← The Bobby Bones Show
The Bobby Bones Show
#538 - John Fogerty on the Origin of Creedence Clearwater Revival Band Name + The Day He Wrote ‘Proud Mary’ in 1 Hour + Writing ‘Fortunate Son’ in 20 mins + Advice He Would Give to 24-Year-Old Self
01:03:42
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- [00:00]
Bobby
This is an iHeart podcast. Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips, and we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated adhd. Oh, my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness psychobabble. Yes, yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom's the podcast for you. Open your free iHeartRadio app, search emergency intercom, and listen now.
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John Fogarty
I'm Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, host of.
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Bobby
The Therapy for Black Girls podcast.
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John Fogarty
I know how overwhelming it can feel.
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Bobby
If flying makes you anxious.
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John Fogarty
In session 418 of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, Dr. Angela Neil Barnett and I discuss flight anxiety. What is not normal is to allow.
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Bobby
It to prevent you from doing the.
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John Fogarty
Thing things that you want to do.
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Bobby
The things that you were meant to do.
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John Fogarty
Listen to Therapy for Black Girls on.
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Bobby
The iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever.
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John Fogarty
You get your podcast.
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Bobby
I'm Bridget Armstrong, host of the new.
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John Fogarty
Podcast the Curse of America's Next Top Model. I've been investigating the real story behind that iconic show.
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Bobby
I ended up having anorexia issues, bulimia issues, by talking to the models, the.
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John Fogarty
Producers, and the people who profited from it all.
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Bobby
We basically sold our souls, and they got rich. If you were so rud for her and saw her drowning, why don't you help her listen to the Curse of.
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John Fogarty
America's Next Top model on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. One night I went into my bedroom and said, all right, you gotta write favorite son. And suddenly this idea about that some folks are born made the way, you know? And I went, ah, I like that finish that first verse. Wouldn't you know it? I changed favorite son into fortunate son because it ain't me. I walked out of that bedroom with a finished song in 20 minutes.
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Bobby
I think this is our second Rock and Roll hall of Fame member, Ringo, obviously, about Cheryl Crow. Hmm.
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John Fogarty
She in the hall of Fame?
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Bobby
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.
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John Fogarty
I had 20, 23.
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Bobby
Yeah. So I think we've had good. Good memory. I think we've had now three, but two while in.
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John Fogarty
Did you say Dolly?
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Bobby
No, I didn't. Okay, three before. Yeah. Anyway, it's rare. This is John Fogarty, which, by the way, Credence Clearwater 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 60s, 70s. And then he had a solo career. But so many great songs. I want to know, have you ever seen the Rain? Great song. It ain't me, it ain't me. I ain't no fortunate son. Oh, good one. There's a bad moon on the rise Good one. Proud merry, keep on burning. Wrote that one. Oh, he wrote all these, but great one. Come on around the bend Jam. Down on the corner out in the street Jam Dig a run through the jungle 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 will stop the rain Jam? I don't know. Come on. A rising Wind. I could keep going. They have so many songs, so this was very cool for me and I don't want 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 Credence Clearwater Revival Years, which was just released. It's 20 classic tracks, fresh energy, backed by his sons Shane and Tyler. And let's give it a run here. He was born in Berkeley, California in 1945. Before CCR, he served in the 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 1993. 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 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 538, lead singer of Credence Clearwater Revival, John Fogarty. 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 a. Was that a weird part of your life when everybody started to go, it's an honor?
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John Fogarty
Well, I always say it back. It's an honor to meet you too. And I mean that.
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Bobby
Well, thanks. I'm a. I'm a big fan, like, of. Of ccr, of like your original stuff. So for me, I just Text my stepdad, who is the original fan, who made me a fan. And I was like, john Fogarty's coming over to the house. But I didn't say you were doing an interview. I made it like we're friends.
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John Fogarty
Yeah.
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Bobby
And he was like, he's coming over. I was like, yeah. He like, what are you guys gonna talk about? I didn't respond yet. Okay, I'll text him later and tell him what we talked about.
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John Fogarty
Talk about everything.
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Bobby
Yeah. So how did you get discovered? How did a band get discovered 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. What was the process like?
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John Fogarty
Well, it depends on what you mean. Discovery.
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Bobby
To get a record deal, even.
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John Fogarty
Okay, well, around the age of 14, when the little Blue Velvets were. Were playing around, we. We ended up representing the El Cerrito. It's my town. El Cerrito Boys club. And so we played various different venues, including boys clubs from other towns around the Bay Area. And at one of those things, there was this singer named James Powell. He's about 24, 25 years old. And he tapped me on his shoulder after we'd played, said, would you guys be interested in making a record? I'll try and cut that at Chase. I said, sure. We ended 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 doo wop. And we ended up learning or recording a song called Beverly angel. And the other side was called Lydia, which was sort of a calypso thing. But Beverly angel was a doo wop classic. I mean, it was dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. 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. 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. He was a dad. 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. It's actually pretty cool. Even now. That didn't get discovered, but it did get played on the R B station. And Stu Cook tells me that in electronics, I guess it Was that, you know, I wasn't going to El Cerrito High at that point. But anyway, he was in electronics. The project was to make a radio. And he got the thing working, tuned it in, and out popped Beverly Angel. It's a great story. I hope it's true, you know. So they. 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. The fella had his, you know, own label. We made, I don't know, four, five records there. One of them, a song I wrote called have youe 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 didn't go much further after that. And it finally took me knocking on the door at Fantasy to, which was a little bit bigger label, not much.
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Bobby
And did they want to hear a body of work? Are they like, play me 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?
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John Fogarty
I wish it was. I wish it was that together. And maybe it's more so nowadays. I don't know. There had been this special on TV called Anatomy of A Hit. It was a local jazz writer in the paper had kind of narrated and produced it. It was about Vince Giraldi's song instrumental called Cast your Fate to the Wind, a jazz record that became a top 40 hit. That was Fantasy. It was basically their first hit record in 40 years of something of being a 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. I had a 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? Okay, that's kind of normally what Tom and I did together. So I said, well, sure. He said, we'll come back and play us. Oh, at first, what he did was he walked us over, walked me over to the desk there and opened a Billboard magazine. He said, well, songs with words do a lot better than instrumentals. And then he happened. It happened to be that week he opens Billboard, and There's the top 10 and the first six are Beatles songs. And of course, I knew about that, but he was trying to say that, you see, songs with words will turn you into the Beatles and. Or something like that. Okay, sir. We then made a whole bunch of recordings for that label, kind of in this shed they had at the back of their warehouse, kind of a makeshift recording studio. And the. They renamed us the Gollywogs. Of course, we hated that.
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Bobby
Without your consent.
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John Fogarty
Yeah. The first recording we had 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 typo. There's something wrong here. Max. Look at this. It says Gollywogs. And then he let us know the. The evil plot that was afoot here.
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Bobby
So they changed your name without telling you. That's wild.
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John Fogarty
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.
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Bobby
How long were you the golliwogs?
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John Fogarty
Until 1967. That was 64. When, of course, because of the beetle week, 1967. The guy who had been formerly the sales rep for Fantasy, the jazz label name, was Saul Zantz. He summoned us to his house and told us that he 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. The band. And the first thing out of our mouths was, Saul, we got to change our name. We hate being Gollywogs. And he said, sure, okay.
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Bobby
And did he say, what do you want it to be?
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John Fogarty
No. No. But years later, this is the. You know how victory has a thousand fathers. What really happened was, within the band, we said, okay, we gotta come up with a new name. You know, we're scrapping everything, and we're going to come up with a good new name. Years later, I read some quote from Saul saying. And then I told those boys, golliwog stinks. You have to go out and get something more earthy. In other words, taking ownership of the whole. 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'd been. What's the word? Just chafing under that yoke. Of a name. And it took a couple of months. Basically, I. 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, it was. And I was 22 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. Finally, on Christmas Eve of 1967, I came up with Creedence Clearwater Revival. And I knew it was it. I mean, I knew in my heart that, wow, this. This is better than us. Actually, this name is up here in the cloud somewhere. We got to get up there.
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Bobby
So what about those words and those three terms together made you go, this is it? Like, what drew you to Credence Clearwater Revival?
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John Fogarty
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, magical forest with the green trees, and it might have been a little deer. You know, Bambi comes over and nudges against a little bush 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, 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 a anti pollution commercial. And it shows styrofoam cups and cigarette butts in a crick 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 gotta, you know, it'll get there. And I. The juxtaposition of those two waters, you know, it really stuck. It just shocked me. And 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. I mean, that seemed to be the soul of the idea here, and I quickly started thinking of what to go with it. A few months before, actually, we had had the name Credence spin around in our little orbit because we knew a fella named Credence New Ball. It's 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 are you. You know, you're just associating, and suddenly. Clear Water Credence.
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Bobby
Oh.
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John Fogarty
No. Credence. Clear Water. Okay. I mean, your brain 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 head, and finally, when it came across my mental windshield. It's Cretan's Clearwater Revolution Bible. 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. Credence Clearwater Revival seemed to be. It was so perfect and so above our station at the moment. I. I really loved it.
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Bobby
What was the first song you wrote as Creedon'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 comes out, you know, it may take a bit. You may. You have it. You've written it. What's the first song you write as this new entity of Credence Clearwater Revival that had traction?
- [18:23]
John Fogarty
Yeah, because there were. The first Credence album had Susie Q and I Put a Spell on you, which I didn't write. Both of those. I didn't write. There were some other songs I did write, but they're sort of, you know, they're work in progress. They're. They're on their way.
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Bobby
Can you hear that in your writing? You can tell when you're getting better by listening to your songs through the years?
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John Fogarty
Oh, sure.
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Bobby
Yeah.
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John Fogarty
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 we had. We had kind of earned the right to do that because Susie Q was already being played on the local underground stations. It was getting some traction. And right in that time, I was already trying to prepare for a next album. I mean, I would. 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. I finally. Oh, it's my discharge. Wow. Well, anyhow, I ran in the house and I'm out. I mean I was, I was clear. I was free is the word to a 22 year old. I ran in the house, picked up my guitar and started strumming. And what came out of me was left a good job in the city, working for the man every night and day. And that's exactly what that refers to. Wow. I stayed on that thought. I strumming the guitar. I mean these things are just. I. I can't even say I created them. It really felt more like if I clear 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 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.
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Bobby
I would love to hear it when we go back. I'm gonna put a pin in it. We'll go back to it.
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John Fogarty
All right. Anyhow, I. I opened that book that had 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. 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 I had, 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 at it and I had self awareness. This had never happened to me. I'd written dozens of songs in my life, starting when I was 8 years old. But I'm sitting here with this piece of paper and Proud Mary and John, you've written a classic. This is a classic. It's what every songwriter is dreaming about. You know, my mom had told me about Stephen Foster, Irving Berlin Hoagie Carmichael. And I had discovered my own people I loved, like Lieber and Stoller, you know, the Coasters, Certainly Lennon and McCartney, people like that Carole King, you know, people that were real songwriters. And you just know that they're up there in the clouds somewhere. And you. You're doing your little ditties every once in a while. You're writing your little songs and hoping some. 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 the next thing 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 it right now. It was just a weird, personal thought.
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Bobby
And you had that feeling. I guess my question is, did you ever have that feeling before, or was this the lightning bolt?
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John Fogarty
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 does that. It's a foolish sort of following yourself to the bottom, you know, the. 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 hears it knows it, too. I mean, that's. That's the way to know that you're on your way. Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.
- [23:57]
Bobby
Hey, everybody. This is Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.
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John Fogarty
And you're never gonna guess who's our.
- [24:00]
Bobby
Guest on Las Culturistas. It is Bradley Jackson.
- [24:04]
John Fogarty
Elle Woods.
- [24:05]
Bobby
Tracy Flick herself, Reese Witherspoon. Reese, we must go on a girls trip.
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John Fogarty
I have to have a tequila. We must.
- [24:15]
Bobby
Oh, the Q rating. When they run diagnostics, we can run.
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John Fogarty
It on you guys.
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Bobby
I'd be scared to run the Q rating.
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John Fogarty
No, I'm the Q rating.
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Bobby
My resiliency score is down to adequate because we were on a red eye. My resiliency.
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John Fogarty
Where's your grit?
- [24:34]
Bobby
My grit? I gotta get My grit.
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John Fogarty
Score up. Now.
- [24:38]
Bobby
Don't think that you're gonna come on Las Culturistas, the podcast, and we're not gonna at least bring up Big Little Lie, season three.
- [24:45]
John Fogarty
Whoever said orange is the new pink?
- [24:48]
Bobby
Like, seriously, seriously disturbed. Listen to Las culturistas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast Podcasts.
- [24:56]
John Fogarty
I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paola Ramos. Together we're launching the Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians.
- [25:08]
Bobby
I would be the first immigrant mayor.
- [25:11]
John Fogarty
In generations, but 40% of New Yorkers.
- [25:13]
Bobby
Were born outside of this country. Artists and activists.
- [25:16]
John Fogarty
I mean, do you ever feel demoralized? I might personally lose hope.
- [25:21]
Bobby
This is individual, might lose the faith.
- [25:23]
John Fogarty
But there's an institution that doesn't lose faith, and that's what I've believed in. To bring you depth and analysis from a unique Latino perspective, there's not a single day that Paula and I don't call or text each other sharing news and thoughts about what's happening in the country. This new podcast will be a way to make that ongoing intergenerational conversation public.
- [25:46]
Bobby
Listen to the Moment with Jorge Ramos.
- [25:48]
John Fogarty
And Paula Ramos as part of the My Cultura podcast Network on the iHeartRadio.
- [25:53]
Bobby
App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Super Secret Bestie Club podcast season four is here, and we're locked in. That means more juicy cheesement, terrible love advice, evil spells to cast on your ex. No, no, we're not doing that this season. Oh, well, this season we're leveling up. Each episode will feature a special bestie, and you're not gonna wanna miss it. Get in here. Today we have a very special guest with us.
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John Fogarty
Our new super secret bestie is the diva of the people.
- [26:24]
Bobby
The diva of the people. I'm just like texturex. My theory is that if you need to figure out that the stove is hot, go and touch it. Go and figure it out for yourself.
- [26:33]
John Fogarty
Okay, that's us. What the heck? That's us.
- [26:38]
Bobby
My name is Curly.
- [26:39]
John Fogarty
And I'm Maya.
- [26:40]
Bobby
In each episode, we'll talk about love, friendship, heartbreaks, men, and of course, our favorite secrets. Listen to the Super Secret Bestie Club.
- [26:49]
John Fogarty
As a part of the Microtura Podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple.
- [26:54]
Bobby
Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And we're back on the bobbycast. 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, we. This is it.
- [27:19]
John Fogarty
I'm going to say that it was a. It was a slow awareness in. Within my band, the. The three other fellas in Credence. But that was not unusual. I had to do a cell just to make Creedence Clearwater revival work. I had to sell it to the other three guys. And, you know, I was dug in. I was not changing my mind. But there was a. I don't know. That's a bit complicated. You. All that stuff. So the idea of. Of people not of the other guys not quite getting it was not. Was not unusual.
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Bobby
When I think about some of the lyrics of your songs and I think of, like, there's a statue wearing high heels. Look at all the. And, you know, do, do, do. Looking at. Were you whacked out of your mind when writing that song?
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John Fogarty
No, I.
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Bobby
Because that's some crazy imagery. Like, I'm not. 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. It's a. It's a lot of things that. Weird things happening.
- [28:23]
John Fogarty
It's written for a child.
- [28:25]
Bobby
Okay. Or that. That makes sense, too.
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John Fogarty
I had. As a kid, one of my favorite little books was a children's book.
- [28:34]
Bobby
Wow.
- [28:35]
John Fogarty
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. We're talking 1949. Right. 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. And I knew even at the time when I was making the song and then going to put out the record. Yep. When I talk about the creatures Dance.
- [29:18]
Bobby
Dancing along.
- [29:20]
John Fogarty
I changed it from grass. If I say dancing on the grass. Oh, yeah, I see. That's it. 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. And I was sure some people. I didn't know enough about drugs anyway to know how a spoon was connected, but I kind of had an inkling that it was. I just pictured this great big gigantic thing that looked like a spoon with big old eagle's wings or whatever. Just you know, the. The way imagery and some of the Beetle things like Yellow Submarine or whatever, much later would fantasize about that. And I wanted you to see that.
- [30:07]
Bobby
In your mind, see purposefully and it makes sense. Took grass and turned it into lawn. Look at all the happy people dancing on the lawn.
- [30:15]
John Fogarty
Yeah.
- [30:16]
Bobby
Because you didn't want that. Wow. And I knew nothing about drugs. Still really don't know anything about drugs. But I always thought, man, there's some crazy stuff happening in this song, but it makes sense if it's written for children.
- [30:26]
John Fogarty
Yes.
- [30:26]
Bobby
And my assumption would be people your whole career have thought that song was written about the 70s, just in general. The 60s or 70s.
- [30:33]
John Fogarty
Well, I remember once being backstage at the Fillmore, and certainly Bayou country was out. Born on the bayou, 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 did. I do not separate myself from the crowd because certainly my mindset was very much the same. Sort of free and, you know, that's a lot of hope, hopeful for the future. And he comes up to me, John, you must. The phrase almost what you. You just. Somebody's been stoned out of your mind. Tell me when you wrote Born on the Body, you would just stone and just 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. It was the 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 saying to me was. I guess what he was doing was saying, if I'm my teacher, talk. 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. The muse, the place you go to be creative is really elusive. I mean, we could 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. You know, it's a very mysterious, fragile thing. So being able to get yourself to go there, as you just said, what. What looking out my back door is like, to be able to picture those things that at the time, for me, in other words, it made Total sense. Right. Right now I probably couldn't walk out your front door and sit down and be in that sort of elusive, flimsy kind of mood. But, you know, at the time I got myself there.
- [32:57]
Bobby
I want to 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?
- [33:19]
John Fogarty
That was probably about a year. Just about a year. Maybe a year and a month. 13 months, something like that. So from sometime in the middle of. In the summer of 68 for proud Mary to late summer in 69 for fortunate son, did you ever get on.
- [33:39]
Bobby
Like a hot streak? 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?
- [33:54]
John Fogarty
Well, I think that whole period of time was. They were happening that way. I was working really hard at it. I mean, don't. In other words, I was. What's the word? Setting myself up for success. I would stay up late. In other words, I. I knew my. For my band to have success, I needed more songs. I also knew it was up to me. And so I would, you know, have dinner and then go to my little room and stay there, drink a lot of coffee, smoke a lot of cigarettes in those days and stay up till maybe 4am writing songs. And so the. The idea that one day I'm riding my motorcycle and I think about up around the Bend, 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 almost like riding a wild horse, you know. The phrase up around the bend came to me and I thought about it for a couple days and within a week I'd written a song. Fortunate Son, now that you talked about that, that was actually the quickest song I ever wrote.
- [35:13]
Bobby
Wow.
- [35:13]
John Fogarty
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 unstoppable screaming rocker for my band. You know, one of those. We'd had some kind of middle tempo things like Proud Mary and Lodi and, you know, I wanted something that was just screaming and 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. I think I'm gonna 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 8 year old or something, I was kind of interested in the. The national conventions for political parties. They would be on television a lot of times in the daytime in those days, black and white. You'd see a lot of really old men, you know, saying different stuff. You know, you're a kid, you don't really know what it's all about. But so often somebody would stand, oh, you're. Sir, the great state of Texas would like to nominate her favorite son, Billy Saul Estes. You know, and they always use that phrase, favorite son. And so that stuck in my mind. I actually wrote it in my little songbook. So I. 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 for like six weeks. Just rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed. You know, I. 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, right, that'll go on a radio. And I, 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 and it just, it just comes out of you. And that's what would happen. We'd go in the studio after six weeks and just turn 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 said, 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 so folks are bored made the way, you know, I like that. I finished that first verse and I realized some folks are born. Wow. I can start the second verse that, you know, it's kind of this, this mantra or whatever, and it ain't me. It, you know, it just happened right there. And wouldn't you know it, I changed Favorite Son into Fortunate Son because it ain't me. I walked out of that bedroom with a finished song in 20 minutes. It just, you know, I mean, I marvel at that now. I wish I could do that more often. Of course.
- [38:26]
Bobby
Did you feel the way about Fortunate Son that you did about Proud Mary, where you knew, like this is something?
- [38:32]
John Fogarty
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, you know, I'd obviously been thinking all those thoughts about, about the military, about the, the war in Vietnam, about the unfairness of people, you know, some senators, rich people getting their kids out of the draft. It was all in my mind and came out of me and was. I knew it was said. Well, I could just tell it, but this was going to be a lot of fun to play.
- [39:13]
Bobby
Was there any thought of social repercussion, meaning some people wouldn't like it and that was going to be difficult for you.
- [39:21]
John Fogarty
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 that would follow what President Nixon would say. In other words, it really was kind of a. What's the word? Cultural war between young people, mostly under 30, 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 the. You 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 along with stuff like that. In fact, they. I remember one of my idols, actually, I remember Tex Ritter had been on one of those high jacked airplanes in the 60s. 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 on the other side of the fence about those things. 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 specter of, you know, at any time my unit could be activated and there we go, we're off into 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. After I was out of the. 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, let's say, like minded that were quote unquote, hippie and against the war and all that sort of thing. 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, about the army over there and all that sort of stuff. And I'd have to. I'm going to sound a little bit like a preacher or something, but I realized I was old. I was an old soul or whatever. I had evolved and I. I'd stopped 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. I said, now take a good look over there. That guy is 19 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 frickin war. But he got drafted, unlike you, so he has to go do that. And I don't know how many times I said that to people, which, you know, if 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. You know, it's the powerful people that declare the war. And then the poor people got to go wage the war, which was a.
- [43:27]
Bobby
Bit of what fortunate sun was reflecting.
- [43:29]
John Fogarty
Yep.
- [43:29]
Bobby
Which was exactly that.
- [43:30]
John Fogarty
Yes, the Bobby cast.
- [43:33]
Bobby
We'll be right back. Hey, everybody, this is Matt Rogers and Dawen Yang.
- [43:38]
John Fogarty
And you're never gonna guess who's our.
- [43:40]
Bobby
Guest on Las Culturistas. It is Bradley Jackson. Elle Woods, Tracy Flick herself, Reese Witherspoon. Reese, we must go on a girls trip.
- [43:51]
John Fogarty
I have to have a tequila.
- [43:54]
Bobby
We're not all the Q rating. When they run diagnostics, we can run.
- [43:59]
John Fogarty
It on you guys.
- [44:01]
Bobby
I'd be scared.
- [44:02]
John Fogarty
Don't run the Q rating. No, on the Q Rating.
- [44:06]
Bobby
My resiliency score is down to adequate because we were on a red eye. My resiliency. Where's your grit? My grit? I gotta get my grit score up.
- [44:17]
John Fogarty
Now.
- [44:17]
Bobby
Don't think that you're gonna come on Las Culturistas, the podcast, and we're not gonna at least bring up Big Little Lies, season three.
- [44:24]
John Fogarty
Whoever said orange is the new pink seriously disturbs.
- [44:30]
Bobby
Listen to Las culturistas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [44:36]
John Fogarty
I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paula Ramos. Together we're launching the Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians.
- [44:48]
Bobby
I would be the first immigrant mayor.
- [44:50]
John Fogarty
In generations, but 40% of New Yorkers were born outside of this country.
- [44:54]
Bobby
Artists and activists.
- [44:55]
John Fogarty
I mean, do you ever feel demoralized? I might personally lose hope.
- [45:00]
Bobby
This individual might lose the faith.
- [45:03]
John Fogarty
But there's an institution that doesn't lose faith, and that's what I believed in. To bring you depth and analysis from a unique Latino perspective. There's not a single day that Paula and I don't call or text each other sharing news and thoughts about what's happening in the country. This new podcast will be a way to make that ongoing intergenerational conversation public.
- [45:25]
Bobby
Listen to the Moment with Jorge Ramos.
- [45:28]
John Fogarty
And Paula Ramos as part of the My Cultura Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio.
- [45:32]
Bobby
App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [45:36]
John Fogarty
Hi, I'm Jenica Lopez, and in the new season of the Overcomer podcast, I'm taking you on an exciting journey of self reflection. Am I ready to enter this new part of my life? Like, am I ready to be in a relationship? Am I ready to have kids and to really just devote myself and my time? I wanted to be successful on my own, not just because of who my mom is. Like, I felt like I needed to be better or work twice as hard as she did. Join me for conversations about healing and growth. Life is freaking hard, and growth doesn't happen in comfort. It happens in motion, even when you're hurting. All from one of my favorite spaces, the kitchen. Honestly, these are going to come out so freaking amazing. Be a part of my new chapter and listen to the new season of.
- [46:21]
Bobby
The Overcome for podcast as part of.
- [46:23]
John Fogarty
The Michael Tura Podcast Network on the.
- [46:25]
Bobby
Iheartradio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This is the BobbyC. I was in Paris and I saw a sign that said you were playing In Paris. You. You're playing everywhere right now. All over the world.
- [46:49]
John Fogarty
There you go. Rocking all over the world.
- [46:51]
Bobby
Yeah. Still.
- [46:52]
John Fogarty
Well, it's fun, sure. It's actually more fun now than ever.
- [46:57]
Bobby
Why is that?
- [46:58]
John Fogarty
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 a great vacation every day.
- [47:16]
Bobby
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. Is that. Would that be consistent with your career?
- [47:29]
John Fogarty
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, you know, turn it off. I. That's. You probably didn't want to hear all that. Well, I've read this.
- [47:54]
Bobby
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. What you want to talk about today. Like, what kind of. Because some days I'm in the mood to talk about it all, some days I'm not.
- [48:07]
John Fogarty
Yeah. So, I mean, as when you first start when you're a kid, as I've said a couple of times, music captured me. I mean, I really had no vote, I think. I think it just happened and 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 and that Stephen Foster was a songwriter. And that just mystified me that, oh, Stephen Foster wrote oh, Susanna. Wow. And then, you know, getting to where I thought, wow, maybe I'd like to try music, you know, And I heard an Elvis Presley record called My Baby Left Me and. And the guitar, and it was so dramatic, I guess is the word. And Elvis is singing, you know, in a. In a bluesy style. But, I mean, I. 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 who it was. It was on a jukebox in a little country store. And when I discovered what it was. I. I just liked it so much. I looked at the record going around and I said, I don't know what they're doing there, but that's what I want to do. And I made up my mind right there.
- [49:32]
Bobby
The first song that I ever learned to play fully and played publicly at a school event was down on the Corner, as you're talking about that. The first song I ever played all the way through and played publicly was. That was down in the Corner.
- [49:44]
John Fogarty
Wow.
- [49:44]
Bobby
Because I could actually play the down, down, down, down, down. I could play that and then I could go, fcg. You know, I felt like that was a. And, yeah, you're just 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 career is all in comedy. That was my first ever song was down on the Corner.
- [50:01]
John Fogarty
That's a lot more complicated than the one I learned.
- [50:05]
Bobby
I think maybe you were a bit more complicated of a writer, but I was pretty proud of myself for playing that one. You know, 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. The. The bayou sound, was very approachable, sonically. Do you feel like that is. Is what, you know, influenced your. It sounded like a. A thick Southern sound.
- [50:33]
John Fogarty
Oh, for sure.
- [50:34]
Bobby
Because I think a lot of people assumed you guys were from Louisiana.
- [50:37]
John Fogarty
Because I've heard people from Louisiana. Actually. We didn't know if you were over by Thibodeau or you were up, you know. Yeah. Yeah.
- [50:45]
Bobby
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 bayou 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.
- [51:05]
John Fogarty
Bobby. The truth is that wonderful place that I go to, and I sometimes call it Sun Records, but all. You know, it's kind of the Swamp Thing or bayou, 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 is probably me trying to be in the band with Carl Perkins. Something like. I've actually used that. I said that that would have been my live stream. To be standing back there playing rhythm guitar while Carl's doing his thing and I could just be part of that groove. So, I mean, along with that, there's a. 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 25 instruments or one synthesizer playing 25 parts or something. It was 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 sun to be the example and then maybe talk about myself. But for instance, Blue Suede Shoes, you know, we. That that song was such a hit in. In the day and all that, you. You tend to almost not hear it anymore because it just comes at you. But when you actually just put the record down or the, you know, the arm down and play the record and listen, the groove on it is so unstoppable. I mean, it's just. 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 feed. And I don't know, I was very aware of that. I didn't try to cover it up by making noise all over it. I wanted to learn, well, how is he doing that? Because. And it's, it's. It's feel, of course, is what I'm talking about. And you really can't put that on the sheet music. It's. It's just a way of doing.
- [53:31]
Bobby
I've also felt like it's confidence too, to leave, even in conversation. Right. If you have the confidence to be quiet, that can be very powerful.
- [53:39]
John Fogarty
And Dean Lincoln said that.
- [53:41]
Bobby
Yeah. And when you talk about the music, especially the music they made at 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. And I think that you guys did that. You did that very well, obviously. But now I kind of know the. In 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 into your room and just practice for hours?
- [54:11]
John Fogarty
Yes, but I. 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 those were mostly about learning some chords 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. I call them the folk music police, the Kingston Trio and Tom Dooley, which popularized the whole movement. For some reason the so called legit people were very suspicious of all that because it was commercial. I didn't care. I was a kid. I loved it. But anyway, yeah, I didn't progress very quickly with the way I practice, where I still practice now a whole lot. But I'm much more aggressive in trying to learn new stuff.
- [55:20]
Bobby
So you create a band in high school. Is that the first time that you got guys together to actually play?
- [55:24]
John Fogarty
It was junior high, yeah, eighth grade.
- [55:27]
Bobby
And so what was the intent? Just playing like for you, for each other? Or were you like, 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?
- [55:38]
John Fogarty
That was exactly it. Yeah. Oh well, I was going places. Hey, come on. It all started that I had. I had a music teacher in junior high, both seventh and eighth grade, Mrs. Stark, and she was wonderful. Anyway, she'd let me come in right after school, you know, three, 10 or whatever, and sit at the piano and play. So I started doing that. And after a day or two kids or gathering around, that's eventually how I met the two guys, Doug and Stu, that were in Credence. They just happened to be part of that crowd of people. One day Doug said, well, I play 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 shop, wasn't a store bought thing, which is kind of what the level we were all at in those days.
- [56:40]
Bobby
And so where did you play?
- [56:42]
John Fogarty
Well, after we met the piano player Stu, by the end of the 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 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, it's a party. Well, 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 40 band.
- [57:39]
Bobby
In other words, I 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 going to practice. We're not going to drink. We're not going to. We're going to. We're going to. I mean, so you were the police as well as the musical leader. Did you feel that.
- [57:56]
John Fogarty
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 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 lot of that, which included the band. So those times weren't all that serious. But the funny thing was, the head of the frat would always come to us. Come to me, really. Now, 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 Wipeout and all the rest happened, and everybody was really happy. So, you know, whatever those designs he had, it went out the window. Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.
- [59:12]
Bobby
Hey, everybody, this is Matt Rogers and Dawen Yang.
- [59:15]
John Fogarty
And you're never gonna guess who's our.
- [59:16]
Bobby
Guest on Las Culturistas. It is Bradley Jackson, Elle Woods, Tracy Flick herself, Reese Witherspoon. Reese, we must go on a girls trip.
- [59:28]
John Fogarty
I have to have a tequila. We must.
- [59:31]
Bobby
Oh, the Q rating. When they run diagnostics, we can run.
- [59:36]
John Fogarty
It on you guys.
- [59:37]
Bobby
I'd be scared.
- [59:38]
John Fogarty
Don't run the Q rating. No. On the Q rating.
- [59:43]
Bobby
My resiliency score is down to adequate because we were on a red eye. My resiliency score. Where's your grit? My grit? I gotta get my grit score up. Now, don't think that you're gonna come on Las Culturistas, the podcast, and we're not gonna at least bring up Big Little Lie Season 3.
- [60:01]
John Fogarty
Whoever said orange is the new pink, like, seriously disturbs.
- [60:07]
Bobby
Listen to Las culturistas on the iHeartRadio app.
- [60:10]
John Fogarty
Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.
- [60:12]
Bobby
Podcasts.
- [60:12]
John Fogarty
I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paola Ramos. Together we're launching the Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians.
- [60:24]
Bobby
I would be the first immigrant mayor.
- [60:27]
John Fogarty
In generations, but 40% of New Yorkers.
- [60:29]
Bobby
Were born outside of this country. Artists and activists.
- [60:32]
John Fogarty
I mean, do you ever feel demoralized? I might personally lose hope.
- [60:37]
Bobby
This, this individual might lose the faith.
- [60:39]
John Fogarty
But there's an institution that doesn't lose faith. And that's what I've believed in. To bring you depth and analysis from a unique Latino perspective, There's not a single day that Paola and I don't call or text each other sharing news and thoughts about what's happening in the country. This new podcast will be a way to make that ongoing intergenerational conversation public.
- [61:01]
Bobby
Listen to the Moment with Jorge Ramos.
- [61:04]
John Fogarty
And Paula Ramos as part of the My Cultura podcast Network on the iHeartRadio.
- [61:09]
Bobby
App, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I had this like overwhelming sensation that I had to call her right there.
- [61:17]
John Fogarty
And I just hit call, said, you.
- [61:18]
Bobby
Know, hey, I'm Jacob Schick, I'm the CEO of One Tribe foundation and I just wanted to call and let her know there's a lot of people battling some of the very same things you're battling and there is help out there. The Good Stuff podcast season two takes a deep look into One Tribe Foundation, a non profit fighting suicide in the veteran community. September is National Suicide Prevention Month, so join hosts Jacob and Ashley Schick as they bring you to the front lines of One Tribe's mission.
- [61:43]
John Fogarty
I was married to a combat army.
- [61:45]
Bobby
Veteran and he actually took his own life to suicide. One Tribe saved my life twice.
- [61:50]
John Fogarty
There's a lot of love that flows through this place and it's sincere.
- [61:53]
Bobby
Now it's a personal mission. Don't have to go to any more.
- [61:56]
John Fogarty
Funerals, you know, know I got blown.
- [61:57]
Bobby
Up on a react mission. I ended up having amputation below the knee of my right leg and a traumatic brain injury cuz I landed on my head. Welcome to season two of the Good Stuff. Listen to the Good Stuff podcast on.
- [62:09]
John Fogarty
The iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever.
- [62:11]
Bobby
You get your podcasts. And we're back on the Bobby cast. Was it fun to remake this record because you did Legacy, the Credence Clearwater 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 10,000 times and I'm like, I don't know, do I need to play it again? Was it exciting for you to do them again?
- [62:39]
John Fogarty
Totally, completely.
- [62:41]
Bobby
Oh, 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?
- [62:50]
John Fogarty
I'm about 23, I want to say maybe 24.
- [62:53]
Bobby
What would you tell them?
- [62:55]
John Fogarty
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 where I am, you wouldn't. 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 besieged with a lot of different forces that were making him not happy. But that is exactly what I would say to him.
- [63:37]
Bobby
And what about these songs you asked me? No, 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. That's a good looking dude.
- [63:46]
John Fogarty
I always thought he looks a little, I don't know, he's, he's, there's a lot of energy coming out of him. He can't, can't quite contain it.
- [63:56]
Bobby
All right, yeah, but that, you know what? Thank God he couldn't because he created some great art.
- [64:00]
John Fogarty
Well, that's, it's because of that. Yeah, it's because of that. Making this record was an absolute joy. You know, I 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, so. They're so exalted and they've been around all those years. Everybody has their, you know, they're, they've already, they already know it all, you might say. 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 manifester of the universe. I mean, she really has, in a very helpful way, moved elements that 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 the. And all the parts that were necessary and be. Because I did it that way, because it was so joyful. I. I get, I feel this happened to me. I feel that the spirit God allowed me to go on a journey that I had no idea about. Tell you 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 go through this process. I'm going to describe 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, when I learned that they. It had 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 sang Proud Mary, There she is again, you know. And I probably did maybe three, four songs that day. But on 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 A1, you know, really strong track, vocal track. So I had done that that first day and the first song was Proud Mary. And then we continued, Shane and Tyler 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 many cases I had to relearn sometimes. Shane was the one that. Dad, dad, you're not playing that right. Yeah. Learning how to, how to play a guitar part or in one case with up around the Bend. 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 Monday and ripped a incredible version of up around the Bend that year. 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 pretty hot stuff, you know, Walked in, been singing proud Mary for 50 years anyhow. I mean this, this is the little bubble that was in my head. I listened, you know, and I got Shane and Tyler and I think Julie was sitting there and I listened and I mean the track is stunning. It's just great. And, and the background vocals are rolling. Rolling on the river is great. I'm hearing this guy singing And I'm. I'm underwhelmed, right? And I'm. But then, you know, there's a little bit of that. I mean, you. Okay, you want to move along? People are like, tapping you on the shoulder. How long are you going to be here? You know? And I'm listening. And so the bubble in my head is, I'm going to turn around and I'm going to rule up my. All right, somebody tell me that's not great, huh? You know, I'm going to 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'm 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 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. That track up there is not life and death. You've got to sing it like it's life and death. And the experience, this. 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. My mind or my soul or whatever. It's kind of like hypnosis or. What's that other word they use? Ex. Ta. I don't know. There was a bunch of movements in the 70s about exist.
- [70:03]
Bobby
Like existential.
- [70:04]
John Fogarty
Yeah, yeah.
- [70:06]
Bobby
Like you had to figure out. Right.
- [70:09]
John Fogarty
And I've placed myself in that feeling like you got nothing. Everything depends on it. 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 by placing myself in that mindset and then going out, you know, and of course, you go out, you sing, you. You come back and you listen, you, nah, he can 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, meaning I believe it now. I don't know what to call that, because it had. 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. She understood that. Yeah. 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 is. It's unconditional love, and she's always that person that's there. Anyhow, she told me later that she. She understood. She realized what I was doing, and she felt that obviously it was working. So there you were. And that's what I went through for all the rest of the songs.
- [72:00]
Bobby
Well, I appreciate you sharing that story. That is a great story. The Credence Clearwater Revival years, which. It came out about a month ago, and you're playing a lot of shows. Like I said, I saw you. 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. And I was like, yeah, he left me to go to you.
- [72:24]
John Fogarty
Oh, my goodness.
- [72:25]
Bobby
And his name's Tom Betchy. And I was like, hey, Tom Betchy, you have John Fogarty. 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 9 years old. And not only that, you were a reason that me, I didn't have a dad growing up. You're a reason that me and my. My stepdad were able to bond.
- [72:50]
John Fogarty
Oh, cool.
- [72:50]
Bobby
Because he was a massive fan, and that's why I took interest, was because of him. And so every song. I could name every song within, like, two notes, because that's what we did, is we listened to a lot of Credence.
- [73:02]
John Fogarty
Wow.
- [73:03]
Bobby
So this means a lot to me for a lot of reasons. So I really appreciate the time that you dedicated to come over and do this, and I hope the record does what you want it to do. 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.
- [73:17]
John Fogarty
Absolutely. It was a joy to make, and I think it's a. A sense of feeling of joy when you listen to it. I think that's of part. Part of the experience of playing this record, this album. I. I think what happens is then how can I say it? People, they. I think they can sense that that word I used before, it had to be convincing. I think that happens when the listener listens as well. But I'm sincere about this.
- [73:50]
Bobby
Thank you for your time. And this has really been an awesome. And go check out John. 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 have coming up. You're just all over the place. So, yeah, really looking forward to seeing you live.
- [74:03]
John Fogarty
Thank you, Bobby.
- [74:04]
Bobby
There he is, the great John Fogarty.
- [74:06]
John Fogarty
Thanks for listening to a bobbycast production.
- [74:16]
Bobby
Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated adhd. Oh, my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness psychobabble. Yes. Yes. Then Emergency Intercom's the podcast for you. Open your free iHeartradio app, search emergency Intercom, and listen now. I'm Bridget Armstrong, host of the new.
- [74:48]
John Fogarty
Podcast the Curse of America's Next Top Model. I've been investigating the real story behind that iconic show.
- [74:55]
Bobby
I ended up having anorexia issues, bulimia issues. By talking to the models, the producers.
- [75:00]
John Fogarty
And the people who profited from it all, we basically sold our souls and they got rich. If you were so rooting for her.
- [75:08]
Bobby
And saw her drowning, what did you help her?
- [75:11]
John Fogarty
Listen to the Curse of America's Next Top model on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [75:19]
Bobby
Betrayal Weekly is back for season two with brand new stories. The detective comes driving up fast and.
- [75:26]
John Fogarty
Just, like, screeches right in the parking lot.
- [75:28]
Bobby
I swear I'm not crazy, but I think he poisoned me.
- [75:32]
John Fogarty
I feel trapped.
- [75:33]
Bobby
My breathing changes.
- [75:35]
John Fogarty
I realize, wow, like, he is not a mentor. He's pretty much a monster.
- [75:40]
Bobby
But these aren't just stories of destruction. They're stories of survival.
- [75:45]
John Fogarty
I'm going to tell my story, and.
- [75:47]
Bobby
I'm going to hold my head up. Listen to Betrayal Weekly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [75:58]
John Fogarty
This is an I heart podcast.