you have no talent, but you
got stoned and then you wrote that song, and so
you couldn't have possibly done that if you were just
sitting there normally. Right, As you well know, the muse,
(27:26):
the place you go to be creative, is really elusive.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
I mean, we could.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Talk all day about that, but I mean, and I'm
scared of it and very appreciative of it, a little
wary of it because it doesn't always come around. I
mean sometimes it's not around for years.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
It's a very mysterious, fragile thing. So being able to
get yourself to go there, as you just said, what
looking out my back door is like to be able
to picture those things at the time. For me, in
other words, it made total sense right or is right now.
(28:05):
I probably couldn't walk out your front door and sit
down and be in that sort of elusive, flimsy kind
of mood. But at the time I got myself there.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
I'm gonna ask you two more song questions, and one
of them is about Fortunate Son, because you talked about
getting your discharge papers and that is what created Proud Mary,
like that feeling with Fortunate Son. How long after that
did you write that song, because that's what I think
about when I think about you being discharged and the
message of the song, Like, how long until then?
Speaker 1 (28:41):
That was probably about a year of just about a year,
maybe a year and a month, thirteen months something like that.
So from sometime in the middle in the summer of
sixty eight for Proud Mary to late summer in sixty
nine for Fortunate Son.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
Did you ever get on like a hot streak?
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Because like I know Dolly a little bit, and she'll
talk about man, I wrote these two songs in this day.
I wrote another song later that week, and I did
this song, and she has like three weeks of writing
like five of her most massive songs. Did you ever
have a time period where they just fell out of you?
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Well, I think that whole period of time as they
were happening that way. I was working really hard at it.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
I mean, don't.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
In other words, I was what's the word, setting myself
up for success.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
I would stay up late.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
In other words, I knew my for my band to
have success, I needed more songs. I also knew that
it was up to me, and so I would, you know,
have dinner and then go to my little room and
stay there, trink a lot of coffee, smoke a lot
(29:51):
of cigarettes in those days, and stay up till maybe
four am writing songs.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
And so the idea that.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
One day I'm riding my motorcycle and I think about
up around the bind, just from the feeling of when
you're riding a motorcycle that feels so free, and of
course in those days, we didn't wear helmets and all that,
and it was just.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Almost like riding a wild horse, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
The phrase up around the bind came to me, and
I thought about it for a couple of days, and
within a week I'd written a song fortunate Son. Now
that you've talked about that, that was actually the quickest
song I ever wrote. Wow, all that stuff was in
my head and I had begun to show the band
the music for this I wanted. Basically, I wanted an
(30:46):
unstoppable streaming rocker for my band, you know, one of
those We'd had some kind of middle tempo things like
Proud Mary and Low Dye, and you know, I wanted
something that was just streaming, an edgy and like that.
So I started showing the band the groove and the
chords to a song, and eventually I realized, I'm writing.
(31:09):
I think I'm going to write a song called Favorite Son.
And I knew the song was political. I had grown
up watching believe it or not, even as an eight
year old or something, I was kind of interested in
the national conventions for political parties. They would be on
television a lot of times in the daytime. In those days,
(31:31):
black and white, you'd see a lot of really old men,
you know, seeing different stuff. You know, you're a kid,
you don't really know what it's all about. But so
often somebody would stand up, oh, you're sir, the great
State of Texas would like to nominate her favorite son
Billy soul estes, you know, and they always use that
(31:54):
phrase favorite son, and so that's stuck in my mind.
I actually wrote it in my little book. So as
I'm teaching my band this song and the chords for
what became fortunate son. I realized we're getting pretty tight.
When I knew something was a single, we rehearsed it
(32:14):
for like six weeks, just rehearsed and rehearse and rehearse.
You know, I figured, it's me against the whole world,
and I'm trying to get up there with the Beatles,
trying to make a great single.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Right, it will go on our radio.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
And you know, I had no illusions about me or
anybody else in the band being this great musicians that
can just pick everything and all that. To me, the
whole idea was if you practice enough, rehearse enough, you've
got every move in your subconscious. It just it just
comes out of it. And that's what would happen. We'd
go in the studio after six weeks and just turn
(32:50):
on the red light record. Within about three takes, got it.
That's the best we ever played that, right, And I
knew that time was fast approaching. One night I went
into my bedroom and say, all right, you got to
write favorite son. I sat down on the edge without anything,
no melody, no chorus lines, nothing, and suddenly this idea about.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
So folks are born made the way that you know.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
I finished that first verse and I realized, some folks
are born. Wow, I can start the second verse that
you know, what's kind of this this mantra or whatever,
And it ain't me. You know, it just happened right there,
And wouldn't you know it, I changed favorite Son into
the fortunate son because it ain't me. I walked out
(33:39):
of that bedroom with a finished song in twenty minutes.
I just you know, I mean, I'm marveled at that.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
Now.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
I wish I could do that more often.
Speaker 4 (33:47):
Of course, did you feel the way about Fortunate Son
that you did about Prodmary, where you knew like this
is something?
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yes, Yes, The reason I knew because I knew I
could sing the heck out of it, and it was
saying everything that was in my mind. You know, I'd
obviously been thinking all those thoughts about about the military,
about the war in Vietnam, about the unfairness of people,
(34:18):
you know, some senators, rich people getting their kids out
of the draft.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
It was all in my mind.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
And it it came out of me, and was I
knew it was said, Well, I could just tell it
this was going to be a lot of fun to play.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Was there any thought of social repercussion, meaning some people
wouldn't like it and that was gonna be difficult for you?
Speaker 1 (34:43):
If I thought about that at all, I think I
figured the people that wouldn't like it was probably President Nixon.
You know, that was okay with me. I was trying
to send a message and people and people that would
follow what President and that Nixon would say. In other words,
it really was kind of a what's the word cultural
(35:08):
war between young people, mostly under thirty, who were very
much against the war because there was a draft and
so you were tapped if you were drafted like I was,
to go fight in a war you really didn't believe in,
and that no one had actually explained to the American
people why we got to do this. And so you
(35:32):
found that the young people were on one side and
the other side was mostly older people that believed their icons,
meaning the president of course, and people like John Wayne
or Bob Hope and all that. They seemed that just
you know, they'd been in another war years before, probably
before I was born, and they just sort of went
(35:52):
along with stuff like that. In fact, I remember one
of my idols actually I remember tex Ritter had been
on one of those high jacked airplanes in the sixties,
so he was in the news again. But at one
point he said, those young people, if they would just
stop marching, stop that marching. You know, he was clearly
(36:15):
on the other side of the fence about those things.
Some now, something I'd really like to state because I
was drafted, and I did serve in the Army Reserves
and was on active duty, and every day, excuse me,
during my three years of military service, there was the
(36:35):
specter of, you know, at any time, my unit could
be activated and there we go. We're often to Vietnam.
So can I say I had very much mixed emotions
because I was against the war, but yet I'd been
through that experience and there was some important stuff I
had really learned, just you know, without even thinking about it.
(36:58):
After I was out of the military and then my
career started to take off with credence, there would be
all kinds of situations where I'm in a group of
people who are saying like minded that were quote unquote
hippie and against the war and all that sort of thing,
(37:19):
and some would be sometimes we'd be confronted with there'd
be some army guys over there, because we're going through
airports all the time, and so was the military, right,
And somebody'd say something mean about, you know, at the
army over there and all that sort of stuff, and
i'd have to I'm going to sound a little bit
(37:39):
like a preacher or something. But I realized I was old,
I was an old soul or whatever I had evolved,
and i'd stop them from saying, listen, look over there
at those people that you know, they're all in uniform
and fatigues, you know, going through and they're staying together
because they're kind of being shunned by everybody else. Now
(38:02):
take a good look over there. That guy is nineteen
years old. He's your age. He likes all the same
music you like. He likes all the same cultural stuff
like girls, guitars, cars, you know, all that kind of stuff,
and he hates the freaking war. But he got drafted
unlike you, so he has to go do that. And
(38:25):
I don't know how many times I said that to people,
which you know, I was still against the war. That
was my liberal position, I suppose, but I had that
insight about, yeah, but don't yell at those guys, they're
not making the war.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
You know.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
It's the powerful people that declare the war, and then
the poor people got to go wage.
Speaker 4 (38:47):
The war, which was a bit of unfortunate. Son was reflecting, yep,
which was exactly that.
Speaker 7 (38:52):
It The Bobby Cast will be right back. This is
the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
I was in Paris and I saw a signas that
you were playing in Paris. You're playing everywhere right now,
all over the world.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
There you go, rocking all over the world.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Still, well it's fun. Sure, it's actually more fun now
than ever. Why is that because I'm with my family,
because because all this music I'm making now is from
a place of joy and love, and you know, it's
it's very hard to describe, but it's like going on
(39:40):
a great vacation every day.
Speaker 4 (39:42):
Was there a time and I'm sure that it ebbed
and flowed where you fell in love with music, You
kind of probably got burnt out, maybe falling out of
love with music, and then you fell back in love again.
Speaker 5 (39:53):
Is that would that be consistent with your career?
Speaker 1 (39:55):
The words are right, but I didn't. I didn't fall
out of love with music. I just got to a
place where I was so hurt about things that there
would be pain involved, you know. I mean Julie tells
me about the times when we first were together, something
would be on the radio and all that and I would,
(40:16):
you know, turn it off. That's you probably didn't want
to hear all that.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
I've read your book, so like, like I know all
the stories and you know so it to me, it's like,
you know, what are I don't know what you want
to talk about today? Like what kind of I guess
some days I'm in the mood to talk about it all.
Some days I'm not.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
So I mean as when you first start, when you
were a kid, as I've said a couple of times,
music captured me.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
I mean I really had no vote.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
I think I think it just happened, and I went
through the whole process of being young and discovering. And
you know, my mom shared her likes early with me.
So that's how I heard about Stephen Foster, that Stephen
Foster was a songwriter, and that just mystified me. Oh,
(41:07):
you know, Stephen Foster wrote Oh Susannah, Wow. And then
you know, getting to where I thought, wow, maybe I
like to try music, you know, And I heard an
Elvis Presley record called My Baby Left Me and the Guitar,
and it was so.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Dramatic.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
I guess is the word, and Elvis is singing, you know,
in a bluesy style. But I mean, I knew who
Elvis was. He was all over the TV and radio
at the time, but I didn't know this song, so
I therefore didn't know.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Who it was.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
It was on a jukebox in a little country store,
and when I discovered what it was, I just liked
it so much. I looked at the record going around.
I said, I don't know what they're doing there, but
that's what I want to do.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
And I made up my mind right there.
Speaker 4 (41:58):
The first song that I ever learned to play fully
and played publicly at a school event was Down on
the Corner.
Speaker 5 (42:03):
Guys, you're talking about that.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
The first song I ever played all the way through
and played publicly was that was Down on the Corner.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (42:10):
Because I could actually play the down down, down't down.
Speaker 4 (42:13):
I could play that, and then I could go FCG.
You know, I felt like that was a And yeah,
you were telling that. I wasn't really planning to share that.
But when you're talking about the first song that you
ever played in my music careers, all in comedy. That
was my first ever song was Down on the Corner.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
It's a lot more complicated than the one I learned.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
I think maybe you were a bit more complicated of
a writer, but I was pretty proud of myself for
playing that one. When you talk about Sun Records, I
think sonically of those those songs and how they were
made and how approachable they were, which is how you
describe them. I feel like a lot of your famous sound,
like the Bayou sound, was very approachable sonically. Do you
(42:53):
feel like that is what you know influenced your It
sounded like a dick Southern sound.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
Oh for sure.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
Because I think a lot of people assumed you guys
were from Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Because I've heard people from Louisiana. Actually we didn't know
if you were over by Thibodeaux or you.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
Know, yeah, yeah, And that to me is the conclusion
that I draw by hearing how influenced you were by
Sun Records, is that your music with CCR in the
early days, when people thought you were this Louisiana band
creating this Byou sound, seemed very approachable in the same
way that you felt that was and I think it's
probably because of that. Maybe you were influenced by that
sound when you were making music.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
Bobby.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
The truth is that wonderful place that I go to
and I sometimes call it Sun Records, but you know,
it's kind of the swamp thing or buy you whatever.
I feel most comfortable there. I actually feel like that's
my own element or my own personality or something like that.
And you know which probably me trying to be in
(43:54):
the band with Carl Perkins something like. I've actually used
that as said, that would have been in my life
stream to be standing back there playing rhythm guitar while
Carl's doing his thing, and I could just be part
of that groove.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
So I mean, along with that.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
There's you know, you could get a college professor in
here to take all the music apart and talk about
all the things, one of the big things being to me,
it was simple instrumentation. There wasn't twenty five instruments or
one synthesizer playing twenty five parts or something. It was
(44:31):
three guys maybe playing and therefore they had to work
their butt off to make that work. And that's a
huge part of what I always try to make clear.
I guess I tried to express it, and some people
can understand it, mostly musicians. I'll use a sun to
(44:54):
be the example and then maybe talk about myself. But
for instance, Blue Suede Shoes. You know that that song
was such a hit in the day and all that
you tend to almost not hear it anymore because it
just comes at you.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
But when you actually just put the record.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
Down or the you know, the arm down and play
the record and listen the groove on, it is so unstoppable.
Speaker 3 (45:19):
I mean, it's just.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
And all of those four records I quoted about Carl
had that that there was a lot of air between
the instruments and between even what they struck. You know,
there was a big hole between the downbeat and the
back feet. I don't know. I was very aware of that.
I didn't try to cover it up by making noise
(45:42):
all over it. I wanted to learn, well, how is
he doing that? Because and it's it's feel, of course,
is what I'm talking about, And you really can't put
that on the sheet music.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
It's it's just a way of doing.
Speaker 4 (45:57):
I've also felt like it's confidence too, to even a conversation.
But if you have the confidence to be quiet that
can be very powerful, And.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
To Lincoln said that, yeah.
Speaker 4 (46:08):
And when you talk about the music, especially the music
they made it Sun Records, And even when you guys
are playing as a band, like there's confidence in pregnant
pauses or a single guitar playing a lick.
Speaker 5 (46:22):
And I think that you guys did that.
Speaker 4 (46:26):
You did that very well obviously, But now I kind
of know and the reasoning that you did that, Like
who you were influenced by the most? Were you a
kid that practiced all the time, Like did you go
int your room and just practice for hours?
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Yes, But I have to say the difference between then
and now, I thought I was practicing a lot, but
kind of well, Number one, I had no teacher. I
was kind of making up stuff other than those folk
music lessons that my mom had shared with me, and
(46:58):
those were mostly about learning some cords and then singing
down in the Valley or Careless Love or something like that.
And not Tom Dooley, because the whole folk music crowd
was very very I call him the folk music Police,
the Kingston Trio and Tom Dooley which popularized the whole movement.
(47:20):
For some reason, the so called legit people were very
suspicious of all.
Speaker 3 (47:25):
That because it was commercial. I didn't care.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
I was a kid.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
I loved it.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
But anyway, yeah, that that that I didn't progress very
quickly with the way I practiced, where I still practice
now a whole lot, but I'm much more aggressive and
trying to learn new stuff.
Speaker 4 (47:46):
So you create a band in high school, Like, that's
the first time that you got guys together to actually play.
It was junior high, eighth grade, and so what was
the intent just playing like for each other? Or were
you like, were our dream is to go out and
play and make a little money at the you know,
the dance, Like, what was the dream in eighth grade?
Speaker 1 (48:04):
That was exactly it? Yeah, oh well I was going places. Hey,
come on. It all started that I had a music
teacher in junior high, both seventh and eighth grade, Missus Stark,
and she was wonderful. Anyway, She'd let me come in
right after school, you know, three ten or whatever and
(48:24):
sit at the piano and play. So I started doing
that and after a day or two, kids were gathering around.
That's eventually how I met the two guys, Doug and
ste that were in Creden's. They just happened to be
part of that crowd of people when they Doug said, well,
(48:45):
I played drums, maybe you can come over to my house.
Well I got to his house and he had a
snare drum that he put on a flower pot stand,
and I believe he might have had a high hat,
but it was made in metal, wasn't a store bought thing,
which is kind of what the level we were all
at in those days.
Speaker 5 (49:06):
And so where did you play?
Speaker 1 (49:09):
Well, after we met the piano players do by the
end of that year, we were already I had named
us the Blue Velvets and we played a sock hop
at in the gym at the junior high. As we
(49:30):
got into high school age, we played. We began to
play for some parties and things that kids would have,
so we you know, it was kind of my job
to make it kind of started on day one, you
know now that I think about it. I became the
musical director. So I was the guy coming up with
what are we going to play? Well, what's the function? Well,
(49:51):
it's a party or kids want to dance. They want
to dance fast, they want to dance slow. So you
got to have those kind of songs, meaning you're playing
hits on off the radio, top forty band.
Speaker 3 (50:05):
In other words, I.
Speaker 4 (50:06):
Read in your book that you were talking about how
you were obviously the musical director, but you had to
kind of lay the law down, like we're gonna practice,
We're not gonna drink, We're not gonna we're gonna, we're
gonna I mean, so you.
Speaker 5 (50:17):
Were the police as well as the musical leader. Did
you feel that.
Speaker 1 (50:22):
There were Yeah, at various times in our career over
the years. Actually, because I was pretty serious about getting
better and being able to play the music, you know,
there were certainly times we at some point, I think
(50:43):
it was either our senior year of high school or
the year after, we were playing a lot of frat
parties up in Berkeley, right for the UC campus and
various other colleges that might have been close frat parties,
a lot of drinking, a lot of beer, a lout
of that, which included the band. So those times weren't
(51:06):
all that serious. But the funny thing was ahead of
the frat would always come to us, Come to me, really, Oh,
you guys, I want a bunch of slow songs because
we're trying to hustle the chicks, you know, blah blah blah. Okay, sir,
and we might play like one song like Sleepwalk, but
then Louie Louie and wipe Out and all the rest
(51:28):
happened and everybody was really happy. So you know, whatever
those designs he had, it went out the window.
Speaker 6 (51:34):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor. Wow,
and we're back on the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 5 (51:49):
Was it fun to remake this record?
Speaker 4 (51:50):
Because you did Legacy the creative clut Water Revival years
and I was looking at the track list and I
think I would either be super pumped to do all
these great songs or maybe I've played them ten thousand
times and I'm like.
Speaker 5 (52:00):
I don't know, do I need to play it again?
Was it exciting for you to do them again?
Speaker 3 (52:05):
Totally? Completely?
Speaker 4 (52:07):
I'll look at this, I got it right here. Look
at this guy. What would you tell this guy right here?
If you could talk to him, what would you tell
How old are you in this picture?
Speaker 1 (52:16):
I'm about twenty three, I want to say, maybe twenty four.
Speaker 5 (52:19):
What would you tell him?
Speaker 1 (52:21):
I would tell him it's all going to be all right.
You have no way of understanding how it's all going
to work out. But it's going to And this is
something I absolutely believe when you get to.
Speaker 3 (52:34):
Where I am, you wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (52:38):
I wouldn't trade places with that guy even for one day, really,
because I am completely happy and joyful in my life now,
and that fella was kind of unhappy. He was kind
of besiized with a lot of different forces that were
making him not happy. But that is exactly what I
(53:01):
would say to him.
Speaker 5 (53:03):
And what about these songs?
Speaker 1 (53:04):
You asked me?
Speaker 4 (53:04):
How I did cut off my own question because I thought,
what a great picture, like, that's a that's a strapping
fella right there.
Speaker 5 (53:10):
That's a good looking dude.
Speaker 1 (53:12):
I always said that he looks a little I don't know,
he's he's there's a lot of energy coming out of him.
You can't can't quite contain it, all right.
Speaker 5 (53:23):
Yeah, but you know I think God, he couldn't because
he created some great art.
Speaker 1 (53:26):
Well that's it's because of that. Yeah, it's because of that.
Making this record was an absolute joy. You know, I'm
probably going into it. I had some trepidations. Some people
from the outside would say, well, wasn't it daunting to
try and live up to these things that are you know,
(53:47):
so they're so exalted, and they've.
Speaker 3 (53:49):
Been around all those years.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
Everybody has their you know, they're they've already they already
know it all.
Speaker 3 (53:54):
He might say.
Speaker 1 (53:56):
Of course, all those things were there, and that's why
maybe I had some trepidation. I went into this though.
It was certainly at the urging of my beautiful wife Julie,
who is the manifestor of the universe. I mean, she
really has, in a very helpful way, moved elements that
(54:17):
other people would say were immovable. My son Shane and
I co produced the record together. I worked on the record,
created the record with my sons Tyler and Shane supplying
background vocals and guitars and instruments and you know, all
(54:37):
the and all the parts that were necessary. And because
I did it that way, because it was so joyful,
I get. I feel this happened to me. I feel
that the spirit God allowed me to go on a
(54:58):
journey that I had no idea about the truth something
that And as I've thought about it since the record's done,
I'm not sure how many people get to.
Speaker 3 (55:12):
Go through this process. I'm going to describe.
Speaker 1 (55:18):
At the beginning of getting the record made, a small
group of just a bass player drummer and guitar player.
Being Shane recorded basic tracks, very basic, bare bones tracks
of the songs. At the time, it was most of them,
but we got some more done later. But anyway, and
(55:40):
when I learned that they proceeded that far, I went
in to do vocals. Seemed to be my next step.
And I know that first day I walked in and saying,
Proud Mary, there she is again, you know. And I
probably did maybe three four songs that day, but on
(56:00):
each song I would do probably four takes, maybe five.
What you're doing is you're going to take the best
part of each take and compile or comp a one,
you know, really strong track, a vocal track. So I
had done that that first day, and the first song
was Proud Mary. And then we continued Shane and Tyler
(56:21):
and I producing the record, meaning filling in the parts
of all the songs and getting the thing to really shine,
you know, listening to the originals. And in many cases
I had to relearn. Sometimes Shane was the one that Dad,
you're not playing that right, you know, learning how to
(56:43):
how to play a guitar part, or in one case
with up around the bind that Shane, you're not wiggling
that thing up there. Look, take this guitar home over
the weekend and I'll see you monday. I gave him
some homework. He came back and ripped an incredible version
(57:03):
of up around the Bench. Okay, So anyway, we got
pretty far along in the making of the record. And
now I went back and I listened to Proud Mary,
all complete with all the parts, and there's my vocal
I had done many many months before, thinking I was
(57:23):
pretty hot stuff. You know, walked in been singing Proud
Mary for fifty years. Anyhow, I mean this, this is
the little bubble that was in my head. I listened,
you know, and I got Shanon Tyler, and I think
Julie was sitting there and I listened, and I mean,
the track is stunning, It's just great. And the background
(57:44):
vocals of rolling rolling on the river's great. I'm hearing
this guy singing and I'm underwhelmed, right, and I'm but then,
you know, there's a little bit of that. I mean,
you you want to move along, like tapping you on
the shoulder.
Speaker 2 (58:01):
How long are you gonna be here?
Speaker 5 (58:03):
You know?
Speaker 1 (58:04):
And I'm listening, and so then the bubble in my
head is I'm gonna turn around and I'm gonna roll
up myself. All right, somebody tell me that's not great.
Speaker 5 (58:13):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (58:14):
You know, I'm gonna just impose my will and it'll
be declared finished. But I actually didn't feel that way.
There was something wrong with it. And as I listened,
you know, I played again. As I listened, I realized
back in the day when I sang Proud Mary, I
didn't have anything. There was no big, long career with
(58:34):
a lot of success and you know, a nice house
and car and all that. It was basically coming from nothing.
I hadn't experienced success yet. I'm singing Proud Mary and
it's life and death. And I've used that phrase way
back in the day. And I said, John, that track
(58:55):
up there is not life and death. You've got to
sing it like it's life and death. And the experience
is this gift I was given that I got to
go on, was okay, how do you do that? I
guess I have to adjust my mind or my soul
(59:15):
or whatever. It's kind of like hypnosis or what's that
other word they use.
Speaker 5 (59:22):
X X.
Speaker 3 (59:24):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (59:25):
There was a bunch of movements in the seventies about
exists like, yeah, yeah, I get it, figuring yeah, out right,
and I've placed myself in that feeling like you've got nothing.
Speaker 3 (59:41):
Everything depends on it.
Speaker 1 (59:42):
And the more I thought about it, everything did depend
on it, because everybody's going to say, well, you have
this record over here, you know, all these records you made,
why would you do this now? And I realized it's
got to be it's got to be convincing, and that
it was kind of the same situation again. And so
(01:00:04):
by placing myself in that mindset and then going out,
you know, and of course you go out, you sing,
you come back and you listen, you nah, go out again,
you know, And it became a process of finally getting
to a place where I believed it. I actually okay,
all right, and you know, it passed my own muster,
(01:00:26):
meaning I believe it now. I don't know what to
call that, because it was fine before, it just wasn't convincing. Later,
long long after the record was finished and you know,
ready to come out, Julie told me she could see
that on my face, what I was doing, and she
(01:00:46):
understood that.
Speaker 5 (01:00:49):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
Sorry, sometimes when I talk about Julie, I get emotional.
That's who we are to each other. By the way,
there's an instant just support and I guess knowledge of
the other person's it's unconditional love. And she's always that
person that's there. Anyhow, she told me later, did she
(01:01:13):
she understood, She realized what I was doing and she
felt it.
Speaker 3 (01:01:18):
Obviously it was working. So there you were.
Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
So and that's what I went through for all the
rest of this song.
Speaker 5 (01:01:26):
Well, I appreciate you sharing that story. That's a great story.
Speaker 4 (01:01:30):
The Credence Clear what Revival Years, which it came out
about a month ago, and you're playing a lot of shows.
Speaker 5 (01:01:35):
Like I said, I saw you.
Speaker 4 (01:01:36):
I was in Europe and I saw posters for you
playing all over Europe, and I really wanted one of
the dates to match up. And my old manager left
me to go run your record label.
Speaker 5 (01:01:47):
And I was like.
Speaker 4 (01:01:48):
Yeah, he left me to go to you and my goodness,
and his name's Tom Betchy, and I was like, hey,
Tom Betchy, you have John Fogerty. I would love to
meet him just for a minute. And so now you're here,
and this has been like a really great hour for me.
I hope everybody checks out the album, but I just
really appreciate the time because you've been a favorite of
mine since I was nine years old. And not only that,
(01:02:09):
you were a reason that me I don't have a
dad growing up, You're a reason that me and my
stepdad were able to bond oh cool because he was
a massive fan and that's why I took interest was
because of him. And so every song, I can name
every song within like two notes because it's what we
did is we listened to a lot of credence.
Speaker 5 (01:02:28):
So this means a lot to me for a lot
of reasons. So I really.
Speaker 4 (01:02:31):
Appreciate the time that you dedicated to come over and
do this, and I hope the record does what you.
Speaker 5 (01:02:35):
Wanted to do.
Speaker 4 (01:02:36):
You don't need the money anymore, but I hope you
got the you know, the fulfillment out of making it
and your two sons, and I hope that it became
what you wanted it to be.
Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
Absolutely it was a joy to make. And I think
it's a sense of feeling of joy when you listen
to it. I think that's part of the experience of
playing this record, this album. I think what happens is
then then and they say it people they I think
(01:03:04):
they can sense that that word I used before. It
had to be convincing. I think that happens when the
listener listens as well. Well, I'm sincere about this.
Speaker 4 (01:03:16):
Thank you for your time and this has really been
an awesome and go check out John and he's playing
iHeartRadio Music Festival as well. Can't wait for that. I'm
gonna be in Vegas for that show. I don't even
know if you know what shows you up coming up.
You're just all over the place, so yeah, I'm really
looking forward to seeing you liven there.
Speaker 5 (01:03:30):
He is the great John Fogarty.
Speaker 1 (01:03:32):
Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production.
Hosts And Creators
Bobby Bones
Amy Brown
Lunchbox
Eddie Garcia
Morgan Huelsman
Raymundo
Mike D
Abby Anderson
Scuba Steve
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.