CCR’s John Fogerty On Cosmo’s Factory, Ed Sullivan, Centerfield, More

In the first part of our exclusive series with former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman John Fogerty, we covered a lot of ground. In a rare interview with the rock icon, we discussed his favorite songs to play, the Bad Moon Rising misquoted lyric "there's the bathroom on the right," his Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction in 1993, the first time he heard his hit, Proud Mary, on the radio, touring with his family - and more. 

As important, though, was touching upon his participation in The Charity Pro's For Heroes concerts in November. The shows are to benefit the kids of COVID-19 frontline and first-responder workers who have died of the disease doing their duty. Megan Maloney, co-founder of the organization, stresses that in addition to proceeds from the three Florida concerts (Nov. 20 Tampa, Nov. 21 Estero, Nov. 23 Orlando) donations can be made online now at: www.thecharitypros.org. Also, if you book travel through Charity Pro Travel, it will donate 50% of its commission to the charity of your choice.

Following are edited excerpts from Part 2 of our longer conversation with Fogerty.

Jim Clash: Your recent song, Weeping In The Promised Land, is a pretty serious look at current events. Is it in any way like Who’ll Stop The Rain?

John Fogerty: Certainly it is a song of our times in this country, just stating what I’m looking at. In some ways, it is like Who’ll Stop The Rain. Yes, that resonates with me.

Clash: I’m going back a bit here. When you recorded Centerfield, didn’t you play every musical instrument on it? If that’s true, did you have to teach yourself, for example, how to play drums?

Fogerty: That’s true, I did play all of the instruments on that album. I also did that on a couple of other LPs, but they weren’t as well known. You’re starting from scratch, you just have to start practicing. You get yourself a set of drums, like if you were four.years old, and your older brother, dad or mom helps out because you’re interested in music. I did end up making a very nice record. I never could play drums like a real drummer, though, so don’t get confused that I think I’m as good as Joe Morello or Kenny Aronoff, because I’m not [laughs]. But I got good enough to do what I wanted to do.

Clash: The title of CCR’s album Cosmo's Factory seems to imply that when the band was hot, you had to keep cranking out hits for the record company. Was that the case?

Fogerty: No, not at all. It came about because we moved out of Tom's [Fogerty] garage in El Cerrito [California], where we were practicing. The police had come a second time. We were 21, 22, in a neighborhood garage, playing loud, as kids do. Looking back, I realize there were probably young moms at home who, at that time of day, around noon, were trying to have their babies take a nap. And here we were, maybe two houses away, playing very loud rock and roll. They complained, as I would have done if I had young kids. Anyway, the second time the police came, we couldn't be mentally obtuse a third time. We moved to Doug's [Clifford] house. He had a little shed in the back. We would say, “we're all going out to the plant,” like guys taking their lunch pails to work. It evolved from being a plant to a factory. We ended up just calling it the factory. Doug's nickname happened to be Cosmo, so I put that together, trying to help make our band more famous using Doug's name in an album title, to get him out there, kind of like Ringo/Cosmo - same idea [laughs].

Clash: What was it like being on The Ed Sullivan Show?

Fogerty: That was like going to visit God, basically. Here we were, about to be on The Ed Sullivan Show, like all of our idols: Elvis [Presley], The Beatles, The [Rolling] Stones. And Topo Gigio [laughs] and Señor Wences. Remember him, he’s the guy who had a little puppet in a box, would open the front door and his hand would pop out to answer a question. Ed had a whole bunch of comedians, ventriloquists, actors and all of that, besides the musical guests, of course.

Clash: Were you live or lip-syncing on the show?

Fogerty: The music was prerecorded, and I sang live. I knew if I let the show crew do it - they weren’t used to recording rock-and-roll musicians - it was hit and miss. It could be really good, or not so good. When The Beatles were on, you could hardly hear the instruments, there was so much screaming. A lot of times, I noticed that the music got lost. You couldn’t hear the drums, perhaps. So I went there with a prerecorded tape, and I sang live.

Clash: CCR was from the San Francisco Bay Area. Yet most people, because of the cajun sound, thought you all were from the Louisiana bayou.

Fogerty: Some of that was what my songs were about. All of the words were mine, you know. I had grown up in a unique way, with four brothers. I dare say that all of them, except Tom who was in the band, probably scratched their heads at what we were listening to. I was focussed on folks like Bo Diddley, Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf. Those fellows were from Mississippi. So for me, southern blues was it. If a young middle-class white kid is listening to black music today, it's probably hip-hop, or rap, with an inner-city vibe. On the Internet, you can easily check those artists out. But in 1953-1954, Howlin' Wolf was as far away geographically as he was culturally. We had to listen to records like, I'm A Man, by Bo Diddley, to learn about the black culture. And we did. So the music that influenced me was pre-rock and roll - southern blues. That probably had a lot to do with CCR’s [bayou] sound.

Clash: Who are some newer musicians you find interesting?

Fogerty: Ed Sheeran, Ed Sheeran, Ed Sheeran [laughs]. I think he’s just cool. I like Bruno Mars a lot. I think there are quite a few young guys and girls. I love Miranda Lambert. Oh my God, she’s my absolute queen. She’s got the most beautiful voice and writing soul, and makes great records. Taylor Swift, of course. I discovered her through my daughter, Kelsey. She seemed to be the big thing 10 or 12 years ago. All the little girls loved Taylor. But she’s grown up to be quite a musical force.

Clash: Here’s one I have to ask, and you’ve been asked it many times. So don’t get mad. Would you ever consider putting CCR back together, sans your late brother, Tom, of course? I think I know the answer.

Fogerty: Well, I’ve learned in life that you really don’t know what’s down the road. As far as I can see, that probably would never happen. But you just never quite know what’s happening tomorrow, or next year. None of us knows.